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Incredible Kimbe Bay - in a country famous for the amazing diversity of its scuba diving. There are a few stand-out locations where, should you only visit PNG once in your life, you will just have to choose from… On that short-list would certainly be Kimbe Bay, the literal jewel in the crown of New Britain. The largest of the many islands that make up the incredible country that is Papua New Guinea. Located roughly one third along the north coast of New Britain. Kimbe is a large sheltered bay bounded by the Willaumez Peninsula in the west and Cape Tokoro, some 140km to the east. New Britain Roughly 500 km long and about 150 km at its widest. New Britain is a crescent-shaped island located just to the south of the equator. It is part of the Bismarck Archipelago, which forms the southern ridge of the so-called Ring of Fire. The volatile and unpredictable, horseshoe shaped, seismic strip of oceanic trenches and volcanic arcs that wreak periodic havoc around the Pacific Ocean basin. The islands of the Bismarck Archipelago were formed some 8-10 million years ago. As a result of what geologists refer rather mildly to as …

The Best Aircraft Wreck Dives in PNG - World War II came to New Guinea in January 1942 when the Imperial Japanese Army invaded Rabaul in New Britain. Turning the region in to a major theater of war in the battle for the Pacific. There were many brutal encounters between the Japanese and the defending Allied forces. Conditions were often appalling, and the fighting was incredibly fierce with many young lives lost on both sides. WWII was the first time that air power played a major role in combat. And both sides had some formidable aircraft in action during the campaign for New Guinea. War is of course deadly by nature. But for the pilots and crew of those aircraft the rate of attrition was particularly high. Many of them were shot out of the sky. Others suffered mechanical failures while some just got lost and simply ran out of fuel. The majority of those planes have never been found. Simply because they came down in remote jungle locations or far out to sea. But some have and the story of the underwater wrecks offer a unique insight into a time long gone. Best Aircraft Wreck Dives in PNG - B17F Black Jack Lying in …

The Mitsubishi Zero Wreck - As the story is told around the bar at Walindi, the day the wreck of the Zero fighter was found was soon after a small plane had crashed on take-off from Kimbe Bay's Hoskins Airport. So, when local villager William Nui found the plane laying on the sandy sea floor. He thought it was the wreckage of the recent crash... Not that of a WWII Japanese fighter that had remained undisturbed for almost 60 years! How the wreck was actually found is an interesting story in itself. Because William was free diving for sea cucumbers when he noticed what appeared to be a large shadow on the sea bed. Like many people in Papua New Guinea, William is very superstitious. And he thought that he was looking at a ghost lying face-up with its arms outstretched… Terrified, he shot to the surface and the relative safety of his canoe. Eventually summoning enough courage to go back down to take a closer look. Realizing that the large shadow was the wreck of a plane, rather than some demon of the deep. William reported the discovery to the local authorities and word of the discovery made it to Max Benjamin, the …

Milne Bay - where it all began... Papua New Guinea enjoys a reputation for some of the best all-round scuba diving to be had anywhere. And truly, its combination of superb reefs, wonderful critter sites and WWII wrecks make it very hard to beat. PNG was the first country I went to when I started to dive outside Australia. And I have been fortunate to have experienced virtually all the main locations over the years. I have also been fortunate to have dived all over the vast archipelago of Indonesia. And many other global hot-spots in the Bahamas, Mexico and the Pacific. But something always brings me back to Papua New Guinea… Nowhere can really match its special mixture of a wild and rugged landscape, unique tribal cultures and pristine underwater environment. In a country with so many islands and with so many places to sample the underwater world it can be difficult to decide where to start. So in this series of articles I am writing for Dive Log I thought we should begin at the beginning. Milne Bay, where it all started and what has become its jewel... Tawali Dive Resort and the wonderful dive sites of the …