The two docs on Norfolk Island with Bounty Divers

Trainee doctors on Norfolk Island

Diving with BOUNTY DIVERS

Clare and Jess were on Norfolk to complete the final part of there medical training with a few weeks hands on practical at the Norfolk Island Hospital.

On Norfolk, in comparison to some other South Pacific Island nations that I have been fortunate enough to visit, we have a very well equiped and modern hospital, with arguably some of the best, highly trained and experienced medical staff in the world. The actual building is getting pretty old, again, compared to some that I have seen in the South Pacific, it is luxury. No matter, it is whats inside that counts.

Getting back to the docs.

Clare and Jess came over to Norfolk as the hospital is a great place to learn in terms of a broad spectrum of experience and unlike many larger hospitals, the girls would get thrown in the deep end and are allowed to be a bit more hands on here. They too had a lot of respect for the staff here on Norfolk.

Even though the dics were here to work and learn, they managed to find time to CHILL out and also to learn to dive right here with Bounty Divers. The docs were both super competative and continually trying to out do each other at every turn. This made my job easy easy easy. Two good looking bikini clad young women on the boat did not hurt my business for the week either. Localk guys were clambering over each other to come dive or boat sit all week. Nice.

Anyway the docs are both qualified PADI Open Water Divers now. I dont think that we have seen the end of Clare and Jess. And I will look forward to taking them diving again in the future. Hope fully it will be here on Norfolk.

Just like Clare and Jess, Bounty Divers can take anyone from non-diver to diver in as little as 4 days. So if you would like to start diving on your next holiday, just drop us a line.

Norfolk Island Kayaking

Kayaking on Norfolk Island

When the weather is good on Norfolk everyone wants to be on the water and if you cant be diving with Bounty Divers then you might as well do something else that is almost as fun as diving, like kayaking.

Norfolk Island has some of the most scenic coastlines in the world with towering cliff faces, crystal clear water, amazing marine life, stunning rockformations and crystal clear air. Where else would you want to be?

The range of soft adventure activities on Norfolk Island is growing steadily, and many adventure options are available. Or alternatively you can do absolutely NOTHING... sit on the beach andrelax the day away, have a leasurely game of golf on one of the most scenic golf courses in the world, or sit under a Norfolk Island pine that is hundreds of years old and read a book

BUT for those who are keen for something with a little more throttle, come see Bounty Divers, we have everything for divers and non-divers alike.

Hope to see you soon

Norfolk Island Paintball

Its all about the Scuba Diving on Norfolk Island

As far as we are concerned anyway!

But every now and then the prevailing winds take their toll and diving just is not possible; one of the not too many down sides of living in an island paradise I guess. Luckily 'paradise' has a ton of other activities we can do when we aren't in the beautiful waters that surround Norfolk Island.

Not diving on Norfolk with Bounty Divers, then Paintball. A young guy named Mark has taken over the Norfolk Paintball and has breathed new life into it. Complete with a set schedule and a new location it makes for a fantastic Norfolk adventure! Located in the post card perfection of Bumboras on the south side of Norfolk Island, paintball takes on a whole new edge.

It's easy for Mark to find a few people on Norfolk to join you for a fight, but with the amount of fun had at each hard hitting adventure run, you won't have any trouble rounding up a few people for the Bounty Divers team.

Book this and many other Norfolk adventure activities at the Bounty Divers store for convenience and freindly service with a cup of coffee/tea.

Norfolk Island, Bounty Divers and Outer Edge Magazine

Outer Edge Magazine

The Ultimate Adventure Magazine

Bounty Divers where lucky enough to host Mr Chris Ord recently from Outer Edge Magazine. Chris was here to seek all the out there activities that Norfolk had to offer and he was not dissappointed. The main focus for his trip to Norfolk was the Scuba Diving with Bounty Divers and the kayaking with Tropical Adventures which can also be organised at the Bounty Divers office.

The kayaking was extrordinary, with a circum navigation of the island over three days. The next issue will have the article featuring the kayaking and I am sure it will be awesome

However the article covering the diving was insanely good, even though the weather was not kind to us and we were not able to get into the fully hard core dive sites that we had provisionally planned. We did manage to introduce Chris to one of our smaller sharks, not the first time that Chris has dived with a shark, but the first time that he has seen one that was not enticed in by burly, just there of its own accord. It was only a small Gallapogas shark, which are quite common here on norfolk Island and the smaller islands that surround Norfolk.

Sharks on Norfolk are usually very well fed as we have no commercial fishing industry here allowing fish stocks to remain very high. Another reason why the diving around Norfolk Island is first rate.

