We traveled to the Solomon Islands in January, 2005, flying in to the former Henderson Field on Guadalcanal of World War II fame. The trip was organized by Ginny and Dennis of Adventure Sports in Santa Cruz. We dove from the Bilikiki, a converted fishing trawler that was spacious and well equipped. The crew was helpful and the Australian couple in charge – Michelle and Monty – were excellent hosts and dive guides. This was truly a great trip. The diving was fantastic with an enormous number of clown fish in the most spectacularly colored anemones I have ever seen. So, of course I was in heaven.
We cruised between dozens of small, heavily jungled islands, many seemingly uninhabited. When we anchored off an island, locals paddled out to the Bilikiki to do “market” with Michelle, supplying us with fruits and vegetables and offering handicrafts. We also visited several villages, amazing in their isolation. The Solomon Islanders are wonderful carvers and artists and our boatload of divers bought quite an array of carvings and artwork to take home.
We made a number of good friends on this trip as several of our fellow divers were from Santa Cruz.