ANNIVERSARY MASTERCARD COULDN'T HAVE PAID FOR

It's kind of hard to believe Rich and I have been married for 5 years. Yes, a whole 5 years! For us it has gone so fast. Considering that I remember us having some sort of 5 year plan before kids come along - and it is now five years - we are thinking about extending the duration of the plan (apologies to the would-be grandparents)! We are in Alotau, Milne Bay Province. So today didn't start off exactly according to plan. We got up early to catch a PMV - which was a truck with two planks running up each side that can fit a surprisingly large amount of passengers. We had been told that a PMV would be leaving around 8am. So we were there, ready at the bus stop, 7:30. At about 10am we finally got lucky and were on our way to East Cape - a small sea-side village on the most eastern tip of the mainland of PNG. 15 minutes into the journey the drivers sidekick needs to take a slash. As we are sitting there in the back of the truck waiting two police vehicles scream around the corner. They stop just behind us and two guys, one with a hand gun the other with an M-16, jump out of the tray of the ute, weapons cocked for action, run down a side road. The police vehicles then proceed down the road. Wait! There's been some confusion. One of the vehicles decides to go back down the side street and get the two cops. They screeched down the road. Ah, and then it was quiet again. Kind of surreal, like being one of those innocent bystanders in a b-grade action film. And where was the drivers right hand man? He was taking a while to finish his business. We figured he must of got stage fright as he eventually came out of the bushes with a nervous grin on his face. Back on the road again. Yes we will get to East Cape before it is late afternoon and time to turn back around. Passed a car on the way that was blocking off another side street - informed that the cops were after some guys in a stolen vehicle - no major deal. A man gets on to the PMV with a massive pineapple. It's the biggest pineapple I've seen in my life! I quietly comment this profound fact to Richard while continuing to stare at the oversized fruit. The man and his large pineapple get off the PMV as few stops later. Eventually we come to the end of the run - it's midday and we're in East Cape. We have till 4pm when the last PMV will head back to Alotau. We have come equipped with Zoom (boat fuel) as it costs a small mint out in the village. We negotiate with a boat owner a price to take us out to one of the islands. We had been here on Saturday, snorkelling in an amazing reef between a nearby island and the village and this time we were planning to go further a sea.
The guy only took about eighteen turns to get the motor going and then we were on our way. He suggested that he would drop us off at the island and come back a few hours later. As I was thinking about the probability of this actually occurring, we pulled up to the island. White sand, swaying coconuts, azure water and, "what's that out there?," we ask the boat owner. "oh just dolphins". Just dolphins! Okay, if the guy end up not coming back I think we can handle living here. We give him five kina to buy some bui and cigarettes back at East Cape to relieve his boredom and he speeds off in his boats. We frantically get our snorkelling gear on and jump into the water. It is a bit of a swim out to the dolphins but we manage to see them at close range. Richard was lucky enough to be looking when three swam underneath the water right passed him. I was happy to see them breaching 6 metres away from me.

We sat on our secluded island (almost - except for the two friendly spear fishermen further up the beach), snorkelled in the nearby reef and soaked it all in. Eventually the boat came back for us and we were taken to another outer reef where school must have just got out as there was a plethora of fish.
On our way back to Alotau the man and his pineapple got back onto the same PMV as us. As he went to get off at his stop he handed his companion to us as a gift. I continue to be amazed at the generosity of people here (and hoped that I really hadn't been staring too much!).


What a day! We couldn't have planned it better for our 5th year anniversary. And yes, did I mention that we are still amazingly in love with each other? Yes, it really added to the brilliance of it all!