Growing up in Papua New Guinea was certainly an experience of a life time. One that will be with me for the rest of my life. I will be forever grateful to my parents for this opportunity. My parents moved to Papua New Guinea in 1970 as missionaries. A year latter I was borne in the Lae on the north coast. A two hour flight in a single engine aircraft from the mission base at Ukarumpa in the highlands. Within months we flew out to Ferguson Island where my parents, my brother and I would to spend the next twenty years amongst the Iamalele people.

Both my brother and I where home schooled by my mother until high school started. Gary and I then moved to Ukarumpa and lived in a "children's home" with 14 other kids while our parents continued there work out on the island, seeing them during our school holidays or when they came into the base to update there work on the computer. This would happen every three months or so. My childhood on the island consisted of home schooling in the morning, then after lunch my brother and I would have the afternoon to our selves.

Most afternoons we would go down to the river with our native friends and spear large fresh water prawns and fish. We would then build a fire in the sand on the side of the river and cook our catch. We would also go hunting with our friends in the tropical jungle sometimes staying out over night in a bush hut we would build with our own hands. On weekends we would have many other adventures including hiking to the sulfur springs or a large water fall or even a lake that was cradled in the volcano above our village. In this lake there where floating islands and crocodiles.

When I started high school at Ukarumpa I was involved in sports and other activities such as photography class. As a MK (missionary kid) at Ukarumpa you would tend to follow one of two paths. You ether rode motorbikes or horses. My brother and I encouraged my parents to get us a horse. We eventually settled on a wild 3 year old who we trained up to ride. Unfortunately when he was still young he died in a big thunder storm. So following this we purchased two horses and started showing them in the local and national horse shows. For many of our school holidays we would travel to the north coast of PNG to the sea side town of Madang. Here we would snorkel almost every day ether of the mainland or we would go out to one of the many islands that doted the harbor for the day.

This was where I discovered diving and my love for the ocean. After 20 years my parents had finished there work in Papua New Guinea and the family moved back to Australia. As you can imagine there was quite a culture shock for us all on our return. But we acclimatized and continued on with our lives. My parents are still involved with the mission while my brother and I have followed our own paths.