Anyway, getting back to the article in Outer Edge Magazine. Chris has done an amazing job of combining all the usual information that people like to write about Norfolk Island, history, Bounty etc but he has managed to do it in an interesting way that does not get boring. I am a little concerned about the image that he has created for me as beast of a diver and my passion for Norfolk Islands marine environment including sharks. It will be a bit of a let down for people travelling to Norfolk Island to dive with Bounty Divers when they arrive and see what I am really like.

Anyway the article is awesome. The magazine is awesome. And you should really buy a copy and have a look.

We hope that we can get Chris or any one of the other guys out here again at some stage, maybe next time we will catch a break with the weather and really get into some awesome diving. Then I would bet these guys would write an article that would completely blow us away.

http://www.outer-edge.com.au/

Norfolk Island Coral Watch Bounty Divers

Coral Watch Program

Bounty Divers Norfolk Island

For the last three years with the assistance of the Ivens Buffett (toon) trust fund, Bounty Divers has been operating a Coral Monitoring program. The program is the Coral Monitoring program from the University Of Queensland. This program is also supported worldwide by the PADI organisation through there Project Aware foundation.

The project is a low tech high coverage attack at global Coral conditions.

The project on Norfolk Island has been very very succesful in regards to awareness and training by local school students. Bounty Divers is very proud that the funding we recieved from the Toon trust, that we thought would fund one year, has been stretched over the last two and a half year. The data that has been collected has been forwarded to the UoQ for analysis and comparison to global coral reef trends.

The coral on Norfolk Island is very healthy and this has been reflected in the data that has been collected.

Divers of Norfolk Island

Samantha

Samantha hates being called Samantha and would prefer to be called Sam, thats why we call her Samantha...

Sam visits Norfolk with her Gran every year and has been here alot of times. Sam this year decided that she would like to complete her Advance Diver Course here on Norfolk with Bounty Divers and then went on to complete heaps of dives with us while she was here. She just couldnt get enough of the wicked dive sites and the pleasant company at Bounty Divers.

Samantha will be back this summer and getting into some more diving again. Looking forward to seeing you at Bounty Divers again soon SAMANTHA...

Bounty Divers - Norfolk Island

Rob Morley

As much as I hate posting Robs pictures, they show my photos up for the shockers that they are, I thought it would be the best thing to show off how great the diving really is here on Norfolk Island.

Rob came to visit Norfolk when Chantelle and I had only just taken over Bounty Divers. Rob is one of the first serious divers and serious photographers to visit us here on Norfolk.

Diving with Rob was a pleasure and I'm sure you will enjoy his pictures as much as we do.

DOLPHINS

DOLPHINS Earlier this month we were diving from the shore at Cascade pier. What was just our normal shore dive, maximum depth of 16m and 20 - 30 meters vis

The coolest thing ever happened we were swimming along and two wild dolphins swam along in front of us.

Dolphins are commonly seen around Norfolk, but this is the first time that Bounty Divers has seen them underwater while diving. What an amazing experience and the guys that were diving with us could not believe what they were seeing, especially during a shore dive.

Almost all the dives on Norfolk Island are close to the island and would more than likely be shore dives, however the towering cliff faces make it difficult to get gear down to the water and back... making boat diving absolutely essential.

Getting back to the Dolphins. I have been very lucky personally to have encountered wild dolphins while diving. The first time was in Mozambique and the second time was right here at home on Norfolk. But if I get to see wild dolphins in the water again some time in my diving years I will be a very happy camper.

Sick turtle Norfolk Island

Sick Turtle on Norfolk Island

This little fella was found on Slaughter Bay Norfolk Island one evening. He was not doing very well at all. The local vet gave him a shot of anti biotics and hoped for the best. The very next morning he was gone and it would seem that all was fine. He was so bad as you can see from one of the photos he couldnt even pull his head out of the sand washing around him. So the fact that he had moved at all over the night makes us think that the shot did the trick.

Bounty Divers quite often sees turtles while snorkelling and diving around the island. The majority are green turtle however we do see others from time to time.

Where these turtles come from or are born is very much a topic to argue on the island, but at

Bounty Divers we do not believe that they are born locally. Without serious research this argument will never be settled. Regardless of where they come from we do see alot of them and often, however they arent used to humans due to the relatively low number of visitors here on Norfolk, so do not tend to hang around for very long once they realise we are in the water with them.

