Simbo Simbo

Simbo Simbo Simbo!! 

Having just arrived in the country for 2 weeks and meeting a lovely group of volunteers and expats working in Honiara, I jumped on their trip to Simbo Island. It was a very last minute trip- but one of the most amazing trips I have been on EVER! From the very start I couldn't believe how lucky I was to get to experience this little piece of paradise. 

You will be seeing a lot more videos from me instead of the classic blogger essay, you have got to know your strength and descriptive writing is not one of mine. But I do love the camera :P 

And first stop was the airport- Thank you Downer! Great job! :) 

After an hour and a half on banana boat we arrived in Simbo Island.. 

A picture of paradise, and it really was! Island life is very simple. You eat, work, laugh, play and sleep. We were thrown into Island life as soon as we got off the banana boat (ok- minus the work side of it), ALL of the island greeted us on the shore when we arrived and then a mass exit of the kids to the water to have some fun. Our pasty crew, put on the white war paint and went to join them soon after. We spend the evening splashing about it the water, throwing kids about and finding star fish as big as our own heads! 

The most amazing part of the experience was the pikonini (kids) on the Island from 6 in the morning to their parents hunted them home at night they hung around our house just dieing to play and so excited by the visitors to their island. Our trip wasn't to a guesthouse or motel/hotel it was to the home of a friend of a friend. There are no guesthouses on Simbo, so man did we feel special to get to stay there!

This is the crew waiting to jump on the boat for a hike up the volcano.

On the activity side we had the most amazing trip to the volcano at Simbo, hiking up to the top of the volanoe, passing lagoons and some springs coming out of the earth that we boiling hot. The top of the volcano smelt just like Rotorua in NZ, like smelly rotten eggs.. AHHH NATURE! :)  It was a geography nerds dream, but a pale persons nightmare. We took it all in a then headed for shade! I will let the pictures do the talking, but just incase it hasn't come out enough- the smells, the sounds, the eagle soaring overhead and crystal clear water... that what I'm trying to get across!

 Our guide Violet showed us the sections of the Island where steam was rising out of the ground, before our hike she had wrapped some potatoes and megapod eggs in banana leaves in a basket and we tucket into lunch. Never had free range eggs like them. Check out the yokes!  

Our Easter weekend in Simbo definitely felt like an Island celebration. The village had a band which they performed for us every night we were there. The pikonini who were very shy to start of with but were flying by the end of it. Reminded me very much of the Celili's we would have in the Halla Mor, in the Gaelteach in Ireland! 

Some of the teenage boys on the Island must have got some aftershave for the occasion and after an hour of so got the courage to ask their guests up for a dance. Their grandparents and parents, well pretty much the whole Island was their to dance the night away! We laughed our heads off and sweated buckets. Here is band performing for us during the day! 

We said good bye to Simbo village after experiencing so much of their little Island paradise, it felt quiet strange to leave. It felt like we were leaving a lost world untouched by the west. In some ways I hope it never gets found and I can hid there in tropical paradise with them too!