Trip Report Lissenung Island Resort, Kavieng PNG

[Fibonacci]

Years ago, I watched a video on YouTube where someone rubbed a plastic bottom (I think this was around 150 feet deep, and overseas - not Florida or the Caribbean) - a decent sized shark (maybe 5 or 6 feet long?) came from behind, reaching around and appeared to intend to bite. I didn't hear of any injury, but this happened fast, and was worrisome to watch.

I shall henceforth keep my distance from divers sporting a prosthetic derrière...

 

[Lissenung]

Hi all, Lissenung management here!
Graeme, we love your very detailed trip report, and your honest feedback. We also loved having you all here, you guys were the perfect first group after Covid!!
We've had another talk with our divemasters about "the bottle trick", which we do not condone. We much prefer to enjoy shark encounters through their natural visits, which happen plenty of times anyway.
Cheers,
Ange

 

[Fibonacci]

@Fibonacci I'll certainly be clicking all the boat and resort links and drooling and daydreaming. So thanks for those and the trip report.

@dirtfarmer here's my favourite PNG-dreaming pic... I use it as a desktop background and inspiration for the next trip!
Taken at sunrise off the coast of Rabaul while aboard MV Febrina...

 

[silent running]

Excellent trip report, thank you very much for posting it. As a person who has been to PNG 4 times and hopes to go again in the future, I was very pleased to hear Lissenung survived CV19 and that the diving in New Ireland and New Hanover is still great. I dived there on a liveaboard in 2006 and felt it was at least as good as the Walindi/Kimbe area. After diving all around Indonesia, the Solomons and Philippines, PNG was still the best.

The author made very useful observations about domestic PNG air travel. I never had as bad an experience as they spoke of, but I was told by my liveaboard captain to always book your domestic flights for the first flight of the day to/from your internal destination. If your flight has two or more stops, make sure you get on the first flight out on that route. The later in the day you travel the more likelihood of delays as most routes include multiple stops with very short layovers. And as the OP said it is better to plan for an overnight stay in POM on either end to make sure you can handle any domestic nonsense which comes up…

 

[Jonathan101]

On 13/1/23 a gang armed with guns and machetes held up Lissenung. They held guests hostage, robbed each room and raped a member of staff. Kavieng in general has seen an enormous uptick in crime the past few years. Avoid, Avoid, Avoid.

https://www.thenational.com.pg/behave-yourselves-police-warn-people/

Kavieng police hunt for rape suspects

A 17-YEAR-old juvenile is among seven men who have been arrested and detained over an attack on tourists at an island resort in Kavieng, New Ireland Province, last month.

postcourier.com.pg

 

[Fibonacci]

I am shocked and saddened by this recent appalling incident...
They subsidised the local school, managed to survive the Covid downturn and supported staff via a roster system for over two years so at least their families received some income... and now this!

According to the second link above:
Kavieng police said all seven men are from the Pawa Haus compound - a settlement located behind the Kavieng General Hospital

My thoughts are with Dietmar, Ange and the Lissenung team at this very difficult time...

 

[Guitarfish64]

Belated thanks for this very helpful report - I am currently in the early stages of planning a PNG trip and detailed info is hard to find!

 

[happyfeed]

@dirtfarmer here's my favourite PNG-dreaming pic... I use it as a desktop background and inspiration for the next trip!
Taken at sunrise off the coast of Rabaul while aboard MV Febrina...

Thanks for the awesome report! I'm heading to PNG in 2 months time and will definitely be back to read again prior to the trip!