Port Moresby , PNG Trip report

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Some Interesting Facts about PNG

Papua New Guineans speak about 700 + languages, that’s more than half of the world’s 1400 + languages . 3 most popular languages spoken by most Papua New Guineans are English, Motau and Pigin . Papua New Guineans speak on average 3 languages and its not uncommon to find Papua New Guineans that speak 4 .

PNG has a GDP of about US$14.37 billions. ( 2005 estimate ) , ranked 133th in the world ,among 233 countries. A rough guide, Singapore GDP US$124.3 billions ( 2005 estimate ) , 58th in the world. Despite being the wealthiest South Pacific Nation , the different provinces of PNG are NOT linked by roads nor rail. The only way to get around is by flight or boat.

New Guinea mainland itself, is divided into 2 countries . Papua New Guinea ( Eastern Half )and Indonesia ( Western Half ) . There you have an Asian country on the west, and a Pacific nation on the east , all on the same mainland . Port Moresby ( POM ) is PNG’s capital . PNG’s time is GMT +10 .

Trip Report

Departed Singapore Changi Airport on a Air Niugini Thur night flight. Flight supposed to be 6 hrs 30 mins, but due to thunderstorms, the pilot had to detour abit over Indonesian airspace and flight took 7hrs. Lots of turbulence. Plane was Airbus 767-300. Leg space was generous, compared to SIA. But seat was abit , err “ thin”. Can feel the bump when the person behind accidentally knocked onto my seat . Touched down at Jacksons International Airport , Port Moresby at 6am ,Fri , PNG time.

There are 3 counters at the Immigration , 1 for travellers without valid visas, another for those with visas and the 3rd for travellers residing in PNG. I’m glad that I got my visa in Spore before I touch down in POM. The queue for those without visa was very long, and I dun fancy filling up forms at 6am, after a 7hrs night flight. And they only accept their own currency, Kina , for the visa payment. Cannot use credit card to pay either. Took us 1 hr from the time we join the queue to the time we cleared the immigration . The Airways Hotel and Apartments ( www.airways.com.pg ) van is just outside the airport, need to take a open air staircase to reach the open air carpark to find it. A 5 mins ride got us into the compound of the hotel.

After we settled down, we call on our host, Mr John Miller of The Dive Centre , www.divecentre.com.pg . Fri we did not dive as we were tired and could not sleep much on the plane. Although we were tired by work , the excitement and turbulence kept us awake. Fri was spent exploring our hotel, Airways Hotel and Apartments, , and enjoying the buffet meals of western food, Teppanyaki , sushi and sashimi ,at the Poolside resturant, overlooking the Stanley Owen Mountain Range , Jackson Airport and Bootless Bay. ( Mods, if its an issue posting the websites here, pls remove them , thanks )

 

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Dive Day 1 – 5

Typical dive day : After breakfast, we meet the dive staff at 8am at the dive shop, which is located at the poolside. A 15 mins drive will get us to Bootless Bay, where the jetty and our dive boat, Solatai is located. Boat is good, can comfortably support 10 divers with lots of space. During surface interval , hot instant noodles , biscuits , coffee and tea are served .

1st dive of the trip is at Lion island , Sir Godfrey Wreck and 2nd dive The Lady Jules ( wreck ) at Lion island too. Nothing great here, just a couple of 1 ½ feet cuttlefish , a few choromodoris magnifica , flatworms, moorish idols , goby and shrimp , lizard fish , lionfish , clark’s clown fish and firefish . Vis was between 7 – 10 m at this muck diving site . It’s a pity that we do not have the chance to check out this muck site for the more exotic macrolife as we got a couple of ow divers with us who stir up the silt. Disclaimer : I have nothing against ow divers,the silt thing is understandable. And we were all once an ow diver too.

Dive Day 2

We dived End’s Bommie . It’s a nice reefwall. Basically this site is right in the middle of the sea. Nearest shore is about an hr’s boat ride away. Typical of all dive sites, there is a permanent anchor point . Boat crew will snorkel down to tie the boat’s anchor line to the floating buoy. After descending down the anchorline , we regrouped at the bottom. Current picked up while we were waiting for 2 ow divers who had some problem descending. Octo was leaking slightly . Continued with the drift dive after everyone was there . Saw the normal reef fish , nudibranch Notodoris Minor and a couple of nice anemone shrimps . Was low on air when we began our return to the anchor line. Buddy stand by her octo for me when I signalled to her as I went below 50 bar . When we reached the anchor point , saw nudibranch Funeral Jorunna and its newly laid egg . By this time, I’m on 10 bar , 5 – 6m and thus have no time to properly compose my shots. Basically just shoot and scoot .
Next dive was at MV Pai II ( big Wreck ) , at the other end of the End’s Bommie. It was fantastic.Common Lionfish were everywhere and was shooting this Red Firefish near the side of the wreck when my buddy alerted me to something . 1 arm’s length away, at the edge of the wreck , there was this mantis shrimp watching me shoot the red firefish. I turned my attention to the mantis shrimp. It went back into hiding. Waited patiently for 5 mins for it to remerge from its hiding place and took the photos. Saw a very big groupa , probably 1m+ . Saw our dive guide waving to us 3m away. Finned over and saw 2 white leaf scorpion fish . I waited no more and quickly adjusted my strobe and fire away. After we moved away from the wreck, on the sloping sandy bottom, something slithering caught my attention, it was an Olive green sea snake . Alerted every diver of its presence. Dive guide and me were shooting the snake when I realised that it knew we are watching it. It playfully headed for the other dive guide and stalked us when we moved on towards our anchor point. It went abit too friendly for comfort when it went for the fins of the 2nd dive guide. I got my pointer in 1 hand and dive knife/ scissor in the other hand ready , in case it decide to take a bite at him.


