Batas, Indonesia (Over the border)

Kundu sculptures in no mans land

Me and Johnny at the border

Wutung

Me, Bao and Shane

During the PNG Surfing National titles held in Lido, Vanimo, I had the opportunity to go across the border with some friends to see how our brothers and sisters connected to us by one land live. It was an overwhelming experience for me. We began by leaving the village, Lido by bus into Vanimo. We then caught a bus from Vanimo that took us to the border. We left in a mini bus, packed full of passengers for the border. One thing that you will notice about the Sundaun province is the sounds. The waves crashing on the shore contrasted against the thick sound of the forest. A unique sound arises from the forest, from a mysterious insect which I am yet to identify. The senses you feel are full, the landscape is stunning, the smell of the ocean mixed with the moist forest floor, the perfume of secret blooms of forest flowers, float out of the intense green entanglement... wow absolute wonderment. With the crashing waves to the right and the green entanglement to the left, a perfect combination, the ride to Batas was a privilege.

On the way rock pools dotted the coast, the reefs merely 20 metres away from some villages the only protection between them and the crashing waves. The turrets the waves had carved towards the shore, a gushing torrent of movement, seething and breathing. The mesmerising, throb of the mysterious insects in the background.

Forty- Five minutes later we had reached the border crossing, where we were confronted with the spectacular view of Wutung village and the bay below. An 'Indonesian"family rushed towards me and handed their baby to hold and we took photographs together. I was speaking pidgin to them, as visually we looked like one people but we could not understand each other. I felt sad at the thought that we could not communicate through language, there were smiles all around though.

After taking in the view we walked through the border gates into 100m of no mans land. On reaching the other side we simply signed our names and indicated our sex on the sign in sheet and proceeded to walk across the border. Johnny, my bro and guide told me not to take any photos. When walking past the Indonesian guards, I knew why. There was a machine gun pointed towards the road?? Border control.

Batas the little town was interesting, but it was just filled with junk. We had a look around bought a few things and left.


On leaving I couldn't help but think of how blessed PNG was to be an independent country. You could feel the oppression. We are a free and independent state... that's special. Lets look after this place, its ours.

Madang, Diving Mililat Passage

Livin n Lovin the water

Just a small part of the reef wall

Madang, this place has a vibe like no other. I am diving on Mililat Reef. Aquaventures the diving operators took me here to check out Mililat passage. This is currenly in the running to be bombed so that a Marine Wharf can be put in at Vidar to unload Tuna captured off shore. Yet another example of lack of long term planning. Are we going to continue to destroy our natural resources for short term benefits?

15 minutes out of Port Moresby

The peak on the left of Sero Beach

Back towards Bootless Bay

Looking down to Sero from the peak

Taurama Beach, view on the left of the peak

Port Moresby, the place which has been demonised by those that pretend to know it. If you step out of the box into the real world, there is much beauty to be found. This is just one example of how unique and wonderful this place is.

Lido, Vanimo, Jan 07

A nice cool spot to rinse off in after a surf, paradise

Left hander, infamous board breaker, this wave is a machine do not be deceived, when its 10ft and raging, no mercy for the faint hearted

Right hander on a really small day

Vanimo surf Club, pandanus trail through the village and a fish net hammock

New Years Day my brother and I flew to Lido, Vanimo a surf village on the North Coast of PNG.This place is seriously the bomb, we stayed with the Moihe family, who are absolutey some of the best people that I have ever met, wan bel i stap. The people on the North Coast are truly, so friendly and caring. We were there to go surfing where I was confronted with 10ft waves on my introductory surf in Lido. I only started surfing in August where I spent 4 weeks at some friends place, Tierra de Milagros (the Land of Miracles) in the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica. With only a few weekends of follow up surf sessions out at Sero ending in November and no waves around i thought, hhhmmm Christmas break... why not go surfing over in Vanimo...bara..Lewa blo mi sut ya (severe adrenaline rush). I got rolled a couple of times and these blue walls would just come popping out of nowhere on the right hander, it takes some serious guts to tackle these waves. There was even the resident dugong bobbing around out there. The sisters and brothers in Lido carve up these waves and make surfing look easy. Out on the water you could have been anywhere in the world with about 20 tourists from Germany,France Austallia, England and the America. I remember lying out on my brand new Walden 9ft, Wahine and seeing a whole bunch of surfers paddling towards me, I looked to my left and saw this towering wave. I am struggling to swim away from it and these guys are all heading for the peak. It was awesome being out there in the surf and just watching these people just absolutely pumped on these waves.