If you ever get to Norfolk Island and get the chance to come diving with us here at Bounty Divers we will try our very best to dive with these magnificent creatures. SORRY, no money back guarantees though

aatuti

The Norfolk Island Aatuti

In the waters around Norfolk Island the you are alwats guaranteed to see a number of local fish. Amongst these is the fish we call the Aatuti.

The aatuti is an excitable little bugger that will swim right up to you, despite its small size, and audibly warn you off with a loud noise that sounds like "book book". This is the reason that on Lord Howe Island they call it the Book Book fish.

Norfolk Islanders grow up rock fishing with bamboo poles off the rocky shore around the island. Small reef fish such as the Aatuti are very often a local delicacy, with the whole family going swimming and fishing in the traditional ways, then cooking up a fresh lunch right there on the beach.

These days as the owner and operator of Bounty Divers, I tend not to fish as much as I used to when I was a kid growing up here on Norfolk Island, and instead prefer to watch or photgraph them in there natural environment. Just have a look at this little bugger swimming right up into the lense.

Dolphins on Norfolk Island

Bounty Divers Norfolk Island snorkel tour.

The day was drawing to an end after some really nice snorkelling around Crystal Pool and Nepean Island. As we were heading back to Kingston Jetty ayoung girl on the boat casually said "dolphins". The dolphins swam straight in from about 300 meters off and made a B line straight for the bow. I handed the driving over to Micheal the DM trainee and went straight up to the Bow with Jarrods camera and snapped a few shots.

Dolphins are very common in the waters around Norfolk Island but it is always nice when they show up and even better when they hang around and play in the bow wave of the boat.

I especially like the photo above with my skanky toe in the photo it gives a sense of how close these gorgeous animals really get.

Bounty Divers run dive tours, snorkel tours and scenic boat tours every day of the week all year round on Norfolk Island, we would love to show you some of the sights.

This is the newest addition to the Bounty Divers family on Norfolk Island.

4.05am on the 25th Jan 2009 Chantelle gave birth to Ashton Edward

Its a little too soon to speculate when his first dive will be...

Bounty Divers Norfolk Island

This is Bounty Divers on Norfolk Islands latest recruit. Baby James is just like his dad and loves getting in the water. This is his first official swim lesson buut I dont think thbat it will be long before we have a reg in his mouth...

James and Chantelle are the owners of Bounty Divers on Norfolk Island and the photos are of Baby James our son. Baby James loves the water especially when we go down to Norfolk's amazing Emily Bay.

Bounty Divers - Norfolk Island

The Doc wanted to learn to dive with us at Bounty Divers but she ran out of time and wasnt able to squeeze the course in around other commitments with her mum, who like other visitors on Norfolk island had a fairly full schedule of tours and dinners.

The Doc was able to do a trial dive in Emily Bay and was amazed at the amount of fish life. The fish life was very happy as they didint have to forage in the sand for food they just had to swim behind her and pick the food out of the huge sand cloud that she was kicking up behind her. Win win situation for all...

The Doc is hoping to come back to Norfolk Island with her boyfriend and dive again with Bounty Divers. We look forward to seeing the Doc again sometime.

Bounty Divers - Norfolk Island

Elvira - Diving out at Phillip Island which is one of the outer Islands off Norfolk Island. Bounty Divers calls this dive site Shark Point which is loaded with small reef sharks, you can see one in the background here.

Elvira was loads of fun and dived with Bounty Divers heaps while she was here. She assures us she has a husband but we are not sure anyone could really put up with her... Just kidding. Hope to see you soon Elvira, love from Bounty Divers

PS Thanks for the fishing lure. Rob hasnt lost it yet but neither of us has managed to catch a bloody thing

Bounty Divers - Norfolk Island

This is what happens when you park your boat on the rocks.

Bounty Divers was able to dive on the newly wrecked "moon dancer" hull just yesterday. The owner Rewi got caught in a storm and ended his journey on Norfolk's outer island, Nepean Island.

The hull is smashed all over the rocks and there is alot of debris everywhere.

Bounty Divers were able to remove the diesel fuel tank that was still full and one of the batteries. We will dive on it again and recover the other battery in an effort to minimise the environmental impact as much as possible.

Bounty Divers - Norfolk Island

This is for all the kiwis.

Yes we have cray's

No you cannot take them

No we dont have pawa

Yes we have kinna

No you cant take them either...

Bounty Divers - Norfolk Island

This little artwork was created for Bounty Divers by my sister in law Daniel Meltz. She has been diving here on Norfolk Island, but she was'nt that keen. She was too busy playing it cool with the local boys to be into diving. Im sure we will get her diving here again some time in the future.