I had not previously considered the Halmahera region and had to look it up to find out exactly where it was. For those who do not know, it lies northwest of Raja Ampat. Our liveaboard tour on the MS Gaia Love started in Ternate and Halmahera and then took us via Misool and Raja Ampat back to Sorong.

The Banda Sea is a region within the Indonesian archipelago, located in Southeast Asia, between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is situated south of the Maluku Islands, east of the island of Sulawesi and north of Timor Island. This secluded body of water contains dozens of volcanic islands in an area covering over 180,000 sq mi (470,000 sq km).

This new dive destination is a collection of rocks and islets in the northeastern region of the vast Indonesian archipelago, on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. They lie southwest of Halmahera, a large, heavily forested, sparsely populated island, sculpted by volcanic forces into the shape of a letter “K.” To the north of Halmahera lie the Southern Philippines, to the northwest lurks similarly spidery Sulawesi, and to the southeast lie the islands and mountains of West Papua. These waters are at the heart of the Coral Triangle—the planetary epicentre of species diversity.

My journey began back in June of ’05 in Singapore. While attending “Celebrate the Sea”, I met Mike Hilis and John “Buck” Randolph, the owners of Unexplored Adventures. Their company is comprised of two distinct identities, Maluku Divers and Spice Island Explorers. After regaling me with tales of pristine diving, a fascinating history and a lack of tourists, I was immediately intrigued. Inevitably, the subject of the past violence came up.