Category Archives: South Pacific

Morobe Show 2015 Lae

We travelled to Lae especially to see the Morobe show and to get an oil leak fixed on one of the engines. The problem with this part of the world is that its very difficult to get anything fixed properly, nobody in the Solomons could do it and nobody in New Britain nor New Ireland could do it. We sailed from Rabaul to Kimbe Bay and the Walindi Resort, the only resort in the whole area. Unfortunately the anchorage wasn’t great as it was very open but it was ok for a couple of nights.

Walindi resort

View from the terrace –

Walindi resort kimbe bay

Kimbe Bay is known as a bit of a diving mecca. It is part of the coral triangle of the Indo-Pacific region and has over 800 species of coral fish and 60% of known corals. With only a two night stop I didn’t have enough time to get any diving done – damn it !!

We left Kimbe Bay on our 3 day 3 night sail, this was done with some rough weather encounted down through the Dampier Strait but we got there with no dramas.

We arrived at Lae yacht club and it was nice to have facilities such as a bar, restaurant, showers and laundry all at hand, hadn’t had anything like this for a few weeks !!

Lae yacht club

The oil leak was fixed and we bought our tickets for the Morobe show, we were advised by virtually all the people we met to take a guide with us as pick pockets were common at the show. The head of security at the yacht club let one of his guys off his duties and he escorted us around the show on the first day, not too sure if we really needed it but better safe than sorry.

The Morobe show is a yearly show that gathers people from all over PNG to display their costumes and show off their dancing. The highlight of the show is always when all the tribes gather in the central arena and sing and dance as they parade around in their local costumes. The costumes differed massively from region to region with some doing loud wild dances to some whipping each other and breaking sugar cane across each others arms, legs and back.

Morobe show 2015

Morobe show 2015

Morobe show 2015

Morobe show 2015

Morobe show 2015

Morobe show 2015

Morobe show 2015

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These guys just seemed to be stalking everybody –

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Rabaul Papua New Guinea

I’ve never been to a friendlier town than Rabaul, once one of Papua New Guineas most developed and vibrant towns. Everybody said hello, good afternoon, asked us what we were doing there, helped us flag down buses, got out of buses to make way for us, took us to shops, gave us directions, it was an amazing feeling after some warnings about theft from boats and watching our backs.

Sadly Rabaul was mostly destroyed in 1994 when two nearby volcanoes Tavurvur and Vulcan erupted. Two to three meters of ash was dumped on top of all the buildings most of which collapsed under the shear weight. Some buildings survived like the Rabual hotel as they feverishly shovelled the ash from the roof tops. They say many more could have been saved if others had done the same but it was all too late, most people had left town.

The grey area in the foreground of the smaller volcano was the once busy town of Rabaul –

rabaul papua new guinea

We anchored outside the Rabaul Yacht club, once a thriving place it now caters for just a few people at a time if they are lucky. Pictures adorn the walls of lots of white faces and long lists of Commodores past and present (mostly past) it now sadly seems to get 1 or 2 visitors a day.

rabaul papua new guinea

The nearby Travel Lodge survived the volcanic blast but has cleary seen better days, it now seems to cater for locals who require longer term accomodation.

Rabaul travel lodge

The once tree lined avenues are now black ash roads with what looks likes large grassy banks to the side, they are simply huge piles of ash which the grass has taken to over the years. All the shops have gone, peoples homes have gone, the town basically had to relocate a few kilometers away to Kokopo and start again.

rabaul papua new guinea

rabaul papua new guinea

Rabual png

Talking to the locals they all seem to believe that their local town will quite literally rise from the ashes and become the thriving place it once was. Sadly its now 20 years on and one of the volcanos Tavurvur is still smouldering just letting people know that it could all happen again so easily.

On our third day in Rabaul we went and did a bit sightseeing and first up was the Japanese war memorial, one of the few things left standing amongst the empty ash filled streets.

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I was surprised that there was a Japanese memorial there as they were the ones who invaded and treated everybody so badly. It was in fact a Japanese Peace memorial dedicated to all those who lost their lives in World War II.

Next we kicked up the ash dust to Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto’s bunker, this is the guy who planned the surprise attack on Pearl Harbour with devastating results. He was actually opposed to war with the USA as he had studied at Harvard University and twice been posted as naval attache at Washington DC. This is where Admiral Yamamoto hid and did his war planning, only a small bunker but two small rooms still had paintings of PNG on the walls along with one ceiling showing a map of the world, wonder what he was planning here ?

Yamamoto's bunker rabaul

Yamamoto's bunker rabaul

Map of Rabaul and top north east corner of New Britain –

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Map of New Britain and New Ireland –

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Next door was the members club, twice restored after fires and earthquakes it now houses a museum showing the history of Rabaul through colonialism, war, volcanoes and earthquakes, its had it all.

Rabual members club

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Members club rabaul png

The place is still surrounded by deep compacted ash –

New guinea club

If this was how the rest of our stay in PNG was going to be like then I was looking forward it. The very friendly residents of Rabaul had given us a great welcome and start to PNG !!