Penopolypants
Contributor
Lovely and amazing. Stunning. Awe-inspiring. How exactly do you describe an underwater paradise?
My sister and I traveled to Papua New Guinea two weeks ago, and stayed at a resort called Tawali (www.tawali.com). This is a remote resort reached by a Seattle-L.A.-Sydney-Brisbane-Port Moresby jaunt, followed by a plane from Port Moresby to Alotau, then an hour by van, then about 15-20 minutes by boat.
Our trip to PNG was uneventful .until we got there. Our flight from Port Moresby to Alotau was cancelled, and one of the carriers lost our luggage along the way. 1 ½ hours between flights is not really enough....now we know. No problem, the airline put us up for the night in the Airways hotel (very nice) and we took the early morning flight out. Our luggage was not there, but made it on the afternoon flight.
The resort was beautiful! There was a main hall that served as reception, gathering, and dining hall, loaded with carvings made by local villagers. The rooms were air conditioned, and situated in a cabin with two rooms per cabin. Each had a deck overlooking the water, and the rooms were large and comfortable. The resort is very ecofriendly, using solar heated rainwater for showers and such, and charcoal filtered, ultraviolet treated water for drinking. The sewage is treated and disposed of environmentally. The majority of the food was grown onsite or purchased from local villages. The staff was unfailingly friendly and helpful.
Our gear was left in a labeled bin outside our door, picked up, assembled, kept and cared for by the dive staff unless you requested otherwise. The resort is co-owned by the CEO of Oceanic, so rental gear available is all Oceanic. We rented gear the first day, since ours didn't make it, and it was in pretty good condition. The few issues we encountered were fixed quickly. Tanks were Faber steel 80's, and nitrox was available. There's not much of a selection of wetsuits, but I found that I didn't really need one anyway. Water temps were in the 81-85 degree range, even at 100+'. When my 3 mil wetsuit showed up with the rest of my gear, I wore it for protection from scrapes, but was a little too warm occasionally.
Our typical day started with a buffet breakfast (and my first taste of vegemite) at the resort at 7 a.m. The boat left at 8 and sped to the next glorious, gorgeous dive site. Dive briefings were extremely thorough. First dive (stunning!), surface interval with water, coffee, tea, fresh fruit, homemade chocolate cake, and various other snacks (who knew chicken flavored cheetos could be so tasty?), then another dive, perhaps another dive site (beautiful "fish soup"!). Surface interval over lunch (delicious!), and sometimes another dive site (breathtaking!). We never dove the same site more than twice in one day, and only dove the same site again if it had an unusually large number of unique critters or habitats. Back to the resort by 3 p.m. or so, and dinner was at 7. A dusk dive could be arranged on the house reef.
Fresh towels were available after most dives. Water, tea, and coffee were always available. The staff handled my camera with great care (surprisingly, we were the only people with a camera my sister and I shared ours). They took our gear from us while we were still in the water, so no lumbering up a ladder fully loaded.
(This might be a good time to interject that I have never been diving outside the PNW, never been diving on a boat, never been diving without a dry suit, and never been diving without 28 lbs of lead. DJumping into 81+ degree water with 8 lbs of lead in a bathing suit was so ridiculously easy I almost couldn't stand it. 8 lbs!!! And off a boat, too. No schlepping 28 lbs of lead, dry suit, hood, gloves, etc. up and down a rocky slope. I was positively giddy!)
But I digress. Back to the diving.
Each site was an awe-inspiring montage of color and life, the coral was pristine and healthy, the life abundant, the color breathtaking.
What did we see? Enormous coral formations. Some small sharks ( no hammerheads unfortunately), spotted rays, a veritable garden of garden eels, turtles, tangs and butterflies of every color, unicorn tangs, parrotfish, barracuda, mandarin fish, lionfish, leaf scorpion fish, rock scorpion fish, moray eels, bat fish, tube snouts, puffers, angelfish, Moorish idols, clownfish, wrasses, nudibranchs and sea stars. Crinoids by the thousands. Tiny pygmy sea horses on giant sea fans. Thousands of fish I can't name or recognize. Cuttlefish that changed colors dramatically. A pod of dolphins kept us company on some of the boat rides, with spinner dolphins jumping in the background. A marlin entertained us on one ride.
