Kodak’s Korner

January 09 – I was fortunate enough to be able to line up a trip home with a dive expedition to Christmas Island. Located in the Indian Ocean, just 2 hours flight from Kuala Lumpur, Christmas Island is home to a very interesting natural phenomena – thousands of red crabs migrating up and down the beach to spawn. I flew over on Malaysian Airlines, their slogan is that MH stands for Malaysian hospitality and I was not disappointed, the air crew was relaxed and friendly. MAS currently flies there every Monday and is the cheapest option of getting to the island.

One funny story along the way was caused by the KL-Christmas Island flight leaving from a domestic terminal. One would expect it to leave from an international one since it is part of Australia. Without checking my ticket, I went through customs into the international terminal where I found, to my amusement, the aforementioned oddity. I then had to go through customs again, to get back to the domestic terminal, and let me tell you, the customs officer was quite amused! And after all that, they changed the terminal right at the last minute to Internatinal again, right before we were scheduled to leave!

My not so humble abode was the welcoming VQ3 Lodge. Angie runs a tight operation and I was pleasantly surprised to find the VQ3 offered Wifi internet access (albiet not very stable, until I discovered that the modem was upstairs), a clean air conditioned room and a well equipped kitchen. It is also strategically located (at least for diving) with Christmas Island Divers across the street and Wet N Dry Adventures right next door. Pool and BBQ facilities were also available from its sister operation (Sunset, which in my opinion is the choice of the two) across the road.

In terms of food and supplies, the local supermarket (very well stocked) is located about a kilometer down the road and the Golden Bosun TAvern is right across the street. Very handy seeing as almost everything else on the island was closed due to Chinese New Year. 60% of Christmas Island’s population is Chinese and they were back in Malaysia celebrating with family and friends. So if you are planning on traveling to the island around Chinese New Year, make sure you bring some provisions along.

Before I arrived at Christmas Island, I was advised by Angie to rent a car, and can honestly say that I was very glad to have taken her advice. A lot of the secluded beaches and waterfalls on the island can only be accessed via 4WD. Having a vehicle also allowed me to shore dive at Flying Fish Cove as often as I wanted (dawn and night dives included), and let me just say, it was the best shore dive I have ever done. Enthusiastic photographers will be thrilled at the extra opportunity to photograph the local sealife.

Speaking of sealife, Christmas Island is surrounded my steep drop offs covered by healthy reef. Never having experienced a bleaching event, the hard coral grows proud, surrounded by soft coral of every variety. It has to rank as one of the best reef dives in the world! In amongst the coral colonies live an amazing array of colourful little critters. Harlequin shrimp, dragon morays, ribbon eels and leafy scorpionfish are amongst the most eagerly sought. Visibility is awesome too; the 30 – 40 meter norm makes it perfect for spotting sharks, rays and other big pelagics. The majority of dive sites around the island are wall dives with the occasional cave. A weeks is usually enough to dive most of the good sites.

In terms of lens selection, the diving at Christmas Island could be considered to complicate matters. The sprawling coral landscapes, massive sea fans and spectacular visibility, coupled with the hidden nature of its macro inhabitants (you really have to hunt for them, and its not garuanteed that you will find them on any dive), makes wide angles a natural choice. However, on most of the dive sites, there is the opportunity to spot some truely magnificent macro life. The operators dive a different site for every dive, so unless you have booked the whole boat and can make an executive decision to stay, you might not get a chance to switch to macro lens (and may not event want to on a crowded day boat). Thus, compact camera users tend to have an advantage around Christmas Island and I have seen DSLR shooters carry a secondary macro equipped camera.

I spent 2 weeks diving with Christmas Island Divers and found that they were great to dive with. Diving out of a new 8.5m, twin 225Hp equipped zodiac (the aptly named “Fastwater”), they were professional yet friendly. A current check before most dives ensured a safe dive, and if not, they always had their hilarious safety sausage And during the surface interval, they would cruise around trying to find dolphins and sharks for us to snorkel with. The hospitality too was second to none. The owner Pepe, who hails from Sicily, cooked us scrumptious pasta for lunch every day and welcomed us into his home for drinks almost every night.

