On leaving Thursday Island, Donald Gubbay in Noumea had suggested that he had work for me in his trading company in Honiara in the Solomon Islands. I had lived and worked in Honiara in 1973 as commercial manager for the British Solomon Islands Electricity Authority and had liked the place and going back there would be like coming home! We spent a few uncertain and uncomfortable months in Canberra until my travel papers came through in November 1977. Shirley stayed behind while I flew out to the Solomons to check out the job. I lived in a lovely location on the ocean front just minutes out of town. Brian Herde who had a knack for inviting himself whenever he could stay somewhere free of charge, came across from Port Moresby for Christmas. The job itself turned out to be far less than promised so when the Pacific Forum Line in Western Samoa ask me to assist in the formation of this new shipping line, I jumped on a plane in mid-January 1978. Enroute to Apia I met up with Shirley in Fiji who had flown out from Australia, and together we travelled to Western Samoa and our next adventure.