Milne Bay Manta Rays - At the southern end of the China Strait is a small island called Gonu Bara Bara. It is quite simply the best place in the whole province to see the manta rays. In fact it is probably the best place in all of Papua New Guinea to see these wonderful creatures!. From a distance there is little to distinguish the island from the myriad of others in this part of southern Milne Bay Province. Reef manta rays - Manta alfredi - had been known to patrol its northern beach of Gonu Bara Bara for many years. But all attempts to try and interact with them were random at best.... Maybe you would see one or more, maybe you …
Papua New Guinea
Kavieng’s WWII Wrecks
Kavieng's WWII Wrecks... The small town of Kavieng was seized by the Japanese in January in 1942 when they invaded PNG. That invasion came just seven weeks after the surprise air attack on Pearl Harbour which brought America into WWII. Although it played second fiddle to the huge Japanese naval base at Rabaul in New Britain. Kavieng was in fact a very strategic location for the invading Japanese forces during WWII. The town's location in New Ireland Province meant that it protected their rear. It was also an important part of their military supply chain. Fighting as they were to gain complete control of PNG and then prepare …
Kimbe Bay – The Coral Crucible
Kimbe Bay the Coral Crucible. There is a line of thought in the scientific community that this is where it all may have began. Where the first corals originated… a large sheltered bay, roughly one third along the north coast of the large island of New Britain. The bay is called Kimbe and the country is Papua New Guinea. The wild and exciting nation crafted together in colonial times from the eastern half of the huge island of New Guinea and a string of other islands stretching out in to the Bismarck and Solomon Seas. Surveys have shown that the bay is host to around 860 species of reef fish and 400 species of coral. Not to …
Diving PNG’s Holy Grail – Black Jack
Diving PNG’s Holy Grail... Like a scene from a Hollywood film set - the huge plane sits serenely in 50m of clear blue water just of the fringing reef near the village of Boga Boga. The area is quite remote at the tip of Cape Vogel on northeast coast of New Guinea island. The wreck is the B17-F Black Jack Flying Fortress and what many consider to be the very best aircraft wreck in Papua New Guinea. Discovered, almost by accident, in 1986 by Australians Rod Pearce, Bruce Johnson and David Pennefather. Who were conducting a dedicated expedition to look for what they thought was probably an Australian Beaufort A9. Pennefather …
It’s PNG Expect The Unexpected
It's PNG Expect the Unexpected - Papua New Guinea is truly one of the last frontiers, the country is a wild & adventurous place that offers some tremendous scuba diving, combined with many unique and fascinating things to see above the water. One of the world’s most heterogeneous countries, Papua New Guinea (PNG) has a population of around 6.5 million people, but over 850 languages and nearly 1000 traditional societies & ethnic indigenous groups. X-Ray magazine recently published an extensive section on scuba diving in Papua New Guinea featuring articles on Tufi, Milne Bay, New Ireland and New Britain and asked me to write an …
Kimbe Bay Conservation – Part 2
Conserving Kimbe Bay - what would you do if one day you realized that the side-effects of the industry you helped to introduce were starting to degrade the pristine environment of your backyard - turn a blind eye... hug a tree perhaps? Well, if you are anything like Max and Cecilie Benjamin, you fight long and hard to protect it and establish a framework that will empower the local population to take ownership of the process. Easier said than done, particularly in that complex equation that is Papua New Guinea... But Mahonia Na Dari, next door to Walindi Plantation Dive Resort, is living proof that it can be done and a testament to …
The Conservation of Kimbe Bay – Part 1
Kimbe Bay Conservation - there is a line of thought among the marine scientific community that Kimbe Bay is probably where the first corals originated – a theory that has evolved as a result of the various surveys conducted to assess and quantify the bay’s biodiversity. Do the math as they say... almost 900 species of fish, 10 species of whales and dolphins and 400+ species of stony corals. To put that in a global perspective – in an area roughly the same size as California, it is estimated that Papua New Guinea is home to almost 5% of the world’s marine biodiversity. Just under half of that fish fauna and virtually all of the …
Papua New Guinea: The Facial Tattoos of Oro Province
One of the most visually intriging things about the local villagers around Tufi in Oro Province are the facial tattoos worn by many of the women – something you would not really be aware of without making the effort to visit them… Tattoos, and body art in general, have enjoyed a significant renaissance in western society over the last 20 years or so and have become both a badge of honor for those seeking to firmly establish their non-conformity and a trendy fashion accessory to others. So it was quite fascinating to see them as an integral part of village customs rather than a recent phenomenon. From an anthropological perspective …
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Papua New Guinea: A Kiap Returns…
I have to be honest and admit that I had no idea what a Kiap actually was until I met Doug Robbins & his family over a drink on the verandah of Tufi Dive Resort’s main lodge. Doug had been a Kiap in Papua New Guinea for 4 years from 1969 to 1973 during the Australian colonial rule, and two of those years had seen him & his wife Annette stationed at Tufi. Kiaps were officers of the Australian colonial administration stationed in remote locations to provide the overall management of that area. They were very much multi-functional and required to cover a wide range of tasks, from basic law & order through to census surveys …