Diving usually takes up the first half of the day and by  1pm you are ready to enjoy the island. Christmas Island is pretty small and only takes 45 minutes to drive from end to end. However, it packs in some brilliant white beaches, pristine rainforest (filled with crabs and endemic birds) and “the blowholes”. The island is a melting pot of cultures, with Chinese, Malays and Australians all living together in harmony. Spending a day in the respective cultural parts of the island (not to mention sampling the food) is also a great pastime.

For those of you wishing to photograph the red crab migration, it conveniently coincides with the coming of the whale sharks to Christmas. They can generally be seen covering the road in red during the last days of December and January, their spawn being that which attracts the whale sharks and other plankton feeders. Thus, Christmas is best at Christmas – pun intended

In some respects, the lack of flights and restaurant closure over the holiday season may make Christmas Island seem to be a little undeveloped (especially for tourism). But that is what we divers seek – a pristine island paradise that seems to be trapped in another era. I would not hesitate for a second to recommend it to anyone who would like to get away from it all while enjoying spectacular diving!

Popular Dive Sites

Million Dollar Bommie

Normally the first dive of the trip, this site is great for adjusting buoyancy and getting used to new gear. However, it is also a nice site to view garden eels. And the bommie (for which the site is named) is quite large and covered in anthias

Eisevold Wreck

A phosphate carrier that was sunk in the Second World War, the Eisevold is now broken into three and scattered around the ocean floor. Not much of the ship remains, but what remains is covered in coral.

Perpendicular Wall

One of the best wall dives on the island, this one is along a wall that is almost perpendicular (hence its name). Large gorgonian fans cover the wall and an abundance of nooks and crannies makes it a fascinating “poke around” dive. On top of the wall, the colourful reef personifies the beauty of diving in tropical waters.

Admin Wall

So named for the former administrator’s house that overlooks the site, this dive starts on a steep slope, which gradually becomes a overhang, and then a gradual slope.

Flying Fish Cove

The site of the night dive (or any other dives you chose to individually head out on) is the best shore dive I have ever done. The water is crystal clear (at least 20m vis) with the reef starting 5 meters from shore and teaming with life. It quickly drops off to about 20 – 25 meters where there is a particularly interesting “grove” of peg coral. Located just under the boat mooring, it is home to the densest population of moray eels (a few different species including the rare dragon moray), crabs and shrimps ever. One could easily spend the whole dive discovering the wonders that lie within.

Thundercliff Cave Entrance

Home to the island’s batfish population, more than a hundred of these charismatic fish follow divers around playfully. At the entrance to Thundercliff Cave (which you can enter and surface inside) and Thunderdome Cave is a number of holes filled with interesting critters. Amongst our finds were flashing file shells, nudibranchs and octopus.

Ryan’s Ravine

A relatively short wall, this one is special as it sits out away from the island – increasing the chance of sighting something large. The wall itself is also very interesting with hawkfish and shrimp galore.

Chicken Farm

Home of the elusive chicken fish J This site is covered in soft coral. Looking in amongst their stalks will net you leafy scorpionfish and other little critters. However, watch out for nesting titan triggerfish, they have some bite.

North West Point

The North Western most tip of the island is a wall dive with a difference – there is a higher than average likelihood of encounters of the sharky kind here. White tip reef sharks, bronze whalers, silky reef sharks and occasionally even hammerheads frequent this point.

West White Beach Cave

For once, not a wall dive. The cave itself is too dangerous to enter but there is a beautiful rock formation/swim through right next to it. The lighting really makes for some atmospheric pictures.

Boat Cave

Yet another wall dive with large gorgonian fans and holes full of morays. However, this one is unique as it starts off with the boat inside a cavern. Interesting stuff can be found poking around the cavern.

Coconut Point

This one can have strong currents sweeping you out to sea, so watch out. That aside, another spectacular wall dive with large gorgonians and pelagics coming in from the blue to feed.

For more information of Christmas Island, visit the following websites:-

• Christmas Island Tourism Association – For information on flights, accommodation, tours and attractions
• Dive Adventures – For holiday packages to Christmas Island from Australia