Bilikiki, Gizo, Munda trip report- Aug 11

[Kevster]

Bilikiki, Gizo, Munda trip report – Aug 2011

Overnight flight from Perth to Brisbane, then onward to Honiara with Virgin Australia.
I had 22 Kgs check in luggage, 11 Kgs carry on and had no problems on any of the flights in Oz & the domestic flights in the Solomons.


Bilikiki- 7 day trip

On arrival at Honiara I was transferred to a nearby hotel to kill a couple of hours before I was picked up to board the Bilikiki. Was surprised to find out that I was the only diver on board who had travelled for the trip. Luckily a few local expats based in Honiara decided to join the trip. All up there were 8 divers, including 3 guides!

The Ship- The Bilikiki. An older style boat but very comfortable. Cabins did not have individual A/c control, but was not an issue. One of the two tables in the lounge was for cameras. Lots of space in the lounge/dive deck, especially with so few guests. The food was very good. Overall I was very comfortable during the trip.


Weather- Weather was poor. Really poor. Overcast skies, rain, lots of wind & large seas during the crossings. Maybe 4 hrs of sunshine all week. The weather impacted the selection of dive sites. We could not dive some of the better spots like twin tunnels. The crossing between Guadalcanal, the Russells, Marys & the Floridas were rough. The average crossing between Russells & Floridas is 6 hrs, our crossing took 9 hours.

Diving – Diving available at 8.00,11.00,14.00,17.00 & a night dive after dinner. Water temp was 28-29 C, with average viss at most sites (10-20m). Had strong current at 1 dive site, all other dives gentle/no current. I was on Nitrox all week, no problems with deco or depths (my max depth was 30m). Most of the dives are shallow with lots to see above 15 m. The diving was very easy. You could surface anywhere and the tinny driver would be whisking you back to the mother ship in a jiffy.

Dive Day 1- Russell Islands (Falao island, Ann wreck , White beach x2)
Some nice reef diving as a check out dive. Huge sponge, corals, fans. Ok wreck with nice growth then some WWII “junk “ at white beach.



Dive Day 2- Marys Island (Barracuda point x3)
Great diving. Best viss all week ,+20m. Big shoals of Jacks & Barracuda, few sharks. Fantastic hard coral. Dive site reminded me of Castle rock in Komodo.

[video=youtube;W_aqaTIr-Fo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_aqaTIr-Fo[/video]

Dive Day 3- Russell Islands (Mirror pond, Leru cut, Bat cave)
Great days diving in various caves & cuts with amazing hard coral. Really fantastic underwater landscapes. SALTWATER CROCODILE in cave!! Was pleasantly surprised with the village visit in the afternoon.


Dive Day 4 – Florida Islands (Mavis sea plane, Tanavula point, Devils creek, Maravagi bay) Ok diving. No mantas at Devils creek (no current). A few sharks, was in macro mode.


Dive Day 5- Florida Islands (Patricks point, Passage rocks, Nembelau rocks, Velvia). Some nice dives, sharks, mobula rays, barracuda. Patricks point was the stand out. Unfortunately we could not repeat dive here due to the weather.


Dive Day 6 – Florida Islands (Anuha, Anuha beach)
Ok dives on white sand. Macro.


Overall the diving was very good. Did not find a heap of critters/small stuff but the reef diving/corals & general underwater landscape was 1^st class. There is no doubt the weather impact the quality of the diving.


Summary

I really enjoyed the Bilikiki. One of the most enjoyable live-aboard experiences I have had. With the ease of travel to Honiara (from Oz), the strong Aussie dollar making the Bilikiki very good value and the easy liveaboard style diving at great sites make the Bilikiki a very good dive trip. I will definitely return and will book a longer cruise, the 7 days cruise was too short, the 10 day cruise would be perfect.

 

[Kevster]

Land Based

Gizo

I flew from Honaria to Gizo to spend 3 nights, 2 days diving at Gizo. I stayed at Fat Boys Resort. The resort is very nice. Was very quiet during my stay, only a few guests. The resort is in a great setting about 10 mins by boat from Gizo town. The resort is a perfect place to chill out, especially after a week on a live-aboard.
Unfortunately I had a stomach bug so did not take full advantage of the appetising seafood buffets.

Dive Day 1 – Toa Maru, hot spot.
I was really looking forward to diving this wreck. In fact it was the reason I choose to visit Gizo rather than spend some time at Uepi.
Was a little disappointed, it’s a nice wreck with some swim throughs. Some Saki bottles, jars of medicine, a tank and the frame of a motorbike.
The Hot spot reef was all dead coral/rubble/rock. Not nice to look at.
There were a couple of white tips, a turtle and an eagle ray out in the blue water.

