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NEW BRITAIN, PAPUA NEW GUINEA Date: (2) Author: Lynda Galloway LETTER FROM WALINDI
Lynda Galloway, Manager, Walindi
Dear Hilary
Here it is at last, as promised, my piece about Walindi. I don't know if it what you are looking for, but it is the only way I can write. Max read it and said, "You looking for a rise or something?". Anyway, see what you think... Walindi Resort was bought by Max Benjamin in 1969 as a run down cocoa plantation. By 1971 he had replanted oil palm and was quite content to wait, relax and watch it grow. Not such a bad existence you may think, but sitting in a planters' chair staring out over the beautiful Kimbe Bay soon grew monotonous to the young agriculturist. Listening to his friends discussing the great dives they were doing made him wonder if he was missing out on something. So, rather than die of boredom on his verandah he gave diving a try and that was the start of his passion for the ocean and diving. Little did he know then, that his idyllic lifestyle as a plantation owner would, in a few years, come to an end to be replaced with the worry and stress of running an international resort in a third world country... It didn't happen overnight either. In 1975 Max married Cecilie, another agriculturist turned scuba nut. By this time Max had opened his home to any of his friends who wanted to dive from his doorstep, they bought a small boat and a compressor so diving weekends at Walindi were becoming a regular event. Extra accommodation was built as the now cast of hundreds threatened to leave Max and Cecilie sleeping on the beach. None of this, I might add, would bother either of them one little bit, such is their nature! Anyway, it is now 1978 and the story goes that after a holiday in the Red Sea, which at that time was the premier dive destination of the world, Max realized that he had better reefs right in front of his own verandah. Walindi's reefs were as pristine and the fish life more diverse than either he or Cecilie had seen on their travels. In 1982 the first beachfront bungalows were built and the word was slowly passing around that Walindi, in Papua New Guinea, was a diving spot not to be missed. I won't bore you with the construction details, or the headaches and hangovers that followed. But the end result is unique, not because I work here, not because I have the best two bosses one could wish for, but because Walindi is a family and our guests are made to feel part of it. We now have twelve bungalows and four plantation rooms, which keeps our occupancy almost to an exclusive level. Divers leave daily at 9 am and return anywhere from 3.30 pm onwards. Lunch is a picnic on one of the uninhabited islands, well, not quite uninhabited if you count the resident White-bellied Sea Eagles and Brahminy Kites and the diving will leave you ...I want to say 'gobsmacked' but I don't think that is quite the right word I'm supposed to use in a newsletter, so I'll stay with the tried and tested and true, breathless...! As for Walindi staff, what can I say... we have a mixed bag of professional, very colourful characters... some of them once met, never forgotten (and I mean that in the nicest possible way!) Hilary, you asked me for something to tell the clients about Walindi. and I didn't want to write the normal 'brochure stuff' because Walindi, as I said before, is a unique and special place. Tell your clients to come and visit us and they'll find out. Current Holidays to NEW BRITAIN, PAPUA NEW GUINEA: 2005 |