Buzz’s comments on his Solomon Island trip
Well, I
am getting older and I have been to almost all the great dive destinations in
the world. One of the only places that
others have strongly recommended, but I had not visited was the Solomon Islands.
It was one of those places that was difficult to get to and expensive
(because of I could not use frequent flyer points), so I had never managed to
get there. However, early this year Qantas
had a super airfare sale, so I started looking into this destination.
Qantas now
has a direct flight from LA to Brisbane and there are flights from Brisbane to Solomon Islands.
With a direct flight to LA, I could arrange travel with no obnoxious
layovers, spend a few days in Brisbane to get accustomed to the time
change, and arrive rested and ready to dive. I stayed at the Marriott in Brisbane because I had frequent stay
points and it was free. It was a very
nice hotel conveniently located to the Queen Street Mall (the center of the
central city activity).
There
really is no land based choice to dive the Solomon Islands. There are two live aboard options operated by
the same company. Both offered several itinerary
options. I prefer the convenience of a
live aboard. I ended up choosing the MV Bilikiki. It was the
older of the two boats, but it was in excellent condition and I would recommend
it. The crew was exceptional and made
the trip easy. Most of the passengers
had been diving on the Bilikiki before. I was easy to understand why they
returned. The diving was fairly
easy. We never had to fight any currents. Diving was from “tinnies”
that were well designed for diving including ladders that made retry back into
the boat easy (much easier that rubber inflatables).
The
diving was very good and I am glad I went.
I struggled taking pictures because of strobe
problems but fortunately there were some great available light opportunities. Enjoy the pictures, there were a few critters that I had never seen before.
More information on MV Bilikiki
click here.
For a map of
where the Solomon Islands are click here.