We're a young couple who have recently returned to Australia to live after spending 4 years running a business in a remote area of the Solomon Islands.

Uma and Ben met in Honiara, Solomon Islands in 2006 whilst Ben was in town completing a volunteer assignment. Uma comes from Munda in the west of the Sols, whilst Ben was born in the South East of South Australia. After the Sols, Uma returned with Ben to Adelaide where we worked and lived for a few years. We got married in 2010 and then decided to travel Austrlia (whilst we were still mortgage and kid free)in a 74 Volkswagen Kombi which Ben has restored. Over the next few years we explored a big chunk of oz, working along the way. We also visited Indo, Timor and Vietnam.

For the past four years we have been living in a little piece of paradise called Munda in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands. There, we ran a social enterprise which provided employment and training for 20 local staff through the delivery of a range of products and services for the community. This operation included a trading store, cafe, hire car business, wholesale frozen goods distribution and ice manufacturing - lots of work!

Due to a variety of reasons including visa restrictions and the need for some rest, we've returned to Australia together with our dog 'Hangover' to re-group and refresh. We now reside in Mount Gambier, a brilliant small city in the South East of South Australia and, although we're far from the Solomon Islands, we're enjoying creating our own piece of paradise back here.

PHILOSOPHY

What goes around, comes around. Work hard, balance your life, be honest and do anything you can for your mates. Grow vegies, say no to plastic bags and drinking straws. Love your family. Eat good food. Do an honest days work. Be good to animals.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

We're experienced travellers and believe that there is nothing worse than arriving in a new place and being presented with a range of promotional material for costly and non-personal ways to explore the local area.

As we like to share our lives with our couchsurfers, we're not about just providing free accommodation, luggage storage or transport to the bus depot. Please only send us a request if you're happy to share a meal with us, share a story or a skill/talent and have a genuine interest in what our part of the world has to offer.

We've travelled and lived in a lot of different places, only to eventually work out that most of what we wanted in our home community where Ben grew up. We look forward to showing Couchsurfers the brilliant secrets that this region has to offer.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

We've hosted plenty of people - couples, solo travelers, groups. It's been a great distraction from our busy lives and we've made some awesome friends, many that we cant wait to visit at some point in the future.

Interests

Ben enjoys scuba diving, swimming, travelling, playing guitar, planning holidays and is a decent cook. He likes taking pics but has lots to learn about his camera.

Uma enjoys reading, crosswords, singing, music, eating bens cooking, beaches, chocolate, travelling.

We both love a beer or glass of wine after a hard days work, particularly if there is a sunset or nice view to admire. Our favourite spot is sitting in our garden at about 6pm at night - a great way to end the day.

• animals
• dogs
• culture
• singing
• environment
• dining
• cooking
• chocolate
• wine
• beer
• running
• working out
• drinking
• gardening
• trivia
• reading
• traveling
• music
• guitar
• scuba diving
• swimming
• business
• mathematics
• volunteering
• solo travel
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

Really enjoying the Triple J 'Like a Version' stuff that we've recently got our hands on. Good earthy, accoustic, soulful tunes are always our favourite. We miss WOMAD (world music festival in Adelaide) so so much.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Ben has dived with Dugongs and Pilot Whales. He has explored WW11 wrecks in depths of over 50 meters of water. When he was young, he was presented with the 'Centenerary Medal' by the Govenor General of Australia for his volunteer community work and was finalist in the Young Australian of the Year Awards.

Uma worked as the Personal Assistant to the Australian High Commissioner in the Solomon Islands during a particularly tense political stand-off between the Australian and Solomon Islands government. She has visited Japan in a delegation from the pacific for the YWCA World Environment Conference at the age of 15.

We're proud to say that we've seen more of Australia than most other Australians can claim. Have travelled to many countries where we're told it's unfit to eat the street food (which has never made us sick) but was able to find guardia at Uluru!

Teach, Learn, Share

Ben loves food and cooks well. He is a qualified padi divemaster and has completed over 250 scuba dives at various places around the world. He is a guerilla travel agent and will find a way to get you from one side of the planet to the other for peanuts.

Uma is an island girl and has lots of knowledge about traditional island culture and custom. She is a mean hand at chain stitching (ben types not knowing anything about what this means) and is a quiet achiever at the local quiz/trivia nights. She believes that if she got onto 'who wants to be a millionaire' she'd somehow win a billion.

We want to learn everything and anything about everything and anything (except anything which includes any maths as we both go a little cross-eyed and fall down at the mention of it)

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Cambodia, Fiji, Indonesia, Thailand, Timor-Leste (East Timor), Vanuatu, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Solomon Islands

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