Neil Armstrong interviews with CPA Australia

 Cave diving, Other, Uncategorized  No Responses »
May 302012
 

And now for something slightly different… Neil Armstrong was part of a three man team that flew to the moon in 1969, and was the first person to step onto the lunar surface. In the 43 years since, he’s given very few interviews and avoided the public eye. In an interesting twist, he recently agreed to talk to the CPA. The CPA is the professional body for accountants in Australia, and as their CEO explains, Armstrong’s dad was an auditor. With that inside knowledge and a little persuasion, they managed to convince the elusive hero to speak to them, and the camera. With my interest in exploration, extremes and risk taking, I found the four-part interview fascinating viewing. Watching the archival [read more…]

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Spider crabs under Rye Pier

 Ocean diving, Reef diving  3 Responses »
May 282012
 
Spider crabs under Rye Pier

About the site As well as the great wrecks lying out in the ship’s graveyard, diving from Melbourne also features a great set of piers. These shallow and easy shore dives showcase a wide variety of marine critters. Flinders Pier on the east side of the Mornington Peninsula is known for its weedy seadragon population, and scorpion fish, pot bellied seahorses and thousands of nudibranchs can be found between sponge-encrusted pylons all around Port Phillip Bay. While a favourite of macro photographers, the piers aren’t my usual weekend diving destination. Rye Pier lies on the south east side of the Bay, a bit over an hour’s drive from Melbourne. It has a max depth of 5m or so, and as [read more…]

A view of Lissenung Island

 Ocean diving, Reef diving  No Responses »
May 212012
 
A view of Lissenung Island

About the site As you can see from the photo above and the one below, both of these shots were taken within close vicinity of Lissenung Island. Lissenung is located between the Bismark Sea and South Pacific Ocean, in Papua New Guinea. I was there in April for a week of diving after winning the freshwater category of the Underwater Festival 2011. About the dive The photo up top was taken towards the end of the week. After two morning boat dives out on the deep walls that drop into the Bismarck Sea, I spent a cruisy afternoon diving on the house reef. With poor visibility out deeper, the shallow reef flats had clearer water. I was also tempted into [read more…]

Laying line into Unnamed Cave

 Cave diving, Roe Plains  2 Responses »
May 142012
 
Laying line into Unnamed Cave

About the site As I talked about two weeks ago, Unnamed Cave is located down on the Roe Plains. Freshly discovered last October by Paul Hosie of CEGWA, a number of trips have now seen over 2kms of line laid into virgin passage. Over Easter this year I was lucky enough to join a group heading out there. About the dive While I was determined to take both photos and video footage in the newly discovered tunnels, I was also quite keen to find a little bit of new tunnel of my own and add to the rapidly developing map. After an orientation dive in the cave to get my bearings, Ken and I planned a stage dive to take [read more…]

Critter interactions at Lissenung Island

 Ocean diving, Reef diving  2 Responses »
May 072012
 
Critter interactions at Lissenung Island

About the site Lissenung Island is a tiny sandy island in New Ireland, PNG. Located between the Bismarck Sea and the South Pacific Ocean, the waters here see incredible biodiversity. With coastal mangroves nurturing juvenile fish and corals walls down off the continental shelf all within a stone’s throw of each other, the marine life thrives. I visited Lissenung Island Resort in April 2012 for my prize trip after winning the freshwater category of the Underwater Festival 2011. Over 6 diving days there were clouds of fish, huge barracuda, dolphins surfing the bow wave on glassy seas and some great photographic dives on WWII plane wrecks. As the boat winds between sandy tropical islands over 30 degrees water, paradise is [read more…]