These submerged World War II tanks on The Duke of York Islands, make a great spot for snorkeling.
I’m in
They will be able to post each day as I won’t be doing any visiting. Thanks for dropping in to say hi while I’m away. I will try and pop in and leave a comment.
This is the new Catholic Church that is being built at Vunapope. It is being built in the shape of a shell - can you see it??
I’m in
This diwai (tree) is crying out for someone to climb along it and jump into the water.
This guy was fishing from his outrigger at sunset.
Is it better than queuing in the supermarket?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I’m in
On a trip to the
You can sail for hours without seeing a village or another boat.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I’m in
When you need to opim doa (open a gate), there are always plenty of willing and friendly volunteers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I’m in
Susie sent me this photo of a horse trying to check into the Rabaul Hotel. If you look carefully at the reflection you can see he has brought some friends with him!!
It’s a disaster waiting to happen I reckon.
I advised her to say “Nay!!!”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I flew out to Australia this morning. While I’m away He-Who-Doesn’t-Blog and Benson are batching and posting for me. I bet they’ll watching TV and drinking bia with their feet on the coffee table. My Vietnam Blog will be on holidays until February 7.
They will post each day as I won’t be able to do any visiting, but thanks for dropping in to say hi while I’m away. I will try and pop in and leave a comment.
Lukim Yu !!
Tony, my pilot friend, took these photos of our part of the world from his Dash 8 yesterday. The little island in the bottom picture is
He-Who-Doesn’t-Blog and Benson will be batching while I am away. They have offered to post as Benson wants to catch up with his friend M. Benaut!!! They will be able to post everyday as I won’t be doing any visiting. Hope you can pop in and say hi!!
My Vietnam Blog will be on holidays as it is too difficult to organize drafts for it.
Thanks to Slim and Clueless for sending me the You Make My Day Award. I now have about seven so have decided I can’t send 70 so I am giving it to you all. You all Make My Day and if it wasn’t for all your encouragement I would have thrown this all in the beautiful blue sea.
Lukim yu!!
The local children go back to school on Monday.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It has taken all day to get this post up but I have finally made it.
Downloading your comments' pages and then trying to upload my comments is impossible so I won’t visit today but will try again tomorrow!!! It is all VERY trying believe me!!!
Deserted islands abound here. 
Our kids call this
and our favouite …
Swallow’s
What, and who would you take with you if you were ship wrecked on Swallow's
Award – Marie sent me this You Make My Day Award and I am very touched. Apparently the rules say I have to send it to 10 blogs that make my day. God – how can I choose? I hate doing this but it has been made easier by the fact that some of the blogs that I can’t do without each day, have already got this award – Dive, M Benaut, Tom, Barb, Marie, Jilly, Imac, Neva, Abraham, or Quinto so it is probably silly to give them another. I think Abraham has 5 already.
Copra is the local south pacific name for dried sections of the meaty inner lining of the coconut palm (Cocos nucifera). It is the principal commercial product derived from the coconut palm, and is used primarily as a source of coconut oil.
Coconut oil was introduced as a source of edible fat in northern
Harvesting copra is a tedious, beak-breaking business. The ripe coconuts are split with a machete and laid out to dry in the sun. The meat is then scraped out and dried, packed into burlap bags,
taken to the mill or to local copra buyers where payment is made - thus the term “cash crop”
To remove the oil, copra is pulverized, steamed, and pressed. The remaining residue is often utilized to feed livestock. The raw coconut oil is subsequently refined.
Coconut oil makes up about 20 percent of all vegetable oils used in the world. It is a common ingredient in margarines, vegetable shortenings, salad oils, and confections. Coconut oil is also used in the manufacture of soaps, detergents, and shampoos because it has high levels of lauric acid, an ingredient that gives soap a quick-lathering property. Another big market for coconut oil is in the production of cosmetics. It can also be added to glues, epoxies and lacquers to provide flexibility
Postscript - Ash has eased, flights are back on and we are all happy (for the time being)....oh and my feet are clean (for the time being)!!!!
