Gizoand what people write about it21.02.2007 See also: Gizo Hospital and Information for elective students at Gizo Hospital Some pictures are clickable to enlarge them. The Airstrip Terminal
During the landing approch, the flight attendant sat down beside the student, looked out the window and said: "it looks pretty wet, hopefully the pilot can stop in time". [2004] As can be seen on the pictures above, if the pilot cannot stop in time, the plane simply drops into the sea.
The Town
Gizo is small and cute, and if you search around long enough in the various shops, you can find almost anything you need. [2004]
If it is raining a lot, all paths and roads turn into streams, and going home uphill [e.g. to Phoebe's] becomes quite adventurous. [2004]
The Market
Availability of food depends very much on the market and the latter depends on the weather. If the weather is bad, the vendors don't come to Gizo in their canoes and the market is almost empty. However, on fine days you can find heavenly grapefruits and huge pumpkins. You can also buy a lot of different kinds of cabbage and various other vegetables, but I rather stick to rice and fish. Now and then we treat ourselves with expensive spaghetti or go out to eat and enjoy lobster (which is considered everday food here). [2004] InternetTelekom has internet access, but it is quite expensive, and there's always a huge line of people waiting. [Summer 2004] DivingThe sea is just beautiful, 28°C and crystal clear. It has been raining a lot during the last three weeks, and, for Solomon Islands, is quite cold, therefore most of the time you do not feel like surfacing again at all. We usually have lunch on some deserted island, a bit barbeque or sandwiches. [Summer 2004]
Seragi Beach
Seragi beach is a more or less public beach, about 15-30 minutes by car from Gizo. If you ask the locals, you can go swimming, sometimes they ask for some money. It's actually the only sandy beach near Gizo, most other places are coral reefs. It is a really nice place, people are friendly and the kids highly interested, especially if you bring along a ball to play with! [2004] Travelling adventures in the Western ProvinceFirst I wanted to go to Seghe (near the Marovo Lagoon) by boat, however, nobody could tell me when the boat would leave. Sometime on Monday, but sometimes also on Sundays and most of the time not before Tuesday or Wednesday. So I was told to simply wait for the boat at the wharf, together with 300 Solomon Islanders, who also wanted to board the boat designed for 100 passengers. I was not too happy with this option. After a captain had put a passenger boat on a reef near Gizo, I had enough and decided to go to Seghe by plane. Unfortunately, Solomon Airlines forgot to pay their invoices in time, and so the larger plane chartered from Air Niugini was no longer available. This of course messed up the flight schedule and nobody knew whether his or her flight was cancelled or not. Additionally, the grass and dirt airstrip had suffered a bit from the heavy rainfalls, which did not help improve the situation. A bit earlier, when I wanted to visit Choiseul, Solomon Air had simply cancelled the flight because there were not enough passengers and only one airworthy plane was available. Therefore it was almost a bit scary, when I was told my flight to Seghe was going to leave ahead of schedule. Of course, I had to be weighed again with my whole caboodle. (Watching tourists being weighed is sort of an afternoon entertainment in Solomon Islands.) The flight was gorgeous and the weather just beautiful, we could see all the islands. I was picked up in Seghe and brouht to Uepi. A paradise within paradise, a dream of an island, on one side a shallow sandy beach and on the other side a coral wall for skin diving (among sharks and other creatures). I spent four days and nights there, and enjoyed it very much. The weather was good and the meals first class (ok, they might have to work on the desserts a bit, but after four months without any desserts at all, it was still a highlight). I was a bit sad to have to leave this beautiful island and go back to Honiara. We were brought back to Seghe airfield and waited and waited. Fortunately, there were other tourists around, otherwise I might have felt a bit lost. We could hear a heated discussion on the radio (which I was able to follow thanks to my almost fluent pidgin knowledge I had acquired in the past weeks), because there was one passenger too many. They could not agree which airfield they should skip, but in the end they decided to abandon the passenger in Munda and come to Seghe instead. So, thankfully, after three hours of waiting, there were enough seats for all of us. [Juli/August 2004] * * * * * We were a bit unlucky with our four-day trip to Marovo Lagoon. Last Wednesday we were supposed to fly to Seghe airfield with a stopover in Munda. Unfortunately, Seghe was closed due to heavy rainfall. We asked Solomon Air in Gizo if it is possible to fly to Munda that day and fly to Seghe the next day. He said no problem at all... so we did... but only in Munda they told us that the plane to Seghe is full the next day. BUT... we can always come back and check if somebody does not show up. Yeah right, chances are really small for that. Together with nine other frustrated people that could not go to Marovo Lagoon, we had dinner at a place in Munda; next day everybody was terribly sick, seems like the food wasn't as good as it tasted. We spent the day running between airport, bed and toilets... On Friday they still couldn't tell us if there is a flight to Seghe, not even if there is one to Honiara. That was quite frustrating, so we then decided to skip Marovo Lagoon and go to Zipolo resort on Lola Island instead (30 min boat ride from Munda), which was really nice. We could even confirm a flight on Sunday afternoon. Not trusting Solomon Airlines anymore, we confirmed the flight twice again on Sunday, called them one hour before the flight. No problems this time, so we took the boat back to Munda, went to the airport, and well, the plane was there, but out of order. Back to our accommodation... and on Monday, we finally got a flight back to Honiara. The next day the newspaper confirmed some of the rumors we had heard. One plane crashed in the bushes last Tuesday, after the Australian pilot didn't listen to the local pilots and started in heaviest rain. Somehow, they managed to bring that plane to Honiara to fix it. The other ("our") plane that broke down in Munda on Sunday needed a spare part from Honiara, but: The Australian pilot was grounded and not allowed to fly the fixed airplane, and the only other person (Chief Engineer!) able to fly it refused to. They then miracolously "ungrounded" the Australian pilot on Monday, the fixed plane took off full with passengers, but had to turn back because the battery was overheating...! They fixed that, came to Munda, fixed our plane, and finally there was a flight back to Honiara. By the way: Seghe airfield would be an all weather airfield, if they would only pay the local people to cut the grass... we landed there yesterday on a stopover. This would be a feast for Swiss cows... In short: Solomon Airlines really ruins the business of all the Western Province tourist facilities. We took it quite easy; others were totally upset and promised to tell the world what a bad place the Solomons are. Too bad... [September 2004]
Reader CommentsI agree with the comment you made about Solomon Airlines. I'm from Solomons and that airline is unreliable!! I have had experiences in 2003 and 2004 of all the places you mention. The grass situation at Seghe is caused because for many years it was cut by the church with no problems. But the election of one politician resulted in the contract being awarded his cousin who turned up once with a lawnmower, never to be seen again. The grass grew very long and no planes could land. At the same time that the situation was getting worse nationally (the tension) the tourist industry in Marovo was destroyed for lack of grass cutting! 2004 was actually a hell of a lot better than 2003. I landed the same day as the RAMSI troops and I think at the time there were about 56 tourists in the whole country. Given the references to Phoebe's I guess this site has been created by medical students. Best place to stay in Gizo anyway. In 2003 I stayed in a rival establishment only to come back one night to find all my stuff removed to make way for some Australian missionaries who particularly wanted my room!! Will probably go back in 2-3 years time but it's a helluva place to get to from the UK. Best wishes Jon You can add a comment here. 
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