Papua New Guinean travels

After an unforgivable delay while Daddy T gadded about Papua New Guinea, here's a new instalment.

We’re flying to Port Moresby after a five day odyssey that’s taken in East New Britain and a small fragment of New Ireland in PNG. We’re culturally sated, we’ve sailed, dived, snorkelled, kicked a football around with girls and boys in a village game (result 6-6) and I’m here to tell you that both Rabaul/Kokopo in New Britain and Nusa Island, off Kavieng in New Ireland are most certainly worth consideration as places to visit. I’d say especially at this time of year for Australians, who are grinding out a three month stretch of winter and could do with some island smiles and humidity to warm the heart and the bones.

The island people I have met in both New Britain and New Ireland have been the revelation of this trip. Always friendly and with smiles flashing at the slightest invocation, they are welcoming and slightly curious about their visitors. “Why you come here?” they ask, “you surfer?” “No.” “A diver?” “Well a bit, yes.” The real answer is that we’re a mix of culturally interested and ambitious to explore some less known parts of PNG. As Danny from Adventures in Paradise - - told me of their five and seven day sailing trips up to New Hanover to the north of New Ireland: “When I first went to some of the islands up there the kids had never seen a white woman before.”

But will tourism ever overcome the twin threats of widespread mining and malaria in this area? Mining, like in many of Australia’s more glorious regions such as the Pilbara, will always offer more incentive to locals (and many others who come to exploit resources) financially than tourism. Never mind that the mining companies don’t give a fig about the landscape or the local culture or the environment. In the land of the one-eyed king, money is power, money is God. As for malaria, well it’s the one reason I wouldn’t bring my small kids here – the tetracyclines don’t offer enough protection (people taking regular doses have still got malaria) – but it certainly wouldn’t stop me from coming as an individual. And I can’t imagine adventurous Aussies, Brits, Germans and French being put off either. The US and Japan are the other big markets and the former has dropped off considerably in recent years because of the GFC.

Having said all that, what the islands offer is spectacular beauty, fascinating and ingrained culture, the scars and stories of WW2 in many spots, great watersports, a smouldering volcano or two to climb (a definite must at Rabaul which is seismographic heaven) and the lovely people…



As I mentioned, one of the highlights – a break from the itinerary and the relentless needs of “Snap-Snap”, our travel photographer – was a game of football in the local village with a mixed gang of kids, aged about fourteen down to six. Myself (Big-Big) and Tim Elbra (Small-Small) the Sport Ed from Mx newspaper each joined a side and it was pretty even although our nominal captain, a young girl by the name of Tomadina was far and away the most skillfull and energetic of the players. We played for about twenty minutes while Talk-Talk (the one and only musicologist and travel writer Glenn A. Baker, for whom no name drop is too big), Snap-Snap (Bavarian photojournalist Donatus Fuchs) and our fearless English chaperone Pom-Pom (Anne Morris from Hampshire, darling) chatted away with non-playing locals. Scandalously and in spite of no small effort in the cloying mud by both the blow-ins from Australia there was no score in that time but a great many laughs were had by all.

So we’re now on our final day and headed for Port Moresby, which has few fans that I know of but let’s give it the benefit of the doubt. We’re on an afternoon tour of the city highlights before the final night of what has been an excellent first visit for me to Papua New Guinea. It’s certainly a country I want to see more of, very beautiful in parts and with intriguing culture and history. It’s been a great final leg to my six week journey outside of Australia.