Tuesday March 7, 2000- Lord Howe, Australia

Dear world-wide travelers,

Everyday Lord Howe proves to be a most amazing place. Today we have invited some of the locals on a ride out to Balls Pyramid. With a population of around 300 on the island, faces become familiar pretty quickly and friends made just as fast.

Lord Howe Island, oasis in the Tasman.

Among the guests are John Gerits, Senior Constable from the New South Wales Police (or “just another bloody worker” as he says). John was the first smiling face we saw in Australia when he came aboard to clear STARSHIP into the country. We also have his lovely wife, Carmel, who has lived on Lord Howe for a year and has never been out to Balls Pyramid. (I think once might be enough for her). Their son Michael and his wife Kate also came along for the afternoon cruise.

Michael invited Paul “Beau” Beaumont from Capella Lodge. Paul has been a great contact since we arrived, giving us tips and advice (and a fabulous dinner). Jules Fulton and Brooke Stevenson, who work at Capella, were so nice we couldn’t help but take them along as well.

Just as we arrived at Balls Pyramid Michael, James and Hermann buzzed past in a plane close enough that I could see the white of the eyes of the pilot. Michael had arranged for a plane to take some aerial photographs. The majority of the time the plane looked like one of the hundreds of birds circling the island’s peak.

Brian Busteed from Howea Divers ( www.lordhowe.com.au, howeadivers@bigpond.com.au) guided Trevor, Monika, Hans-Juergen, Jules and Caroline on a dive just beside Balls Pyramid at the “Aquarium.” As the name implies the dive was packed with fish. They saw Trevally, Surgeonfish, silver and golden Drummer fish, Catfish and Goatfish just to name a few. Two small Galapagos Whaler sharks came out to pay them a visit and Trevor and Brian took a peek into “the dungeon,” a cave full of twists and turns.

It is pretty incredible to dive at the base of the 551-meter tall rock spire. This area is also a unique dive experience as it is at the junction of 5 ocean currents. The Australia east coast current, also called the “coral sea current”, brings warm water down from the north making the water here both tropic and temperate water. There have been over 500 species of fish documented and 100 species of coral, which is rare for a location at this far south. As a matter of fact Lord Howe has the most southern coral reef in the world.

A tiny STARSHIP beneath the towering mass of Balls 
Pyramid, Lord Howe Island on the horizon.

I’m going to let you readers in on a little Lord Howe story involving deception, danger and large sums of money. About 5 years ago Paul or ”Beau” , took a group of divers out near Ball’s Pyramid. He said that when the divers surfaced they were very excited as they had spotted a few of the rare Ballina Angelfish, usually found in deep water. The divers returned short after with a permit for collecting the fish for supposed “scientific purposes”. Knowing how much money they could sell the fish for overseas they braved the water even though a great white shark circled the dive site. They managed to catch 4 Ballina Angelfish, transport them off the island and made a rumoured AUS$15,000 each (US$9,000)!!!

The Ballina Angelfish is now protected and Lord Howe Island is the only place in the world where divers can see them as they usually live at a much greater depths. We didn’t see these valued fish today. Brian says that there are normally 12 pairs of these black and white, panda-like fish at the “aquarium” spot. Since that time there have been other offers, other attempts at pinching more fish but have all been unsuccessful.

STARSHIP signing off,

Anne-Lise