We have to address the elephant in the room.  Captain Kumamon has been busy making new friends, and we are starting to collect a towel animal menagerie.  We’ve had a dog, an elephant, a bear, and a penguin.  They pretend to be napping, but we’re pretty sure that whenever we leave the cabin, a party […]

This is PNG’s “brochure destination” – you know the one with endless blue sky, gleaming white sand, palm-fringed beaches and turquoise seas – a tropical island made to order, with colours enhanced by the wonders of photo editing.  This relies very much on good weather, so I tried not to picture it as too idyllic, […]

We watched Alotau disappear as the sun started setting.  Once out of Milne Bay we made a hard left turn, to continue north to our second port of call.  We’d learned that Papua New Guinea has thousands of islands – there are 600 in Milne Bay alone – and they are home to a fair […]

We woke just before sunrise, and headed upstairs, camera in hand to capture our arrival into Milne Bay.  A recent downpour had drenched the decks and we squelched up the stairs.  The sunlight and storm clouds made for a dramatic display. By 9am we were standing on Papua New Guinean soil (or tarmac).  We found […]

We’re on board the Carnival Encounter, an older and smaller cruise ship.  Built in 2002 for Princess, it was handed down to P&O Australia in 2019, given a spruce up, and named Pacific Encounter.  In 2024, it was announced that P&O Australia was being folded into Carnival Australia, and just last month the ship was […]

Why PNG? We’ve been asked this question numerous times.  There are several reasons we chose to visit Papua New Guinea.  First up, it’s our nearest neighbour, yet hardly anyone goes there unless they have to, or if they want to complete the Kokoda Track (too many leeches for our liking).  Port Moresby and the Highlands […]