26 March - Nic's Bday

As all birthdays do when you have little kids it begins in bed with cuddles and presents. Jaxon was gracious enough to lend some of presents to Mummy as he didn't have any money to buy her one. Isn't she just beautiful first thing in the morning.

At eight oclock we had the boat packed and headed over to Ant Atoll for a dive, lunch and snorkling. We fished a couple of small schools but unfortunately didn't produce the goods. We had Lori and Stephen from the US Embassy and Sam and Ecki from the Australian Embassy with us for the day.

We decided to dive the channel leading into Ant Atoll. We hadn't dived for a couple of months so we took it slow. The tide was going out so we were able to do a comfortable 'drift dive' out the channel. At 35 degree water on the surface and 28 at 20 metres down it was very comfortable.

On the way down to 20 metres we saw a turtle heading off at speed. The picture is a little grainy as I had to zoom in to catch a shot of him/her.

Trying to get a 'cool' bubble shot didn't exactly work out as I planned but this is the best one.

Loads of beautiful fish on this dive.

Nemo makes an appearance in a lot of different places in Pohnpei.

Heaps of beautiful clams as well.

Awe shucks - she loves me.

Sam hadn't dived for a couple of years so we all stuck close together. Here he is giving me the thumbs up.

Other type of Nemo. We have never seen this type before - very cool.

Ecki stayed on the boat and kept an eye on the float for us.

With five divers doing a 'drift dive' I was a little concerned about losing someone so I asked everyone to stick together and I wore a float so that the boat knew where we were all the time.

After the dive we headed for the beach for some lunch and were greeted by the locals.

More and more appeared so I have a feeling that they think there may be some food left over when we left. I made sure it didn't happen in our case but I'm sure it does occasionally.

The crew relaxing with some quality food and wine.

We got back to Kangaroo Court about five-thirty and cleaned the boat, put gear away and then hosted a bbq dinner. Everyone bought something to contribute so that made it easier by a mile.

Done and dusted. Fed and watered. Ready for bed after a long day. A great Birthday for Nic and a great day and evening with our friends on Pohnpei.

FSS PALIKIR turns 21

The Pacific Patrol Program has now officially been in Pohnpei for 21 years. On Thursday the 24th of March it was 21 years from when FSS PALIKIR was commissioned and handed over to the government of the Federated States of Micronesia. With Dean and I on leave Geoff (our boss) made it his mission to make sure the occasion was celebrated in the right way. We only flew back in Pohnpei on the Tuesday so I really only had the Wednesday and Thursday at work to help tie up the loose ends and then the party started at 4pm on the Thursday. The crew was very pleased to have the occasion for their boat and made sure 'she' was looking great for her 21st birthday.

The Birthday Cake took a bit of hit with all the moving around but still looked fantastic.

March on the troops.

The crew of FSS PALIKIR marched on proudly to the sounds of the FSM National Police Pipes and Drum band.

FSM's leader, President Mori, spoke before the gathering, thanking Australia for the continued support of the FSM Patrol Boats and stating the important role that the Patrol Boats perform.

Indi was sent to the 'Sin Bin' after trying to interupt the Presidents speech.

Australia's new ambassor to the FSM Martin Quinn also addressed the gathering.

President Mori and PALIKIRs CO David Marar with the 21st Certificate.

The cake was cut in style with the boss's cutlass.

After the ceremony the feast began. I love these sorts of occasions. Nothing like watching someone cut up a roasted pig with a machette. And yes that is a monster mud crab claw on that plate.

As you would expect Indi and Jaxon loved the cake eating the best.

Trying to get these two to stand still for a photo is getting easier but still hasn't been perfected.

A great night that carried on well after the families left. A great milestone with a worthy celebration.

The Bishop Museum - Our last Hawaii post

We had seen and add in the paper before going to Kauai saying that they had a dinosaur exhibit at the Bishop Museum. Jaxon loves dinosaurs so it was good leverage to get him to be good (not that it worked all the time). All the dinosaurs were fitted with motion sensors so when you went near them they came to live and all the appropriate noise came out. Jaxon and Indi weren't quite sure to make of the first one we saw just inside the gate.

Once they worked out that they weren't real they were happy to point and laugh and pose for even more photos.

Triceratops was pretty cool.

Fossicking for dinosaur bones was a huge hit.

Nic and Indi put on their best 'I'm really scared' faces.

Some of these critters were just downright noisy.

The rest of the Museum was still open so we had a look around. Indi was pretty happy with riding the goose statues for a while.

Hawaii has a heap of volcanoes and we found a pretty cool exhibit to look at.

Giant snails from South Africa.

This ones a little closer to the actual size, never the less - the lettuce still doesn't stand much of a chance.

The grounds were fantastic and provided a great place to relax with some lunch.

So that's it from Hawaii. We are home in Pohnpei now with even more events on what seems to be a never ending social calendar.

Back in Waikiki

We had to leave our fantastic place in Kauai at some point. We had arranged for a mid afternoon flight so that we weren't going to be rushed at anypoint of the day. A good plan..... And it was going great until after checking out and having lunch we realised we had left something in the room. It was only then, with two hours to go before we flew out, that we realised how slow they drive on Kauai. Very frustrating trying to explain to the kids as we drove away from the airport that we were still going to the airport. Needless to say we made it with minimal time to spare only to find out that our plane was delayed an hour or so. A thirty minute flight and we were back in Honolulu. We had organised a van to pick us up and because of the delay on Kauai we spent about two hours going the 14 miles from the airport to our hotel. We spent longer in the van than we did in both airports and the plane. We had booked into the 'Top of Waikiki' resteraunt for a six-thirty dinner. We got there about a quarter to eight, just in time for the weekly fireworks from the roof of the Hilton. The driving force behind dinner there. Unfortunately most of the show was obscured by a hotel but by then the kids didn't really care anyway. Luckily we decided to take our portable DVD player to keep them entertained. But to their credit Jaxon and Indi were very well behaved considering the day we had had.

The very from the 'Top of Waikiki' was pretty nice at night.

Getting a few cocktails in to help ease the pain of the day.

Even icecream couldn't take the kids eyes away from the DVD.

On the main street of Waikiki Beach all the street performers come out each night. We found "Elmo" about half way home which helped keep the kids happy.

The next night we had a sunset dinner at a hotel just down the street from ours. Live music, sun setting, cocktails, Daddy and Indi dancing to "Brown-eyed Girl". Do I really have to go back to work??????????

Indi's best mischevious face.

We flew out on Sunday night so our last role of the dice was to have a great lunch at a buffet at yet another hotel near us. This one had a two-story fish tank as the back drop which kept us all entertained during the meal.

Yep we are all done with family photos for this holiday.....

A pretty cool feature was when the people who came as a group for a birthday got a special birthday card from the fish tank.