Well the airport is still closed. As you can imagine it is causing huge problems including no mail, airfreight, or newspapers and the number of stranded passengers is growing by the day!!!! We have friends stuck in Australia who can't get back and friends stuck here who can't go anywhere.
As I type this I can hear a plane - hmmmm most interesting - not sure if it will land but obviously someone is trying.....will let you know????
Marie asked me yesterday whether we get ash at our place and yes Marie we do. Every year at this time the wind blows from the north-west which is what direction the volcano is from here!!
If the volcano is quiet then there is no problem but ... if the volcano is active we do get ash. Usually the rain clears it away and the airport is only closed for a couple of days at the most - I can't remember the airport being closed for this long before. Hopefully that plane has landed and taken some of the stranded tourists, business people and students out of here.
Last night we had a dinner party and as we always eat outside we had to sweep and dust the ash off everything before everyone came.
Yuk what dirty feet I had!! Every night in the shower I have to use a scrubbing brush!!!
In this climate, outdoor living is very popular, and a haus win makes a great entertaining area.
This week flights have been canceled because ash has blown over the airport. Ash and turbo-jets just don't mix so there are a few worried people (waiting to go out on leave) watching the skies. I'm one of them - I fly out at the end of the month!!!The percentage of privately owned cars in PNG is low compared to western countries so finding transport is a constant challenge for many people.
PMVs stop regularly at stops -
Can you guess what PMV stands for?,
.......but on busy days there can be long waits and people can be seen scrambling in the doors, and at times the windows, to secure a berth.
….other people rely on friends and their village vehicles to get around.
It is illegal in PNG to ride in the front of a vehicle without your seat belt on. In the back you just have to hang on I guess. There have been some shocking accidents as you can imagine, as the chances of surviving a collision if you were riding in the back are quite slim.
On 10 October 2007, I posted a photo of one of the many Japanese barge tunnels found around here.
From my previous post – “In 1942, Rabaul, newly restored after the devastating 1937 volcanic eruption, was invaded by Japanese forces. The Japanese turned Rabaul into their main army and naval base for the planned invasion into the Pacific and eventually down into
This narrow tunnel at Karavia village on the
This is barge one and two, from the viewing platform, looking out to the tunnel entrance.
"Viewing" of the barges up the back is only possible if you take a torch.
Phone lines are still bad - dropping out and freezing.
As well as this, the computer needs hospital treatment. He-Who-Doesn't-Blog will operate and I will assist. I hope there is no blood - I will faint if there is!!! If you hear any screams you will know it is me - or the computer. If we all come through unscathed I will visit you tomorrow.
I am leaving you with this photo I took on the dive boat when we dived at Pigeon a couple of weeks ago. I thought it was a dud until I looked at it on the screen and had second thoughts.
Hope you like it.
It started raining here on New Year's Eve and it has been raining on and off ever since.
Everything is grey and damp and cool. A good day to be in bed.
Phone lines were terrible yesterday and today, so forgive me if I haven't done a lot of visiting.
On Vietnam - same, same but different, there are also wet photos - of a typhoon crossing the coast of Vietnam at Lang Co!!
This monthly theme post was upon me before I really had time to think about what entails “The Best Photo of the Year". I certainly couldn’t pick one from all the fabulous blogs from around the Daily Photo Family, so instead I have taken the chicken’s way out and posted one of mine.
There were a lot I really liked – sunrise from my verandah, moonlight over the ocean, the Blue Theme post, and probably my favourite the dolphins. The one I chose certainly isn’t the best, but it was the most memorable, the most fun, took the longest to set up and is a metaphor for the difficulties I have posting and visiting each day!! It is also to thank He-Who-Doesn’t-Blog for all his technical assistance and support.
So here it is - my 2007 September Theme Post for Street Lights / Street Signs.
Well it is obvious who didn’t vote for this month’s theme!!! MOI. What the hell am I supposed to post, I mumble! Some of us live on tropical islands where most streets have no signs, and are only lit by moonlight.In 1995 in
