Walindi: Recent Experience?

[reubencahn]

I'm planning a trip to PNG for July. Tentative plans are to be there for 15 or 16 days. I'm all but set on a nine day trip on Star Dancer, Walindi to Rabaul itinerary. My plan was to do land based for the remainder of the time. Walindi seems the obvious choice to reduce waste of time and money with extra flying but I haven't seen any recent reports. I could also go to Loloata though I'm thinking maybe not the best time of year to be there, or to Tawali, which seems to get rave reviews. If anyone's been to Walindi recently, I'd love to hear about your experience.

 

[Allison Finch]

Tawali is a nice resort. Food is good, accommodation is nice, boats are good, house reef is good. The rest of the CLOSE diving is muck diving, with good critters. Good reef diving, however, is at least 45 minutes-to 2 hours away by boat.

Loloata is a small island and has limited "local" interactions. I haven't dived there, myself, so information is limited.

Walindi has good food, nice rooms, and wonderful diving on their day boats. I have only done the liveaboard FeBrina in Kimbe bay, so don't know the travel times to the local sites. The local interactions are very good, since you can go into Kimbe and prowl the market areas. You can also take a side trip to a volcanically heated river for a hot dip.

If you want to dive that area more fully, you can book a trip on the FeBrina (check their schedule). Heck, check out doing back to back trips on the FeBrina. The Rabaul area is very nice, but it would be great to get out to the Witu Islands as well. That time of year is the best to get there.

I have been on both boats and the Stardancer may be the fancier boat, but I tend to prefer the FeBrina. It is captained by Alan Raabe, who has forgotten more about diving in PNG than most captains will ever know. A character, for sure, but he is very into reef conservation and has placed most of the permanent moorings that all the boats are using

Feel free to ask any questions. I will be leaving for PNG Feb 5th to spend a month on the FeBrina doing exploratory diving on the south shore of New Britain Island. I'll let you know what I find.

 

[reubencahn]

Tawali is a nice resort. Food is good, accommodation is nice, boats are good, house reef is good. The rest of the CLOSE diving is muck diving, with good critters. Good reef diving, however, is at least 45 minutes-to 2 hours away by boat.

Loloata is a small island and has limited "local" interactions. I haven't dived there, myself, so information is limited.

Walindi has good food, nice rooms, and wonderful diving on their day boats. I have only done the liveaboard FeBrina in Kimbe bay, so don't know the travel times to the local sites. The local interactions are very good, since you can go into Kimbe and prowl the market areas. You can also take a side trip to a volcanically heated river for a hot dip.

If you want to dive that area more fully, you can book a trip on the FeBrina (check their schedule). Heck, check out doing back to back trips on the FeBrina. The Rabaul area is very nice, but it would be great to get out to the Witu Islands as well. That time of year is the best to get there.

I have been on both boats and the Stardancer may be the fancier boat, but I tend to prefer the FeBrina. It is captained by Alan Raabe, who has forgotten more about diving in PNG than most captains will ever know. A character, for sure, but he is very into reef conservation and has placed most of the permanent moorings that all the boats are using

Feel free to ask any questions. I will be leaving for PNG Feb 5th to spend a month on the FeBrina doing exploratory diving on the south shore of New Britain Island. I'll let you know what I find.

I'd love to do back to backs but just can't afford it. Febrina's trips are all 9 and 10 days which would mean 19 or 20 days in PNG. Adding those three days for a family of three is $3k. But your comments on Walindi make me think it will be a good fit for us together with the time on Star Dancer. Quick question: my wife and son want another mask. I had thought about overnighting in Port Moresby to make the purchase. I can't remember the name, but there's the warehouse there filled with PNG arts. But your comment about prowling the Kimbe market made me wonder whether I'd find it possible to find something like that while at Walindi.