On our way back to Bootless Bay, we were greeted by a pod of playful dolphins. they delibrately will try to outswim our boat and gave us a amazing performance of their speed. What a way to end a great day of diving.

The Lukim PNG Nau Expo 2006 was held at the Holiday Inn on the 16th - 17th June . We were at the Expo after the dive .

 

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Red Fire Fish ?

mantis Shrimp

 

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White Leaf scorpion fish

Playful pod of dolphins

 

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PNG Dive Expo at Holiday Inn

John and staff at the Expo

 

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Dive Day 3

My heart broke when I was closing the battery compartment of my strobe after loading in the rechargable batteries and broke my o ring. I forgot that I have a spare and did not bring for this trip. From this day onwards, my strobe was out of action. Its actually a blessing. Blessing no.1 because I broke the o ring on land , in my room and not while diving, thus my strobe did not drown. Blessing no.2 , it forced me to go back to basics and rely on internal flash and custom white balance . 1st dive of the day , MV Pacific Gas ( a HUGE wreck ) . Lots of common lionfish and saw a banded coral shrimp hiding among the tiny crevices in the wreck. Was surrounded by schooling fish . During the safety stop hanging on to the anchor line, this is the floating tyre that held up the line. I’m thinking, there must be something hiding here , search around for a min and saw this tiny hairy spidercrab. Quite impossible to have a good shot with 1 hand hanging on to the line in quite bad surge and the other hand holding the camera, only managed to have a blurred shot of it.
Next dive was at Quayles Reef. Saw a toilet bowl , and a diver gamely floatingly “ sat “ on it and posed for me. Surrounded by schooling yellow tails , awesome .Caught an crocodile fish sun tanning on the reef . Saw a white tip shark. Was trying to shoot the anemone shrimps when I was constantly been attacked by a Clark’s Anemone Fish, it contantly bite me on my gloves. I guess it is trying to tell me, “ Hey , no photography allowed on private property “ . I backed off and abort shooting the shrimps. After I got back onto the boat , then it dawn on me that, the anemone fish could be nesting, which is why it attacked me .


Dive day 4

This is the day we had the best vis , 25 – 30 m . Finally had an cloudless sunny day. Dived this awesome site called Susie’s Bommie , basically our boat is tied to the permanent anchor at the reef , and descend down the line, and did the crossing to reach Susie’s Bommie. Had schooling yellow tails, and the breath taking schooling oriental sweetlips. Saw an Papuan stonefish , 2 sleeping nurse shark , choromodoris magnifica , crocodile fish.
2nd dive was at another bommie , Di’s Delight , named after the diver who discovered it.,
Dinah. Another awesome dive site . Like susie’s bommie, descend down the anchor line and did the crossing to reach the bommie . Saw 3 white tips while crossing and had schooling yellow tails again , lionfish , and schooling jacks , barracudas , travelly , snappers and trumpet fish . On the reef where the permanent anchor was , there is this 5m gorgonian fan. Awesome is an understatement to describe it . I will never forget this 2 awesome dives.

 

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Schooling Oriental Sweetlips

 

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Dive Day 5

Last day of diving , dived Pummkin’s Patch , Di’s Delight , and A20 Boston Wreck ( Bomber ) Saw Nudibranch Choromodoris Magnifica , Abstract Reticulidia , pufferfish , 5 m gorgonian fan , moorish idol ,barracudas , schooling oriental sweetlips ( smaller school than the one at Susie’s Bommie ) , titan trigger and clown trigger , lionfish , 1st time diving a plane wreck, can see the nose of the bomber that got smacked into the seabed. Was told that the pilot managed to bail out and swam to shore. Must be a tiring swim, shore IS far….

In all our 11 dives there, getting back onto the boat was a real challenge. The surge is great , but luckily the Solatai’s ladder had broad steps and the crew were professional.



Departure Day

John Miller brought us for a half day tour of Port Moresby , to the downtown , Hill top with a breath taking view of the PNG barrier reef and Harbour . We also visited the National Museum , Parliament House and PNG Art , where the artifacts can be bought.


Port Moresby is the gateway to the rest of the provinces in PNG. My advise for divers planning a trip to the other provinces: since there is a need to land in Port Moresby to take the domestic flight , I guess it will be convenient to stay a couple of nights in Moresby, for some diving and sight seeing. Visit the Museum and Parliament House and if you are into collecting the Sepik mask and other PNG artifacts, a visit to PNG Art is good. John is an Australian who had lived in Port Moresby for the past 42 years, I guess he is more of and Papua New Guinean than an Australian and he is the best person to bring us around town . The Dive Centre do sightseeing tours .

Coffee lovers can buy the PNG coffee on Air Niugini’s flight and at the Duty Free shops ( departure hall ) at the airport . Personally I like to visit the supermarkets when I travel and I bought my 2 yrs’ supply of PNG coffee from Andersen FoodLand . There are more variety than at the duty free shops and the coffee tend to have a longer expiry date.

 

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** Note , i'm not in contact with any coral nor sea fan . Its the angle of this photo that makes it seem so. And pardon my buddy's 1st attempt at UW photography.

Awesome Sea fans