Milne bay or New Britain

[Kevster]

I am planning my 1st trip to PNG.
I am looking at travelling Aug-Oct.
I will be travelling solo.
Either Milne bay or Rabaul-Walindi.

At the moment I am favouring Milne bay (Mantas/Wreck & muck diving )

I have just returned from Papua and I had an amazing dive at a Manta cleaning station. Would be interested to hear more about the Milne bay Mantas.
It is the chance to see Mantas that make Milne bay my likely destination.The mantas are a bonus on top of the great diving.

The MV Chertan & Febrina availability is ok. MV Golden dawn has no space during this time.

I enjoy muck dives & diving slopes, coral gardens rather than drift dives on walls with current.

Would appreciate any comments regarding these trips and how sheltered these locations are. This will be my 3rd live aboard. The last 2(Chuuk,Palau), sea conditions were great.

 

[reefman]

spent 3 weeks diving in milne bay this past april; tawalli resort and the golden dawn(the other half of our group was aboard the telita, which traveled and dove with us the entire trip). excellent mix of muck, wall and shallow reef diving. i can't say enough good things about tawalli and especially the golden dawn and it's owner(captain); craig(the telita was also well recieved by our group). viz was generally 30-60ft, with a few days 80+, current nonexsistent to occasionally ripping. winds were often brisk with rain showers during our stay, however there are numerous islands and dive sites sheltered from the rough seas(captain craig has 20 years diving milne bay. he actually dove 2-3 times a day during our trip!) only observed a dozen or so sharks(grey reef and white tip), 5 dives with mantas(the manta dives near samurai island were fantastic), enormous yellowfin tuna, napolean wrasse, wahoo, dogtooth tuna and massive schools of various reef fish. coral coverage was overall, terrific. the best sites are a 60-90 minute boat ride from tawalli, a liveaboard is your best option.
we moored up to the chertan on 1 dive and the boat, frankly, appears run down and tired. they also have no nitrox(in such a remote area you'd be out of your mind diving 4-5 dives per day without nitrox!!!). iv'e never been aboard the febrina but my advice would be to wait for either the golden dawn or telita to have space available,,,,,,,,

reefman
key largo

 

[alijtaylor]

I have not dived Milne Bay but would put in a god word for Febrina. Enjoyed a nine night trip on her a couple of years back and she is a good boat with an excellent crew. Good luck with the Mantas, I had the same dilemma as you as I love Mantas but in the end went with the New Britian trip and had a great time.

Alison

 

[Allison Finch]

I have dived FeBrina many times and highly recommend her and her crew. New Britain has a little of everything. From many big sharks at Killibob's Knob to coral gardens at Midway with so many hard coral species you cannot count them all, diving in a tipped over HUGE vocanic crater (Witus), to muck in Wire Bay. I think there is more variety there than anywhere I have dived.

I will be on the FeBrina for three weeks in Feb/March to do some exploratory diving on the South shore of New Britain Island. There may be a few spots left. The trip is split into two sections for those who can't stay the whole time.

As for Tawali, I have not dived there but my sister just got back from there. She has also dived PNG many times over the years. She was very disappointed in the quality of the dive sites. She is of the opinion that the resort has not bargained well with the locals to gain access to some of the closer good reefs. She said they traveled a long way in the boats for some OK diving. Dealing with the locals and their demand for good compensation for the use of their reefs, has frustrated many an operation and has caused some to move their operations elsewhere.

 

[silent running]

I am planning my 1st trip to PNG.
I am looking at travelling Aug-Oct.
I will be travelling solo.
Either Milne bay or Rabaul-Walindi.

At the moment I am favouring Milne bay (Mantas/Wreck & muck diving )

I have just returned from Papua and I had an amazing dive at a Manta cleaning station. Would be interested to hear more about the Milne bay Mantas.
It is the chance to see Mantas that make Milne bay my likely destination.The mantas are a bonus on top of the great diving.

The MV Chertan & Febrina availability is ok. MV Golden dawn has no space during this time.

I enjoy muck dives & diving slopes, coral gardens rather than drift dives on walls with current.

Would appreciate any comments regarding these trips and how sheltered these locations are. This will be my 3rd live aboard. The last 2(Chuuk,Palau), sea conditions were great.

Hello Kevster, if you decide to do MB, it is best done on a liveaboard as it's a very, very large province. I've been there twice on Golden Dawn and had fantastic trips both times. It has many sheltered inshore dive sites, as does Walindi. But I think the critters are more numerous in MB. And remember that the province extends far out into the Solomon sea. There are seamounts and whole island chains like the Louisiades within it. I have seen plenty of big stuff farther out in MB, including hammers, silvertips and the largest oceanic Manta I've ever seen-close to 20ft. I think that even though MB has a reputation for muck diving, if your boat Capt. has a good knowledge of outer MB, you have a better chance of seeing big stuff than anywhere else in PNG, except Eastern Fields. As for dedicated Manta sites, the site which is referred to as "Giants at Home" is only 50M from the beach of an island near to the mainland and is the first place I saw a Manta. It's a rock in about 10M and has a moderate current. I also saw a Dugong there while snorkeling. Both Walindi and MB have wrecks, with MB having slightly more.

I have heard lots of good things about Chertan, but I would make sure that you check if Rob Vanderloos will actually be Captaining. He probably has more experience in MB than anybody else and should be willing to venture out to the east if the itinerary length permits. -Andy