Another Papua New Guinea travel question...

[ewaiea]

Okay so it's actually two questions...

I'm doing the Star Dancer 4/23-5/3 - coming up in less than a month! The Peter Hughes website mentions that departure taxes and dive taxes can be paid on board via credit card along with crew tips. I'm staying at the Walindi Resort the night before boarding which has been prepaid but in case I need I understand they accept credit cards too. On the way home I'm staying at the Airways Hotel in Port Moresby for one night and I understand credit cards are accepted there as well.

Question #1
Is this all correct? Do I need to exchange my money for Kina for any reason? I've already got my tourist visa ahead of time from the Papua New Guinea Embassy in Washington D.C., so is exchanging my currency necessary? And if it is, can I do it on my layover in Cairns right before I depart for Port Moresby???

My second question is travel related...
I'm traveling 11.5 hours from Honolulu to Sydney and then a 3.5 hour layover, then a 3 hour flight to Cairns with an 8 hour (11pm-7am) layover, then 2 hours to Port Moresby with a 7 hour layover, then a 90 minute flight to Hoskins followed by a one hour drive to Walindi. For all intents and purposes, two days of travel! Oh by the way, prior to all of this travel I have to work a mandatory graveyard shift for 12 hours and head to the airport at 6am! Ya, I know - it sucks!

Question #2
Would a hotel room in Cairns be worth it for a few hours rest in an actual bed as opposed to sleeping in the terminal? I imagine I'll be pretty wiped by this point of my trip - have any of you done something similar on a layover of around 8 hours and did it help? Or should I just suck it up and sleep on the ground in the terminal near the gate? I am kind of scared to miss my Air Niugini flight but I figure if I get to the airport 2 hours ahead of time that should be sufficient - I just have to set 3 or 4 alarms so I don't over sleep. Everyone on flyertalk.com/forums seems to be saying that the hotel stay for a 8 hour stop would be a good choice (but they're not divers) - your thoughts?

Sorry for the long-winded question, but any advice would be worth alot to me.

 

[ScubaduoAdventures]

Aloha, we lived in Kaui until 2007 miss it.

Please give us a trip report when you get back as we are chartering the Febrina out of Walindi in June 2010 for one of our Hosted Travel Adventures, we went to Tawali Resort in Maline Bay in 2007 and it was awesome!

You will not need much in the way of Kina but we would suggest you get $40.00 at least for just in case and you can do this at the airport in Cairns or when you arrive. We like to just get our money out of ATMs as it is easier and good exchange rate.
We would definitely go with a room for a hot shower and a bed to lay down it it is very much worth it on these kinds of hauls unless you just do not have the money which for this kind of trip you are generally not backpacking. We were able to get a day room at the Airways for a decent price and if your worried besides the alarms ask the desk to call your room twice you will be fine

 

[ewaiea]

Aloha, we lived in Kaui until 2007 miss it.

Please give us a trip report when you get back as we are chartering the Febrina out of Walindi in June 2010 for one of our Hosted Travel Adventures, we went to Tawali Resort in Maline Bay in 2007 and it was awesome!

You will not need much in the way of Kina but we would suggest you get $40.00 at least for just in case and you can do this at the airport in Cairns or when you arrive. We like to just get our money out of ATMs as it is easier and good exchange rate.
We would definitely go with a room for a hot shower and a bed to lay down it it is very much worth it on these kinds of hauls unless you just do not have the money which for this kind of trip you are generally not backpacking. We were able to get a day room at the Airways for a decent price and if your worried besides the alarms ask the desk to call your room twice you will be fine

Well I'm by no means rich, but I did save up for this trip both from a diving standpoint, an airfare standpoint, and also a travel money standpoint. I found a Qantas Elite status flyer who sold me a day pass to use the Qantas Club lounge at the Sydney Airport for $50 - a bargain considering there's no way into the lounge unless you have elite status, and I am also going to attempt a last minute Star Class upgrade on Jetstar just to make the journey a bit more comfortable. This will be by far the longest trip I've ever been on, but it's also the most excited I've ever been for any vacation I've ever been on!

Thanks for the advice! Any others out there with any last minute words of wisdom???

 

[Mossman]

You've spent a lot of time worrying about getting there, but in my experience the long hauls getting there are far more tolerable than getting back since you're excited about the upcoming trip and the travel is a novelty. After your dive trip, when you have nothing to anticipate but two days of arduous travel before getting back to work, you'll really appreciate any extra pampering you can get from lounges, airport hotels, etc. Sleep on the floor on the way there and you'll still be loving it, but on the way back, treat yourself to a bed.

