Solomon Islands Trip

The Trip of Roy and Alex to the Solomon Islands.

I apologize for the late posting, seeing as how this trip was over a month ago. Things have been hectic and I have been lazy. This is Alex, incase any one was wondering. While Mum is in America living up the good life with the daughters, Dad and I decided to take a man trip to the island of Guadalcanal, in the Solomon Island chain. Guadalcanal was the sight of teh very first American naval invasion during WWII against the Japanese. These little islands are a couple hundred miles North-East of Australia.

When we left Australia it was a cloudy rainy day, and going onto the air conditioned plane somewhat wet was very chilling. But as soon as the five hour flight ended and the doors of the plane opened up we wished the cold air had followed us. The airport in Guadalcanal is a single air-strip and to get off the plane mobile stairs are put up to the two doors and we walk down them to get off. Guadalcanal is very humid and excruciatingly warm. We got our luggage and met up with our tour guide for the week. He is an Australian who has lived in Guadalcanal for the past ten years or so, and has married an islander. They were both very kind, and we would not have survived without them. On this first day we were shown around the capital city of Honiara and then dropped off at our hotel for the rest of the day.

Days two and three were WWII tours to different places around the island where there are pieces of the war still standing. War monuments, pieces of machinery and troop carriers left over just staying wher they wer left, and a "museum" where a very kind islander had collected planes and cannons and stored them in his yard for people to come and see. Amazing things to see and hear about. Day three we went scuba diving on two Japanese ships that were destroyed right off the shore. One was in two pieces and the other was shot up pretty bad. All in all it was kind of creepy to be underwater (i mean in a crushing silence) around these ships where men fought and died on, but still a very cool thing to see. Day four and five were more relaxed. We went to a few moreWWII sites, but otherwise we went snorkelling in the warm water and on day five we went shopping. The local markets are open air markets for everything from gifts to vegetables to fish. The fish were fresh ocean fish (some of which were quite massive), but they didnt smell so great. Then on the final day we went snorkelling in the morning and then onto a plane in the afternoon. It was just the right amount of time to spend in that tropical little island and we were glad to be home.