I remember feeling like sonic the hedgehog with my fro out being tossed around in the surf like a little piece of loose debris. Respect...those waves have some serious power, not to be taken lightly.

World Wetlands Day 2nd Feb 07

David Peter(WWF) being interviewed by Scott Waide (EMTV)

Me trying to get rid of more plastic

Phillip, Lydia and Robert

Sylvia Pascoe

Through WWF and Save PNG we organised a clean up on Ela Beach on World Wetlands Day. We had Scott Waide from EMTV (our National television channel) down there interviewing David Peter the Freshwater Programme Manager on the effects of climate change on the Wetlands of Papua New Guinea

Wetlands are as the word describes, Wet, Lands and include habitats such as swamps, marshes, billabongs, lakes, salt marshes, mudflats, mangroves, coral, reefs, ferns, peat lands, or bodies of water whether artificial or man made.

South PNG in fact has the highest diversity of mangroves in the world (Duke 1992, in Ellison 1997). These areas are transition zones, its where the land becomes the sea. This is one of the most important ecological zones in the world... why? Mangroves act as a buffer zone, filtering out sediments from entering into the ocean and decreasing the amount of sunlight available for coral reefs, they protect the coasts from erosion and help to dissipate the impact of tsunamis, they are also home to all the little baby fish the term used is a nursery. All the juvenile fish shelter here from larger predators until they are strong enough to venture out into the deeper seas.

This day was great. Before work we all headed down and had yet another clean up of the beach.
The place is improving, day by day week by week. Its a little like pantene, it won't happen overnight but it will happen.

Hope to see some of you down there some time, you are more than welcome.

The pictures are of some of my colleagues Lydia the communications officer, Phillip one of our accountants and Robert our Bismarck Solomon Seas Project Officer, David on his interview with Scott, Sylvia from Westpac and myself on the day.

Koki

It so happened that one day we took ourselves down to Koki where we were introduced to Muere and Anton. Muere is the President of the Port Moresby District Youth Council and Anton is a volunteer from Greenfingers and has done some really great landscaping work outside Dame Kidu's Library.

The first area we were shown was the playing field on the edge of a major road in POM. However due to the lack of toilets in the area our journey took skill to dodge a few unsightly piles on the way. Disgusting as this may sound it is a reality. People drive past Koki everyday without truly realising what is past the stilt housing there. What does it look like under those houses?Well let me show you and you can tell me whether it is acceptable to have Papua New Guineans living like this. I have heard arguments such as, its their problem they need to take ownership. Yes! Very true because no one caused this problem but the people that live there but lets offer an alternative of awareness, that this is not only unhealthy for the marine ecosystem but also very unhealthy for the people that live there. The first boardwalk that we went over was a shock as we saw children playing amongst piles of rubbish as though it was grass. Walking around barefoot with sharp rusty old car parts as if they were just rock or sand. I came to realise that this was their life. This was their back yard and this is what they had to play in. I was at first angry and thought, how did these people allow their children to play down there, they could get really sick. But over time people become accustomed to their surrounds and it becomes normal and the smell that you may have first noticed when you walked in there must fade over time, the senses numbed.

When you are away from the city for long periods of time your senses reawaken. You can smell the grass, feel the wind taste the air but this added sensitivity when brought into a place like Koki is like a serious slap in the face. My stomach was in a knot after spending an hour there. I felt disillusioned, sad, helpless, enraged, enlightened, despair and a feeling of overwhelming hopelessness.

From picking up the rubbish on Ela Beach thinking that was helping to clean our beaches to a feeling of why even bother. How are you ever going to fix that situation? It was not just the rubbish that we were faced but a major social issue. We had reports from our guides that people got sick all the time due to the conditions that they were living in. People would cut their feet then have to get a limb amputated due to the heavy infection.

How did this happen? If this situation had been dealt with when it had first arisen then we would not have a major social issue to deal with. This is not easy to ignore. However, the old saying goes "Ignorance is Bliss". Sometimes it can become a burden to know, it is easier to go on in your life living in your own manifested bliss. Seeing is believing. Here it is see it, believe it, this is your country, these are your people, this is your sea. What are you going to do about it? Are you going to just count your lucky stars that you don't have to wake up to that reality everyday? Many of you will, but that's OK.

Each to their own as they say. Who are we to judge the way other people choose to live their lives, but is it a choice that these children made?

Look at what can be done, if given the tools of empowerment, the landscaping done by Anton and the youth from Greenfingers gives me hope that things can change.