Many of the more elusive species we could not have found without the help of our highly experienced dive masters. These guys were incredible! Who else could find a ¼" pygmy sea horse on a 5' tall sea fan? There were usually 10-12 of us in the water at any given time, and 2-3 dive masters with us each time. The dive masters pointed out interesting species to us, and guided us around the reefs, but never held our hands. We were pretty much free to go where we wanted to and dive our own profiles.
All of our dives were on various reefs around Milne Bay. Bommies and sand flats between broke up the "monotony" of similar habitats. Our sites were typically pretty deep for recreational diving, most going to 130' or more, although I personally did not go that deep. We'd usually drop in, circle the reef, weave between the bommies, check out who was digging in the sand flats, and then find a shallow area (if available) for our safety stop.
Max depth was 108', longest dive was 1 hour 12 minutes. I could have stayed down forever had I found a way make it so.
On land:
The resort offers kayaks and traditional dugout canoes for free. Guided walks to the waterfall, skull caves, and through some of the villages were available for a fee. We did the skull caves/waterfall walk, and thought it was nice, if a bit overpriced for what you got. Also, we got a bit bored during our 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. interval we were a bit too tired to take the kayaks out, and there isn't really a lounging area on a sandy beach. Fortunately, books and cards helped us while away the hours.
The food at the resort was delicious and plentiful, unless you were a vegetarian. My sister is a vegetarian and found that the selection was a bit limited on some occasions, but she never went hungry. The chef also has a way with soups. The first course soups at dinner were outstanding! Fresh bread is made onsite, too.
It was an outstanding place that I am so very grateful I had the opportunity to experience. Many thanks to NWGratefuldiver for squeezing in our advanced training before we left.
More photos can be viewed here:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/penel...=&.done=http://photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos
My sister and I traveled to Papua New Guinea two weeks ago, and stayed at a resort called Tawali (www.tawali.com). This is a remote resort reached by a Seattle-L.A.-Sydney-Brisbane-Port Moresby jaunt, followed by a plane from Port Moresby to Alotau, then an hour by van, then about 15-20 minutes by boat.
Our trip to PNG was uneventful .until we got there. Our flight from Port Moresby to Alotau was cancelled, and one of the carriers lost our luggage along the way. 1 ½ hours between flights is not really enough....now we know. No problem, the airline put us up for the night in the Airways hotel (very nice) and we took the early morning flight out. Our luggage was not there, but made it on the afternoon flight.
The resort was beautiful! There was a main hall that served as reception, gathering, and dining hall, loaded with carvings made by local villagers. The rooms were air conditioned, and situated in a cabin with two rooms per cabin. Each had a deck overlooking the water, and the rooms were large and comfortable. The resort is very ecofriendly, using solar heated rainwater for showers and such, and charcoal filtered, ultraviolet treated water for drinking. The sewage is treated and disposed of environmentally. The majority of the food was grown onsite or purchased from local villages. The staff was unfailingly friendly and helpful.
Our gear was left in a labeled bin outside our door, picked up, assembled, kept and cared for by the dive staff unless you requested otherwise. The resort is co-owned by the CEO of Oceanic, so rental gear available is all Oceanic. We rented gear the first day, since ours didn't make it, and it was in pretty good condition. The few issues we encountered were fixed quickly. Tanks were Faber steel 80's, and nitrox was available. There's not much of a selection of wetsuits, but I found that I didn't really need one anyway. Water temps were in the 81-85 degree range, even at 100+'. When my 3 mil wetsuit showed up with the rest of my gear, I wore it for protection from scrapes, but was a little too warm occasionally.
