Australia Day Function

Nic and I were a little puffed after our day on the water, but duty called and we had to go to the official Australia Day function hosted by the Australian Ambassador to Micronesia Susan Cox. Scott had about 45minutes to shower, shave and get there to complete the preparations by the time the boat and fish were all cleaned up. It ended up being a pretty big deal with over 200 guests, including the acting President of Micronesia, heaps of National Senators, and Ambassadors from the five other Embassys on Pohnpei. The Bi-Lateral coorporation between Australia and Micronesia seems to be extremely high on the agenda for K Rudd and his team. A great night with heaps of traditional Australian and Local food. Scott felt a little ordinary this morning after indulging in the feel VB and Tooheys and kicking on to a local night spot for a few more. Today was a long day.

Australian Ambassador to Micronesia Susan Cox

Nic trying to get lucky with a sailor.

Dinner is served.

Indy enjoying the balloons that Scott brought home from the offical function.

Australia Day in Micronesia

G'day All and Happy Australia Day (for yesterday). We were given the day off to relax and enjoy the day. So we took advantage of some unseasonally good weather and took the boat 'True Blue' out for a spot of fishing and a dive. Nic hadn't dived since before Jaxon was born so we got dressed up late last week and jumped in our pool for a bit of a refresher to get her feeling a little more comfortable. That all went well so yesterday morning we headed out for a few hours on the water. It wasn't the best fishing day with only two fish caught, but we made Nic wind in her first fish in Micronesia, a solid little wahoo. A highlight of the day for sure. Then we went for a dive, only went down to about 7-8 metres but it is really pretty and like swimming in a big fish tank. Another great day in Micronesia.

Getting back into the groove in the pool.

Nic's first Pohnpein fish. Was a real quick photo shoot as she could hardly hold it up after winding it in. Happy as Larry though.

All good down here.

Lots of 'Nemos'.

The Front Cover photo shoot back on the compound jetty.

The first fishing trip

Micronesia is a fishing mecca and it didn't take too long to get out amongst it. The first week on island was Scott's handover period at work so he had to wait until the second week. The weather isn't the best at this time of year but he picked the best day and made the most of it.
Trolling for a big one.

The unluckiest skipjack tuna in the world. This one was hook on one line. Then tangled up the second line that was out the back of the boat. It managed to get off the hook only to tangle itself up in the two lines. You don't even need hooks to catch fish here.

Micronesia is a third world country no doubt about it. So all the fish are kept. We take what we want and give the rest to our boat driver, gardeners and cleaners to take home to their families. Our catch for the day was one dolphin fish, a rainbow runner, a wahoo, ten skipjack tuna and a 35kg ish shark.

A toothy critter that hit a little lure designed for tuna.

The photo of the day.

Jaxon's Birthday

Jaxon turned 3 on the 12th of Jan. He is already going to a local kindergarten called UCCP. Apparently your first birthday on the island is a big deal. So we bought two cakes ($70 US - got to love how expensive things are here) and Nic took one to the kindy with Jaxon. They had a big celebration with Jaxon and another boy who was turning six.

The two birthday boys and their crowns.

All the kids cheering the birthday boys.

A very tasty birthday cake.

Nic and the kids from the compound.

Scott and the birthday boy.

Tuna Processing Plant

Scott works with the Micronesian Maritime Police and was lucky enough to get the opportunity to look through the Tuna Processing Plant that is nearby to his work. The tuna boats unload every day and seeing it for the first time was pretty impressive. It is pretty much straight from the boats freezer, into an ice-slurry, straight to the processing plant were it is graded and then boxed an onto an out-bound plane to Japan. Takes less than two hours.

Big Tuna.

Straight from the boat into the ice.

Ice slurry on the wharf.

Scott and the grading table

55kgs of Micronesian tuna.

Compound Life

Life on the compound is pretty relaxed. We used the pool a bit and the kids love the play ground. One of the other families have three kids aged 5, 8 and 9 so that helps with keeping the kids occupied.

Each Wednesday night some of the local young girls come and use the compound facilities to practise Hula Dancing. Jaxon and Indi loved it and joined in. Cute and funny at the same time.

Indy kicking back down on our jetty.

The owner of the Pohnpei Surf Club let us borrow his jet ski to give all the kids a go.

Nic tearing up the river.

World Champion Surfer Girls

Arrived Monday and on the plane with us was the world No 1 female surfer Steffine Glimore, world No 5 female surfer Sally Fitzgibbon and world No 1 junior female surfer Laura Enever (not that Nic or I knew who they were). I got to go out to Palikir Pass (Pohnpei's famous surf break) and watch them surf. 15-20 foot waves and they carved it up. An awesome opportunity for sure.

Steff Gilmore

Sally Fitzgibbon

Laura Enever

I went to the Pohnpei Surf Club (right next to our house) and met the girls. All Aussies and happy to pose for some photos. Laura gave me one of the boards that she broke (the girls broke six boards in the two days they were here) to start my autograph collection.

Need I say more.

Cairns and the flight

Howdy All. Well we are finally in Pohnpei Micronesia. I'll be putting a few posts up today to get you up to speed with what we have been doing. Needless to say we have been very busy unpacking and getting familiar with our new surroundings. The boxes are all unpacked and after we put a few more nails in the walls for some pictures we are pretty much fully moved in. We are enjoying it and have found our compound neighbours to be very friendly and accommodating. The local community is easy to get involved in with expats and locals being extremely friendly.

This post. We stopped over in Cairns for four days after leaving WA and caught up with our good friends the Quirkes. We had a day up at Kuranda, watched the news years fire works from our hotel balcony and just generally relaxed. The flight to Pohnpei left Cairns at one-thirty in the morning so it was off to the airport at about ten-thirty. As you can imagine the kids were pretty tired by the time we go to Pohnpei at twelve the next day (after a couple of hours at the Guam airport).


Indy in the water playground on the Cairns Esplanard

Jaxon feeding a kangaroon at Kuranda.

The Quires and Campbells

Jaxon and Indianna at the Cairns Airport

Our first view of Pohnpei

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