 

[ChetMoore]

Reuben,
Walindi has an extensive shore based operation which fits nicely into those who are starting/ending a Walindi based charter (FeBrina). The art source is PNG Arts in Moresby and Airways will shuttle you over for your shopping. Also, if you are leaving PNG after the charter and have the time, highly recommend staying at Loloata...your last dive is o/a 1500 and most international flights depart after 1500...giving you your 24 hr surface interval.

Disclosure: To maintain my sanity, I represent FeBrina/Walindi/Loloata and Star Dancer at the US consumer shows. Walindi/FeBrina/Loloata all have web sites which hyperlink to each other. You willl find me stuck on one the FeBrina web pages. And Allison is in for a neat trip...the South Coast .

Let me know if I can be of any further help. Oh, found your post on a png gossip site and ended up registering with SB to do this reply.
Cheers.
Chet

 

[Allison Finch]

Kimbe has a small shop that has nice quality artifacts (at least the last time I was there). There is also a local market that has a lot of flea market stuff. If you look closely you can find some "mis" or shell money and nice billums (knit bags) and other local and highland crafts.

The warehouse you are talking about in Port Moresby is PNG Arts. All the taxi drivers know about it. Get a taxi at your hotel and verify the cost before you go. They will wait for you while you shop. It is an amazing place. They will package and have your items shipped for you. Make sure you have it insured. When I shipped stuff a couple of years ago, it was shipped UPS, I had good results. The last time was with DHL. It was more expensive and 7 of the thirteen items were broken in some way. All were repaired and now the damage is hard to see.

 

[reubencahn]

The warehouse you are talking about in Port Moresby is PNG Arts. All the taxi drivers know about it. Get a taxi at your hotel and verify the cost before you go. They will wait for you while you shop. It is an amazing place. They will package and have your items shipped for you. Make sure you have it insured. When I shipped stuff a couple of years ago, it was shipped UPS, I had good results. The last time was with DHL. It was more expensive and 7 of the thirteen items were broken in some way. All were repaired and now the damage is hard to see.

Well, it sounds like a stop at PNG Arts is mandatory. It is an amazing place. We bought two masks and some other items when we were there a few years ago, but I couldn't remember the name. I guess it's the ravages of age. Funny about the shipping. We requested shipping, but they said they couldn't help. We ended up bringing the masks, etc., back through Australia which required a fair amount of begging to get through customs.

ChetMoore, I'm wondering what the weather is likely to be at Loloata in July. We stayed there for two nights in August of '04, and it was overcast and rainy with water temps in the mid-70s--though we hadn't planned any diving for the trip. Is that typical of the weather and water temps for the summer?

 

[ChetMoore]

Reuben,
Our summer (June, July, August) is generally good diving...wind comes up and as with the rest of the country, you can get some rain...our usual travel time is July and August...it is normally warm, Kimbe Bay water temp @ 60' is in the 85F range. Loloata tends to be a bit cooler, low
80's. Am surprised that you had temps in the 70's (any icebergs in sight???) Remember DHL is shutting down US ops. The reason why I like Loloata on the way out is that it is about 1/2 hour from the airport. You get your last dive in and then the staff cleans and delivers your equiipment to your door. You have a quiet evening to pack, a nice breakfast the next AM and it is off to the airport so you are there two plus hours before international departure. A no sweat way to head for home. Also this builds in some flex time getting from Hoskins (HKN) or Rabaul (RAB) to Port Moresby (POM) if there is an aircraft delay. I will be at the Long Beach show at the end of May...please stop by if you are there. My direct email is walindi@comcast.net if you need it.
Hope this helps.
Chet

 

[Stransky]

Hi Reuben,
I spent 5 days at Walindi after a febrina trip,i can recommend the day diving from Walindi,it was very good, 1/2 hr trips to dive sites,ect ect
if you are there with your family,it is perfect for you to leave them and disappear diving
if you want any specific info pm me.

and HI ALLISON

 

[reubencahn]

Is there shore diving at Walindi? Night diving?

 

[Stransky]

no,the dive sites are 15/30 mins by boat.(and there are some dam good sites)
and im sure they would accomadate night diving should you ask.