After a relaxing weekend in Saeragi, we went back to Gizo where we were staying with our friend, Susan.
By some random phone call, we found out that an old Rugby mate of Jair's from Honiara was now living in Gizo and had a boat which he uses to transport people around Gizo and the islands. So he agreed to drop us off at a deserted island. Wednesday we went to some random island that I don't know the name of and it was totally deserted. Thursday he took us to Kennedy island.
Kennedy Island is famous as the island that the Lieutenant John F Kennedy and the rest of the crew from PT. 109 swam to in August 1943 after their boat was rammed by a Japanese destroyer.
It's really not a bad place to be stuck for the day and I'm not sure why JFK was in such hurry to leave it (well, I do, really). Unfortunately for JFK, he didn't have the lovely picnic lunch that I took with us when we visited.
The picnic lunch that...
ended up on Kiraua's face. Yup. Chocolate cake.
After which he slept.
So what do you do on Kennedy island? Well, we snorkelled. Unfortunately, our waterproof camera had died (although, I found out how to resurrect it the next day) at Saeragi, so I didn't take any photos. While snorkelling around the island, I was blown away (swept away? engulfed away? How do you describe the way the water takes you?). Maybe because I wasn't busy taking photos of all the things I saw underwater, I instead could take it all in, all the beauty, all the colour.
The drop off on the coral reef was full of fish. I swam against the current, watching the fish, hanging in the water, mouths open, taking in food (? I presume?). I moved through a confetti of fish: fluorescent purple, cherry red, yellow with fluro orange mohawks; starkly coloured Moorish Idols; sombre, tall batfish; the big spotted trigger fish. And I just swam, swam and swam through them and they would come up to me as if to say "how do you do?" and then carry on their daily business of hanging out in the water. There were parrot fish, who do really look like their out-of-water counterparts, they even look as though they fly, the way their fins flap out and in. Meandering in the depths, I saw Bumphead Parrot fish - what a treat! I could even hear the Bumpheads, Topa is the local name, bumping and nibbling on the coral. and then this other fish. I never found out its name, but in all the places I went it was always lurking, too far for me to get close, but always there watching. When I did venture out to get a better glimpse, it would retreat to the fathomless blue. It was grey with this yellow stripe and a purple, or was it just a deeper grey, segment over the belly. The weirdest things were its fins. They looked transparent, and they moved as if they were flapping.
 |
| I snagged this photo from someone else (it's not even from kennedy island); it gives a beautiful impression of fish flying through the water. |
My favourite part was the christmas tree lights. But I'll tell you about them on another post because our internet is too slow right now to upload a photo (again taking at another location).
Anyway, soon it was the end of the day. Clouds gathered.
And in the distance we saw Jair's friend coming to pick us up. So we took a family photo...
And left.
