Back at Alotau

Well we are back at Alotau and much sooner than we wanted. We have been to a couple of places. Wagawaga which is a small village where there is a ship wreck from the war not far off the beach the bow sticks out of the water but the stern is supposed to be in 80 foot of water we stayed here for a couple of nights. The kids had a great time playing with all the local kids. They did heaps swimming and the boys had a go of the dug out canoes which was fun to watch as they capsized a few times.
Next we went on to Doini Island which was really beautiful very clean and nice beach. We spent a couple of nights here also. We did a bit of snorkeling and we found some lovely shells on the beach. We also went for a dingy ride over to Gona Bara Bara Island where there is a manta ray cleaning station we weren’t sure where it was so we asked some locals who showed us but we didn’t see any manta rays wrong time of year for a lot to be around. There was patches of coral and the boys tried spear fishing but caught nothing.
We were heading to the Louisiades our original plan for PNG but there was a vibration in the drive shaft which would come and go and would go when the rev’s was changed. We thought that the bearing in the prop shaft was causing the noise and may need replacing. We went to slipway to find out about being hauled out and if they had the bearing. Here they use wood or brass bearings not rubber and teflon like in Australia. So to cut a long story short we waited around for 5 days for the owner to turn up but we never saw him. They couldn’t do what we wanted and we would have to get the part from Australia. On the third night we had a heap of things stolen including all the snorkeling gear and the weight belt I need to dive, 4 fuel containers, a fishing rod, clothes and towels which were drying and a few other things. We had been warned to lock everything away before coming to PNG (should have listened to your warning Grumps) but we got slack and we had nothing but a good time with no problems before that. Just goes to show how no matter where you are it only takes a few to spoil things for others. The snorkeling things and fuel containers had to be replaced that’s why we are back in Alotau. We managed to replace the snorkels and flippers Amy couldn’t get flippers as her feet are too small, we couldn’t get another weight belt and we bought another fuel container. Tomorrow we head off for the Lousisade’s. We will be making sure that we lock everything away in future.
We will have the satellite phone turned on in the evenings while we are here (Australia time) as we are out most of the day and can be hard to catch us.