Blogs from Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea, Oceania

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Oceania » Papua New Guinea » Milne Bay August 10th 2018

Friday Laundry day Anchoring and tender noises were slightly less this morning enabling a 7-30am sleep in. Today we are visiting Kiriwina Island which is the largest of the Trobiand island group in the Milne Bay Province. 290 km square with most of the 12,000 Trobriand island people living on this island. People have breakfasted early and the tenders are away again, but we shall do what we did yesterday and wait until free tender time. So what else should I do to fill in time but do washing of course. Pacific Eden has a public laundrette on decks 5, 6, and 9 with 3x $1 coins for a wash and same again for a dry. Washing powder is dispensed free and automatically with the commencement of the wash cycle. 28 mins of sitting in the ... read more
Dancing school boys
Local gardens
Local village

Oceania » Papua New Guinea » Milne Bay August 9th 2018

Thursday Conflict islands. Being so far forward in the boat any action that occurs happens next to our cabin, so 6-30am I was awake listening to the action of tenders being prepared for transfer of passengers to the island as well as the ship being held in place by the thrusters rather than an anchor. The Conflict Islands are a coral atoll 152kms off the tip of mainland PNG comprising 21 separate islands surrounded by a beautiful lagoon. Located 11 degrees off the equator they are mostly uninhabited, 30 people live on the island we visited today called Panasesa Island, small but with a massive air strip which was used in the 2nd World War in The Battle of The Coral Sea. A turtle hatchery is an important conservation aspect of this small island. These islands ... read more
Conflict Islands from deck 12
Weather side of islands
Airstrip, strategic WWII and still maintained

Oceania » Papua New Guinea » Milne Bay » Alotau November 15th 2017

SERENDIPITY IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA I had a very pleasant one day lay-over in Manila between Palau and Papua New Guinea. My hotel, M Suites, was first rate; modern, clean, quiet, and inexpensive. After a restorative good night’s sleep, I saw an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist in Makati Medical Center and still had time to go to the local mall and buy a small rolling suitcase to carry my underwater camera, and I didn’t even feel rushed. I arrived at the clinic a little early and had a bagel and tea before finding my way to the room noted on my hospital form. I sat patiently as people arrived and entered adjacent doors. I might still be sitting there if not for a very nice man in a Security uniform who finally asked, “Who are ... read more
DECORATOR CRAB
ANGEL FISH
RIBBON WORMS

Oceania » Papua New Guinea » Milne Bay October 14th 2015

Doini Island is one of only a few privately owned islands in the region, and is located a little south east of Alotau which was our first port of call in PNG. It is a resort, and those staying here arrive by transfer jet boat from Alotau, sail in themselves, and maybe land on the Islands airstrip. There are no commercial flights to this resort. The Island is largely untouched, can be walked around or maybe climb to an observation point in the centre of the island. Normally Marg and I would have climbed to the lookout. But the track had many steep steps and rocks to climb, and I had a grumpy knee, so we stayed on the coastal flat. The beaches here are white sand, water warm and clear all year round, great for ... read more
Another P&O postcard location
Sun is up
Swaying Palm Trees

Oceania » Papua New Guinea » Milne Bay October 13th 2015

In many ways it is great that not many people know of Kiriwina Island because it stands as a largely unspoiled undeveloped community in the Trobriand Island Group. If you want to see how these people have lived for many hundreds of years, this is a great destination on the P & O Papua New Guinea discovery cruises. Once again we see some commonality with other island communities, and some unique things as well. This is the largest of the Trobriand Islands and supports a local population of around 12,000 people. We have returned to a Matriarchal society with some interesting values. (Rabaul with the groups we spoke to were community custodians of land) Possessions are passed mother to daughter, pigs are an indicator of wealth and are highly treasured, and we as visitors are known ... read more
The peir - Kiriwina
OOOPS
IMG_3240

Oceania » Papua New Guinea » Milne Bay October 11th 2015

After a comfortable over night cruise of 200 nautical miles or so, Sunday the 11th saw us anchoring off a beautiful tropical Island. It took quite a while to anchor the ship. Later the Captain told us there was a strong current as well as a little too much wind and swell, so the decision to stay and disembark took a little longer than usual. We were not all that surprised at the captain's remarks. From the ship's deck we could see that there was a definite rip running around the little island that somewhat protected Kitava. The anchor was 270 meters down!! Kitava is pretty much unchanged in thousands of years, and the island dwellers of the Triobriand Island group (Part of Milne Bay PNG) all move back and forwards across the islands in their ... read more
Early reflections
Under sail
Kativa and its coral island

Oceania » Papua New Guinea » Milne Bay » Alotau October 10th 2015

Generally we are early risers, and today was no different. This time, we saw land for the first time since leaving Morton Bay, Brisbane. Did we know what to expect? Were there any surprises? No and yes respectively. We did know that the eastern regions of PNG were lush, but we couldn't see that too clearly as sea fog and or low cloud hung around the hills. The locals later told us they were glad of our arrival as it brought the first rains of their wet season, so these silver clouds brought liquid gold to these folk. David and Mary and Marg and I went different directions in Alotau. Milne Bay province was involved in the real turning point of World War 2 (and more so at Rabaul later in the cruise) where the Imperial ... read more
I wept
Alotau
The Alotau Tug

Oceania » Papua New Guinea » Milne Bay » Alotau March 9th 2014

To even think about taking a holiday to Papua New Guinea you’d have to be out of your tiny mind. At least that was the word on the street before we left. In terms of potential for violence, the place is hardcore. Just last year, a group of foreign tourists were horrified when their party was ambushed and their guides hacked to death with machetes in front of their very eyes. And it’s not as if this is a new problem. Even the earliest explorers returned with tales of an exotic land stocked with Birds of Paradise, but inhabited by a bunch of warring cannibals and head-hunters who seldom gave a warm welcome. Back in the day round these parts, a man’s status was determined not by his bank balance or his choice of car, but ... read more
Mantis Shrimp
Plucky Little Crab
Sunset from the Restaurant

Oceania » Papua New Guinea » Milne Bay January 23rd 2014

We knew when arriving in PNG that it had a number of cultural groups and over 800 languages. It really took us our whole visit to understand what that means. Each of the places we visited has an entirely different way of living meaning that anything we learned in one area is not necessarily true in the other areas, it was really like visiting 3 different countries. It also means that there is virtually no national identity (except when it comes to the national Rugby League team of course) and loyalties and allegiances are to the tribe and not the country as a whole. This makes the national political situation particularly challenging because for the most part no ones primary concern is the country as a whole. The Trobriand Islands (or “Trobs” as the locals and ... read more
Yam House
Yam plants
Carvings in the hotel

Oceania » Papua New Guinea » Milne Bay » Logia Island December 30th 2013

Well readers when we left off Shelagh and Heather were “stranded” at their resort in Tufi after their plane to Port Moresby didn’t arrive. Let’s tune back in too see what happened… The plane to Port Moresby was scheduled to arrive in Tufi at 7:45am and depart again at 8:15am. When we asked the Air PNG rep at the hotel what time we needed to have our bags ready in the morning he did some careful calculations and informed us that we should have our bags ready at 5:45 am. Let me remind you that the airstrip is a 2 minute drive from the hotel and there is literally no building, luggage cart, airport infrastructure of any sort (oh, that’s a lie, there’s a wind sock) at the airport. Really, we need to check in and ... read more
Bathroom in Alatou airport
Our view view of Nuli Sapi and our bungalow
Nuli Sapi resort




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