Uepi Island Resort - News archive

Welcome to Uepi Island Resort
Natural Beauty Harmony Excitement Indulgence

Uepi News

Uepi Diving
October 2006

Over the years the Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau "SIVB" (formerly Solomon Islands Tourist Authority) have adopted various 'branding' slogans: "Islands Lost in Time": "The Happy Isles": "And Now For Something Completely Different". I feel sure you have all followed the recent political arm wrestle (Go Alexander Go!) between the Solomon & Australian governments over the custody/extradition of an Australian citizen, (allegedly a paedophile whilst in Vanuatu), during which an unauthorised Papuan New Guinea military aircraft illegally delivered the wanted man to a remote Solomons airfield, in direct contravention to the orders of the PNG Courts. This latest real life drama validates most of the SIVB slogans as well as being an awesome movie script. Perhaps the SIVB should consider "Never A Dull Moment" as their next slogan.

And here at Uepi we like to think of ourselves as 'lost from the pressures of modern life', 'happy.... well just happy - happy - happy is enough', 'something completely different' in our daily dives, and certainly 'never a dull moment'.

Yesterday morning at 0700 I fell over backwards. Along with 4 others. Then I slowly drifted down a brilliant reef slope to 35m. The viz was 45m plus plus. The sun was shining. A slow current took us through "Fan City" towards Uepi Point. 15m below the sandy channel bottom was brilliantly lit. A spotted eagle ray, seemingly oblivious cruised metres away from each of us in turn, startled only by the bite of a false cleaner wrasse, having ignored the 'warming' camera flashes. Large brilliant fans spread outwards, sheltering barramundi cod, batfish & more. A large marble ray fluttered past imitating a spanish dancer in flight. Whitetip sharks with remora tatoos lay in the sand urging us to stay out of their discomfort zones. As we neared Uepi Point the jacks streamed past like an endless silver slipstream guiding a large & obviously hungry spanish mackeral about to choose from the menu. Yellow tailed fusiliers filled the airspace, only to disappear & reappear at will. On top of the Point an encyclopaedia of fish paraded about whilst the garden eels wavered like corn in a sandy field . We had agreed on a 60 minute bottom time before bacon, eggs, pancakes & ripe tropical fruits, but whilst everyone pointed their thumbs up, everyone wanted to be last out.

A confession, I had promised myself to never again do a "we slipped into crystal clear water & the pristine reef teemed with brilliantly coloured fish" style story. But hey I am only human & if after 24 years of diving at Uepi I just cannot help myself, that’s just too bad, I have to tell you anyway.

This morning at 0730 we all toppled in at Elbow. The "HAD" (Hammerhead Attracting Device) was with a moderately sceptical multiple returnee Bob. Within half a minute a very alert hammer closely buzzed us all, our cameras working overtime in 20m of clear blue water. A quick dip down did not reveal any hangers-off. Bob had left his camera, which had limited depth rating, safely nestled on the wall. But a combination of limited No Deco Time & maybe some extra nitrogen, ensured he failed to find it on the way up! With Bob quickly back in the boat accumulating surface interval the rest of the dive went nicely with 2 eagle rays, a turtle, marble ray & 3 dolphins. Back at the dive shop we made sure that the balance of Bobs dive group showed an appropriate level of interest in his camera safety precautions. Subsequent search & rescue was successful & the photos turned out too.

Back in the BCD mid afternoon, we dropped in on North Log to photo the Ghost Pipe Fish our diveguide Robert had spotted this morning. Carol (ref Chromodoris buchananii) was already there blasting with her new digital. We elbowed in for a few shots then left to explore the fall down sections along this sheer drop-off.

The sandy sections against the wall are littered with gobies, shrimps & many & varied critters. A pair of Twin-Spot gobies posed together & became so tame the lens was just centimetres away. A juvenile Firefish, too young to realise he was biologically programmed to turn away & frustrate photographers, admired his own lens reflection. With the bottom time ticking over to eighty minutes and heading to the surface I spotted a very decorative leaf-fish. Not very common,this leafy lives amongst areas with plantations of the yellow, green & white halimeda. Beautifully patterned it is very well camouflaged & difficult to find. This particular fish was sitting in an irresistible pose so I used up the last electrons in my flashes. What a day & tomorrow might be even better!

We have had many great Aussie dive groups here this year & so lots of fun. Dave Bryant from Sea Pics came with one keen bunch of divers & took some lovely shots, one or two classic cover shots (hint hint editors). Unfortunately there are very few accomplished volleyball players in dive groups so the standard of the games tends to be a bit low but on the positive side there are herculean efforts that provide plenty of humour. Come on Aussies, you are all natural armchair athletes, how about it!

And we have taken note of your complaints that mudcrab once a day is not enough!

First Quiz: Who is the Dive Shop owner who brings a fin with a torn off heel re-attached with guttering silicon sealer?

Second Quiz: How long did this repair last?

Address your entries to Ron Hunter from Fisherman’s Wharf.

First Prize: A well used pair of fins.

A few travelling tips:

Bring a raincoat (cheap disposable plastic is ok) preferably 3/4 length, a small torch, enough batteries for flashes etc, a pair of knock around shoes (runners ideal).

If you are vegetarian with a limited diet or do not eat seafood please advise us before you come (earliest advice appreciated).

Bring your own drugs (legal of course). Please check www.uepi.com for lots of useful information.

With the air temp & humidity rising there is no mistaking the signs of the approaching New Year with lots of good diving still ahead of us in 2006.

Very good news is that Solomon Airlines are expanding their international & domestic services.

Leana via, Grant, Jill & the Uepi Staff

We sincerely wish to thank the following people for use of their photographs in our website:

Peter Lange, Peter Pinnock, Oceania Films/Matt Guest, Eric Cheng, Fred Bavendam, Andy Belcher, Manuela Kirschner, Louise Murray, Roberto Rinaldi, Mark Strickland/Oceanic Impressions, Jill Kelly, Grant Kelly, Wes Kelly and Jason Kelly.