November 16, 2025
Another great day exploring the South Pacific! Today as soon as our ship docked in Honiara, and we were cleared by customs, I was off with 9 other residents, to get in 2 small speed boats and head out to Simon's Nature Reserve in the Solomon Islands. It was about an hour long ride across the Iron Bottom Sound but so worth it to experience this special place!
Lyn, Alex & Chaz, Lori & I were in one boat and Phil & Kim, Sue & Ed and Ben were in the other.Simon's village and reserve was great. They greeted us with hand made super fragrant lei's and provided a huge "snack" tray to each of us ( was bigger than most lunches) and had all their local favorites! My lei was honey suckle, a personal favorite, lovely!! The kids were so friendly and sweet and the snorkeling here was stunning! Video doesn't do it justice! This is not a typical tourist spot and Simon's preservation work for the last 20+ years really shows. Google Simon's Nature Reserve Baroni, Solomon Islands.
After spending the morning at Simon's we headed to Roderick's Bay which we thought was just another snorkel spot and were delighted to find out there was a German expedition cruise ship the MS WORLD DISCOVERER wrecked there since April 30, 2000. They struck an uncharted reef and the captain was able ground the ship to prevent it from sinking on the edge of this small village and get all 79 passengers and crew off safely. It was declared a total loss and abandoned in Roderick Bay. Soooo Cool !! We had a great afternoon snorkeling here and they had another lunch feast waiting for us when we arrived!