Also, though I rarely am smart enough to take the advice myself, lay off the booze completely and your trip will be a lot easier. It's tough, with airport bars, inflight drinks, and potential freebies at the lounge, but alcohol definitely makes jet lag worse. I love upgrading to biz class when I can, but I find that it ends up making the travel harder for me in the long run since it's never as easy to pass up free booze in biz class as it is to avoid drinking in coach. My next trip involves a 17.5 hour flight followed by a 2 hour layover, then a 4.5 hour flight, and Thai Airways supposedly pours decent champagne in biz class. Fortunately I put in a 2 day layover in Bali before the next few hours of flight time to finally arrive at our destination as it's gonna take a couple days of soaking in the hotel pool and drinking herbal teas to detox all that free champagne.

On the way back, we have a 2.5 hour flight, then an overnight layover, then a 4.5 hour flight, then an overnight layover, followed by a 17.5 hour flight and then an hour drive home from the airport. Even thinking about all that gives me a headache, so stop your whining!

 

[ewaiea]

You've spent a lot of time worrying about getting there, but in my experience the long hauls getting there are far more tolerable than getting back since you're excited about the upcoming trip and the travel is a novelty. After your dive trip, when you have nothing to anticipate but two days of arduous travel before getting back to work, you'll really appreciate any extra pampering you can get from lounges, airport hotels, etc. Sleep on the floor on the way there and you'll still be loving it, but on the way back, treat yourself to a bed.

Well I am staying at the Airways Hotel in Port Moresby on the way home since I have a full day and night there, but all my homeward bound layovers are short, but all part of the same flight itinerary.

It is true I have asked (and perhaps re-asked) some of the same questions but alot of you have done these long haul treks and I have not. Plus I'll be doing it alone, it's probably part of being excited but having an idea of what to expect does indeed help. I'll be returning my thanks in the form of a very good trip report when I get home.

Thanks Mossman for your reply.

 

[parrotman]

Okay so it's actually two questions...

I'm doing the Star Dancer 4/23-5/3 - coming up in less than a month! The Peter Hughes website mentions that departure taxes and dive taxes can be paid on board via credit card along with crew tips. I'm staying at the Walindi Resort the night before boarding which has been prepaid but in case I need I understand they accept credit cards too. On the way home I'm staying at the Airways Hotel in Port Moresby for one night and I understand credit cards are accepted there as well.

Question #1
Is this all correct? Do I need to exchange my money for Kina for any reason? I've already got my tourist visa ahead of time from the Papua New Guinea Embassy in Washington D.C., so is exchanging my currency necessary? And if it is, can I do it on my layover in Cairns right before I depart for Port Moresby???

My second question is travel related...
I'm traveling 11.5 hours from Honolulu to Sydney and then a 3.5 hour layover, then a 3 hour flight to Cairns with an 8 hour (11pm-7am) layover, then 2 hours to Port Moresby with a 7 hour layover, then a 90 minute flight to Hoskins followed by a one hour drive to Walindi. For all intents and purposes, two days of travel! Oh by the way, prior to all of this travel I have to work a mandatory graveyard shift for 12 hours and head to the airport at 6am! Ya, I know - it sucks!

Question #2
Would a hotel room in Cairns be worth it for a few hours rest in an actual bed as opposed to sleeping in the terminal? I imagine I'll be pretty wiped by this point of my trip - have any of you done something similar on a layover of around 8 hours and did it help? Or should I just suck it up and sleep on the ground in the terminal near the gate? I am kind of scared to miss my Air Niugini flight but I figure if I get to the airport 2 hours ahead of time that should be sufficient - I just have to set 3 or 4 alarms so I don't over sleep. Everyone on flyertalk.com/forums seems to be saying that the hotel stay for a 8 hour stop would be a good choice (but they're not divers) - your thoughts?

Sorry for the long-winded question, but any advice would be worth alot to me.

I see that you already have your visa so in reality you probably will not even need Kina. As to your travel plans, if I read your post correctly you are going to have a 7 hour layover in Moresby between your flight from Cairns and your flight to Hoskins? You will definetly want to get a day room at the airways. You are not going to want to spend 7 hours at the Moresby airport.

As for your layover at Cairns on the way down. If you get in at 11pm, by the time that you get through customs and get your bags etc. catch a cab or train to your hotel its going to be 1am. Then you need to be at the airport to checkin for your flight to Moresby at least 2 hours ahead of your flight so you will need to be there by 5am. I would probably just crash at the airport. I have not flown through Cairns but the Brisbane and Sydney airports are quite nice and I would have no problem getting a couple of hours sleep in the airport. I do believe that they have shower facilities as well.

 

[mjh]

We had no need for Kina. Cairns is a decent airport, much nicer than P. Moresby. You could check your bags to Sydney, clear Customs there, drag your bags over to the domestic counter and check them to the final destination. That way you kill time in Sydney and then at Cairns you can just go to a hotel to crash.