Wednesday 10 September – Grant and Judith arrive

I was making our second cup of tea at around 7am and heard a boat approaching. The resort had picked our guests up, they did a fly past to say hello.  We arranged to meet them for breakfast and joined them after they had settled into their room.  They had a long trip, a night in Manila and then a day and night in Port Moresby as their flight was cancelled. They had a very nice trip to a nature reserve in Port Moresby where they saw some unusual things, and thankfully it was not too terrifying. They gave us an enormous suitcase with all the goodies they had brought out for us. So much boat stuff including a huge reel of expensive rope for our main halyard. Plus pumpkin seeds, muesli, marmite, new iPhone for Rowan (which had been sent from the UK so that Rowan could keep all his WhatsApp messages), iPad for me, waterproof plasters, antibiotics for coral scratches, replacement solar fairy lights for me! It really was like Christmas.

We went for a walk to the village craft market, it’s a lovely walk through the village and their lush gardens. Such friendly people, working hard on producing their shell jewellery. There is a bright orange shell called the kina which they cut it into tiny discs with a hole in the middle, all by hand using little pliers. They use them as beads. It also used to be their currency a long time ago, which is why the PNG notes today are called Kina. Judith and I had a good time admiring their goods, always something new to catch my eye!

We headed back to PolePole and went for a snorkel on the reef nearby that Rowan went to yesterday. It was a little overcast, so the visibility wasn’t the greatest, but there were plenty of fish and some nice coral. We did a drift snorkel, we suddenly realised the dinghy was pulling us hard, a huge squall was looming, so we packed it in and headed back to PolePole before the downpour.

In the afternoon Rowan took Grant and Judith on the walk around Nusa island with the Japanese WW2 guns, I stayed on board as I had a jewellery making session with Kary booked in. I have found some lovely shells to work with, Grant and Judith brought a whole lot of beading cord for me and various bits and pieces. I think I can do some braiding now, but will need a bit more practice.

We had supper at the resort, which was a real treat for us. A good tasty buffet. We had a lot of catching up to do with Grant and Judith.