Our typical day started with a buffet breakfast (and my first taste of vegemite) at the resort at 7 a.m. The boat left at 8 and sped to the next glorious, gorgeous dive site. Dive briefings were extremely thorough. First dive (stunning!), surface interval with water, coffee, tea, fresh fruit, homemade chocolate cake, and various other snacks (who knew chicken flavored cheetos could be so tasty?), then another dive, perhaps another dive site (beautiful "fish soup"!). Surface interval over lunch (delicious!), and sometimes another dive site (breathtaking!). We never dove the same site more than twice in one day, and only dove the same site again if it had an unusually large number of unique critters or habitats. Back to the resort by 3 p.m. or so, and dinner was at 7. A dusk dive could be arranged on the house reef.
Fresh towels were available after most dives. Water, tea, and coffee were always available. The staff handled my camera with great care (surprisingly, we were the only people with a camera my sister and I shared ours). They took our gear from us while we were still in the water, so no lumbering up a ladder fully loaded.
(This might be a good time to interject that I have never been diving outside the PNW, never been diving on a boat, never been diving without a dry suit, and never been diving without 28 lbs of lead. DJumping into 81+ degree water with 8 lbs of lead in a bathing suit was so ridiculously easy I almost couldn't stand it. 8 lbs!!! And off a boat, too. No schlepping 28 lbs of lead, dry suit, hood, gloves, etc. up and down a rocky slope. I was positively giddy!)
But I digress. Back to the diving.
Each site was an awe-inspiring montage of color and life, the coral was pristine and healthy, the life abundant, the color breathtaking.
What did we see? Enormous coral formations. Some small sharks ( no hammerheads unfortunately), spotted rays, a veritable garden of garden eels, turtles, tangs and butterflies of every color, unicorn tangs, parrotfish, barracuda, mandarin fish, lionfish, leaf scorpion fish, rock scorpion fish, moray eels, bat fish, tube snouts, puffers, angelfish, Moorish idols, clownfish, wrasses, nudibranchs and sea stars. Crinoids by the thousands. Tiny pygmy sea horses on giant sea fans. Thousands of fish I can't name or recognize. Cuttlefish that changed colors dramatically. A pod of dolphins kept us company on some of the boat rides, with spinner dolphins jumping in the background. A marlin entertained us on one ride.
Many of the more elusive species we could not have found without the help of our highly experienced dive masters. These guys were incredible! Who else could find a ¼" pygmy sea horse on a 5' tall sea fan? There were usually 10-12 of us in the water at any given time, and 2-3 dive masters with us each time. The dive masters pointed out interesting species to us, and guided us around the reefs, but never held our hands. We were pretty much free to go where we wanted to and dive our own profiles.
All of our dives were on various reefs around Milne Bay. Bommies and sand flats between broke up the "monotony" of similar habitats. Our sites were typically pretty deep for recreational diving, most going to 130' or more, although I personally did not go that deep. We'd usually drop in, circle the reef, weave between the bommies, check out who was digging in the sand flats, and then find a shallow area (if available) for our safety stop.
Max depth was 108', longest dive was 1 hour 12 minutes. I could have stayed down forever had I found a way make it so.
On land:
The resort offers kayaks and traditional dugout canoes for free. Guided walks to the waterfall, skull caves, and through some of the villages were available for a fee. We did the skull caves/waterfall walk, and thought it was nice, if a bit overpriced for what you got. Also, we got a bit bored during our 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. interval we were a bit too tired to take the kayaks out, and there isn't really a lounging area on a sandy beach. Fortunately, books and cards helped us while away the hours.
The food at the resort was delicious and plentiful, unless you were a vegetarian. My sister is a vegetarian and found that the selection was a bit limited on some occasions, but she never went hungry. The chef also has a way with soups. The first course soups at dinner were outstanding! Fresh bread is made onsite, too.
It was an outstanding place that I am so very grateful I had the opportunity to experience. Many thanks to NWGratefuldiver for squeezing in our advanced training before we left.
More photos can be viewed here:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/penel...=&.done=http://photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos
Debbie helped with the Air Niugini reservations as well as arranging our hotel in Port Moreseby.
