PNG - Is land based possible?

[neilstewart]

Hi,

I shall be in Tokyo for easter. I am considering visiting Papua New Guinea for a weeks diving as I can get a direct flight from there and its only 6 hours. Its sort of a good chance to go to a diving mecca. As I am on a student budget I cannot afford $1800 for a liveaboard. All the inofrmation I have read so far on this board is about liveaboards, has anyone here done any resort based diving and if so what's it like and where is good? Any information greatly appreaciated to help me get a flavour if this side trip is possible both logistically and financially.

 

[caymaniac]

Hi,

I shall be in Tokyo for easter. I am considering visiting Papua New Guinea for a weeks diving as I can get a direct flight from there and its only 6 hours. Its sort of a good chance to go to a diving mecca. As I am on a student budget I cannot afford $1800 for a liveaboard. All the inofrmation I have read so far on this board is about liveaboards, has anyone here done any resort based diving and if so what's it like and where is good? Any information greatly appreaciated to help me get a flavour if this side trip is possible both logistically and financially.

Walindi (New Britain) has a very good landbased area to dive. We have also dove Loloata only fifteen minutes out of Port Moresby, a nice place to be and the diving is in the Coral Sea.

 

[rinjani]

You can also dive from either Tufi or Tawali. Tufi is ~50min flight from Port Moresby. Tawali you have to go to Alotau and then get the connection to Tawali. Just spent a week in Tufi. The house reef area has some good macro - pipefish, ghost pipefish, fair amount of nudis and cephalapods. Daily dives out on the reefs are fantastic. Takes about 30 -60 min in their dive boat to get there. Sharks - hammerhead, grey, white-tip, black-tip. Turtles. Mantas. Barracuda, tuna, travllies, jacks, mackeral are abundant. Plus the usual reef life. Flights are three per week - Sun, Wed, Fri in and Mon, Wed, Fri out I think.

 

[alijtaylor]

This website is excellent for checking flight times and availability http://www.pngbd.com/travel/flights.php
Alison

 

[tb]

I don't know what the current prices are at Tufi or Talawi but when I checked a year ago, Tufi wasn't cheap, particularly if you want to dive more than twice a day. However, they're always open to cutting you a deal if you contact them directly. You can avoid the cost of an additional air connection by staying at Lolata dive resort neary Port Moresby; I've read lots of positive reviews about that location, although Tufi is delightful in its remoteness. For a faster, less expensive alternative, you might consider diving in North Sulawesi, either at Bunaken outside of Manado or at Lembeh which offers world class macro opportunities. I've dived with Thalassa and stayed at the Santika (near Manado) for a package cost well within your budget. Have fun whatever you do. Travis

 

[caymaniac]

I don't know what the current prices are at Tufi or Talawi but when I checked a year ago, Tufi wasn't cheap, particularly if you want to dive more than twice a day. However, they're always open to cutting you a deal if you contact them directly. You can avoid the cost of an additional air connection by staying at Lolata dive resort neary Port Moresby; I've read lots of positive reviews about that location, although Tufi is delightful in its remoteness. For a faster, less expensive alternative, you might consider diving in North Sulawesi, either at Bunaken outside of Manado or at Lembeh which offers world class macro opportunities. I've dived with Thalassa and stayed at the Santika (near Manado) for a package cost well within your budget. Have fun whatever you do. Travis

One note on Loloata is, diving is in the Coral Sea - south side of PNG where the water may be somewhat cooler than the Bismark Sea on the north side of PNG. Diving off Loloata was in the mid to high 70F whereas in the Bismark Sea it was nearly 90F every day.

 

[silent running]

Hi,

I shall be in Tokyo for easter. I am considering visiting Papua New Guinea for a weeks diving as I can get a direct flight from there and its only 6 hours. Its sort of a good chance to go to a diving mecca. As I am on a student budget I cannot afford $1800 for a liveaboard. All the inofrmation I have read so far on this board is about liveaboards, has anyone here done any resort based diving and if so what's it like and where is good? Any information greatly appreaciated to help me get a flavour if this side trip is possible both logistically and financially.

Hi neilstewart, you're lucky that you're in Tokyo as it's the shortest and easiest connection comming from anyplace NE of PNG. As for cheap diving in PNG, you may be out of luck. While there are more land based options than ever, none are cheap due to the logistics of moving goods around PNG. There are very few roads connecting the cities/towns so everything must come by boat or plane. A liveaboard Capt told me he had to pay $850 to replace the fiberglass cowling on his small outboard tender engine, almost 4 times the cost in the US. Even the diving I did at Loloata was not cheap and it's 20 minutes from the capitol. You may be able to find cheap guest houses or missionary hostel type places in PNG, but the actual diving will still be expensive. So, ultimately a liveaboard will be your best value if you want to do more than 2-3 dives a day. Because you only have 1 leg to travel, your best bet if you are looking for a deal is to try to get a last minute rate on a liveaboard that's not full. You might find a Capt. who has a half full boat and would be willing to negotiate with a last minute passsenger a week before sailing as long as you keep it to yourselves.

Now for the good news: because the country has so little infrastructure and is so rugged, the population is much less dense than anywhere else in that part of the world, so the diving is that much better. In otherwords, it's worth every penny. I've been to Komodo, been to the Philippines, both have very good diving but no comparison to the diving I've done in PNG. Both of those places have high population densities and there's definitely a correlation. I have yet to see any commercial fishing done by PNG locals, except for a very small amount in the inshore waters outside of Moresby. This is not the case in Komodo, where local commercial fishing is common, even inside supposed marine parks. The Philippines is even worse. Guess which one of the 3 countries has the cheapest diving? Figure out a way and go, you won't regret it. Good luck-Andy

 

[ken chung ar]

All the inofrmation I have read so far on this board is about liveaboards, has anyone here done any resort based diving and if so what's it like and where is good? Any information greatly appreaciated to help me get a flavour if this side trip is possible both logistically and financially.

hi neilstewart,

i dove in PNG, while staying on Lissenung Island Resort near Kavieng. it was July, 2002. the resort was run by a charming Austrian couple, Edith and Dietmar.

it costed about 2,000 USD, which included the round trip between Narita and Kavieng by Air Niugini and two-week stay on that island. boat ride to major diving points from the island was only half an hour or so, and diving was great. i saw many grey reef and white tip sharks, manta rays, rainbow gobbies, pygmy seahorses, and so on.

sorry to say it was no cheeper than 1800 USD.

ken chung ar

 

[neilstewart]

Hi,

thanks for all the information. Ken was your price including diving or did you have to pay additional for this? My partner, Mika is Japanese and the problem I have with booking through a Japanese tour operator is they cannot confirm the price. I know this has something to do with government taxes and that the tour operator cannot confirm flight prices until much closer to departure date but it does make trying to book anything very difficult if all you are told "The price will be between $2000 and $3000". I think we have decided on Walindi and just hope we can bring it in for reasonable money.

 

[caymaniac]

Hi,

thanks for all the information. Ken was your price including diving or did you have to pay additional for this? My partner, Mika is Japanese and the problem I have with booking through a Japanese tour operator is they cannot confirm the price. I know this has something to do with government taxes and that the tour operator cannot confirm flight prices until much closer to departure date but it does make trying to book anything very difficult if all you are told "The price will be between $2000 and $3000". I think we have decided on Walindi and just hope we can bring it in for reasonable money.

I see you are serious about Walindi, here are some pics of some of the bungaloes and grounds. The food was great, where do they get all that food in such a remote area?