Hanuabada ( Big village)

Back in the 1930's

No plastics

After plastics were introduced

Charlie, took us into his village. Hanuabada is the name used for the area to the right of the Andersons. Hanuabada, however is only one village in this area.

We were lucky enough, to have our eyes opened up, we were enlightend on this day. I had lived my life knowing that, yes the rubbish situation was bad at Hanuabada but I had never experienced it myself. I was living in a bubble, going about my life not realising what was happening less than 10km away from my home.

Papua New Guineans are blessed. We come from a bountiful country, but how did we allow a situation like this arise in the capital. The capital!!! The place where it all happens, where we have all the International Aid Agencies where we have all our top politicians. How did we let this one slip under the carpet??

One answer, Greed!!! Self consumed, ego orientated and self obsessed, do they all say the same thing? I really feel for the Motu Koitabu people. All other provinces have come here and are guests here. What would we do if a whole city decided to land in our back yard. Take away the land we used to grow our food on and our hunting grounds. I don't think that we would be very happy. Just a thought.

Over time, plastics have accumulated in this area, the worst case senario that we found in here was Elevala. A beach where the sand was not visible.

How do we help in this situation? We found one rubbish bin on our travels through. No where to throw rubbish, no one to collect it.

The systems have some crashing down in this country. Not many of us care anymore, that has to change. We are a country in a stage of renewal. Lets shed the past and welcome a positive future.

Cleaning Ela Beach

Beginning in October, a few of us ladies decided that we would just head down there and at least start on helping to clean up the beach. NCD employs a few boy and girls to go down there and clean up too but they need help too.

The first day was the hardest. Alana and I sat in the car contemplating actually getting out of the car, but we took the first step, we did get out of the car. We put on some gloves and headed down to check out the situation. Our first day was successful a group of young kids came down and helped us to pick up the rubbish. What a great feeling it is to turn around and see sand without glistening, rustling bits of plastic, el natural...beautiful. For all the things that humans made plastic has to be one of the most annoying. Don't get me wrong it has its uses but when its just lying around on the beach, it looks untidy and gathers algae, it begins to smell.

We still go down and pick up rubbish but there is a much bigger picture than removing the rubbish, where does it come from?

Let us take you on a journey. First to Hanuabada then on to Koki, you will begin to see the magnitude of the effects of marine pollution.


This job is relentless. Every day a new bit of debris washes up on shore.

Ela Beach (Era Koni)

Nesting Green Sea Turtle, Chelonia Mydas

Ela Beach otherwise known to the traditional landowners as Era Koni. Ela derived from Era means turtle, hence Ela Beach is "Turtle Beach". Ela Beach was a nesting beach for turtles. I would say that they would have been both Hawksbills and Green Turtles due to the seagrass beds that stretch out to where the sun can no longer reach the sandy bottom. Dugongs could also be found out from Ela Beach. What has happened to these fantastic, charismatic mega fauna? Wiped out!! These populations no longer exist. In the space of 30 years we have wiped out this particular population of marine turtle from our beaches. What a tourist attraction that could have been. Come down to Ela Beach and watch the turtles nesting, right in the heart of Port Moresby. Take a simple drive down after dinner at Ela Beach Hotel or Crown Plaza and there you have it. The ability to witness an act of nature which has continued since the time of the dinosaurs.

To see a turtle laying is a very humbling experience. These animals spend their whole life time out at sea and return to the sand in which they were born to lay eggs. Watching this happen is magic, respect! Respect for mother nature and the intricate web of inter relationships she weaves, everything connected to everything. A thread loose could cause the whole thing to unravel.

As previously stated , a turtle always goes back to the same beach to lay its eggs, when it hatches and walks into the water it imprints... this means that, that exact beach on which it hatched will be forever etched into their instinct and they will return only to the beach that they were hatched on. So, we no longer have the turtles of Era koni. This is sad but a reality.

Survival rate for these little cuties is 1/1000. Staggering.

Sometimes I like to imagine that I could go back 200 years and peer under water. What would I see. The wonders of a healthy ecosystem, functioning, well balanced, beautiful, enchanting, mysterious, breath taking. Schools of barracuda encircling you, whales sharks, coral trout, manta rays, turtles, dugongs, dolphins. The horizon a buzz with birds circling, telling you that a massive school of migrating tuna is passing through. All these sights are of a rare occurrence today.

What do we do? We work with what we have got. We cant bring back those lost turtles or dugongs but we can try to improve what we have now. That is a beach in the middle of our capital. Its not far from your home. How great would it be to be able to go swimming there without worrying about how dirty the water is.

My first experiences with the ocean were on Ela Beach in the 80's.