Dive day 2 – Manta dive, Hellcat fighter.
No mantas on the manta dive. Reef in better shape than previous day but still not great. Very boring dive.
Hellcat fighter. Nice short dive on a very intact aircraft. We used the same tank as the first dive as we had previously surfaced with 60 bar remaining. Unfortunately it took us so long to actually find the wreck (sits at 9 m) that I only had a couple of minutes at the wreck.



Summary

Fatboys resort was a nice place to do nothing. Was not impressed with the diving. It was ok for a couple of days but I would have been very disappointed if I had travelled to the Solomons to specifically dive in Gizo.

Munda

It was a short 10 minute flight from Gizo to Munda. I stayed at 4 nights at Anges lodge which is the place to stay at in Munda. Its located in the small town , next to the airport and the dive shop is within the lodge complex. Munda was a lot more developed than I was expecting. It had an ATM, shops and WI-FI! Anges lodge was ok, not as nice as fatboys resort. The lodge reminded me of a few places I have stayed in the Philippines/Indonesia.

Dive Day 1 (Shark Point, Top Shelf)
Excellent days diving. Great viss, corals and marine life. Few sharks, lots of barracuda, 6 mobula rays and really fantastic hard coral.

Dive day 2 (Haepe reef & 2 plane wrecks)
Bad viss, less than 10 m on the reef and less than 5 m on the wrecks. The reef was in excellent shape.

Dive Day 3 (Baerioko, Casi Maru & 1 plane wreck)
Amazing hard corals at Baerioko. Many colours of hard coral I have not seen before. The Casi Maru was a small WWII wreck with some nice penetration into the galley & engine room. The plane was a bonus 3^rd dive, an upside down hellcat plane.



Munda was excellent. Really fantastic diving. Some of the best hard corals I have ever seen. Would definitely recommend a visit to Munda. 3 Dive days was not enough.

All up all the Solomons was great. More expensive than Indo or the Philippines but excellent coral/reef diving. So much topside history made it a really interesting trip. I will definitely return but never again in August.

All photos are with my new GH2, nauticam housing, 8mm & 45mm lens. (Will do a small review of the GH2 in the next few days)

 

[alijtaylor]

Great report Kevster with some excellent photos, I have enjoyed the Bilikiki trip on a couple of occassions and while it is a shame the weather didn't play ball sound like you had a good trip. Next time it is worth going to Uepi.

Alison

 

[smokey braden]

kevster,
thank you for the trip report.
did you hear them say anything about the wreck of uss john penn ?
ive been told she is in that area.
thank you,

 

[kkfok]

Thanks. I am interested in Munda too. Is Munda good for sharks and big stuff?

 

[gee13]

Hey mate great report. Will miss ya when you to to the land far away from warm waters! Great photos glad the new setup worked well.

 

[MoreSunLessRain]

Great trip report and excellent photos. Which dive-op did you go with in Gizo? Munda sounds like a must dive in the Solomons.

 

[Kevster]

Reply to a few of the questions above.

USS John Penn Wreck- Did not hear anything about this wreck during my trip. Unfortunately most of the WWII wrecks are deep. If I was a tech diver I would prob have tried to dive the A.Ward wreck, a battleship at 60+m. During my trip I got the impression that there are a lot of wrecks that have yet to be discovered.

Munda- I would not classify Munda as a “big stuff” destination. IMHO there are only a few big stuff locations out there; Galapagos, Cocos, Socorro, Tonga, Palau, Bahamas,S.Africa,Oz etc.

I would classify Munda as a great reef diving destination. You will see turtles, rays, some smallish sharks. On the Bilikiki & in Munda shark calling is used to attract the sharks.
Anything may show up in Munda, Whales, dugongs, Tiger/bull/HH sharks but you will need a lot of luck to see these. Generally more big stuff than you would see in Indo/Phili.


Gizo- I dived with “Dive Gizo” (I think they used to be called adventure sports). I think there are only 2 dive Ops in Gizo.

 

[kkfok]

Thanks. I watched a video by Dive Munda in youtube which was amazing, hammerhead sharks, Silvertip and colorful reef, that's why I asked.

 

[GrimSleeper]

Hi kkfok, thanks for the comments on the video - I shot it! All the footage is from a period of around 13 months and was all shot here in Munda, so we do see the big stuff. Kevster's comment is very fair, though - you're definitely more likely to get regular encounters with the big fellas somewhere like Aliwhal Shoals. We do have a fairly stable population of large (2.5m+) Silvertips here, but generally it's a deep dive (ie. past 45m) to see them unless you get lucky. Hammers are more likely between December and May, although we do get the odd encounter throughout the year. Rather than especially big sharks, what's really exciting for us here in Munda is the range of species we see - over a dozen different shark species to date - and the chance for close encounters without feeding.

Re. the John Penn, she's off Lunga Point in Honiara. She's not dived that often, but Neil Yates of Tulagi Dive can arrange it if you're interested.

Oh, and thanks to Kevster for your review. You're welcome back in Munda any time!!