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New ZealandPapua New GuineaYour place in the guide
A direct path for those who have already chosen the next stop of the trip. 10 destinations and 13 cities in Papua New Guinea.
Explore by destinationIllustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
Today's highlights
Wewak is the capital of East Sepik, on the northern coast, with nearby beaches and islands, and the gateway to the Sepik River. The airport occupies the former Japanese airstrip from World War II. West of the town centre, Cape Wom holds the memorial at the site where the Japanese army in New Guinea surrendered in 1945. From Wewak, a road runs south to Pagwi, in the middle Sepik.
Alotau has been the capital of Milne Bay Province since 1969, on the bay’s northern shore facing the mountains. On the waterfront is the Milne Bay Memorial, dedicated to the 1942 battle; to the west, the Turnbull Field Memorial marks the point where the Japanese advance was halted. By boat, the former port town of Samarai in the China Strait makes a full-day outing. The town is the base for the bay’s dives and hosts the Kenu and Kundu Festival in November.
Kokoda is the government station, founded in 1904, on a plateau at the foot of the Owen Stanley Range in Oro Province, and is the northern terminus of the Kokoda Track. In the area of the old parade ground are the memorial with four stone markers and the Herbert Kienzle museum, about the 1942 campaign. To the south, the track climbs to Isurava, where a granite memorial marks the battlefield.
Ambunti is a small settlement on the mid-Sepik and the main base for motorized canoe trips on the river. From here you visit riverside villages with spirit houses and wood carvings, and the Chambri lakes, which are flooded by the monsoon. The locality has a simple riverside guesthouse and hosts the Crocodile Festival, created as part of river conservation programs.
Kokopo has been the capital of East New Britain since 1994, when eruptions of Tavurvur and Vulcan covered Rabaul in ash. In the German era it was called Herbertshöhe and was the capital of German New Guinea until 1910. It lies on the shore of Blanche Bay, near Tokua Airport, and concentrates the region’s lodging. The War and Cultural Museum of Kokopo is in town, and to the south is the Bita Paka War Cemetery.
Kimbe is the capital and largest settlement of West New Britain, at the head of Kimbe Bay, with one of the country’s largest ports and oil-palm plantations around it. It is the base for diving on the bay’s reefs and for land trips to the warm Garu River in the forest to the west and the Pangalu hot springs near Talasea on the Willaumez Peninsula.
Losuia is the main settlement and the government station of the Trobriand Islands, on the island of Kiriwina. From here you can visit the island’s villages, with yam houses painted and decorated with shells, such as Omarakana, the village of the Trobriand paramount chief, and Kaibola Beach in the north, which has a reef for snorkeling. The island is flat, made of coral limestone, and life follows the yam calendar, whose harvest is celebrated in the milamala.
Madang is the capital of the province of the same name, on a peninsula of the north coast surrounded by bays and islets. On the tip of Kalibobo is the Coastwatchers Memorial lighthouse; a few minutes by boat, Kranket Island has beaches and reefs for snorkeling. South of the town are the pottery village of Bilbil and the Balek Wildlife Sanctuary, with a sulfurous spring that issues from a limestone cave.
Goroka is the capital of the Eastern Highlands, at about 1,600 meters elevation, with a mild climate and the airport in the centre. In town are the J. K. McCarthy Museum, with objects from the Highlands cultures and photographs of first contact in the 1930s; Goroka Market, known for handwoven bilum; and the Raun Raun theatre, a national cultural institution. In September, the Goroka Show brings together over a hundred dance groups at the National Sports Institute grounds.
Tufi is a small station at the southeastern tip of Cape Nelson, in Oro, on the edge of one of the narrow sea inlets locals call fiords. Canoes depart from there into Tufi’s fiords and to villages where tapa is made, and dive boats go to the cape’s reefs. On good-sea days, experienced divers go to the wreck of the B-17 Black Jack at Cape Vogel, on the other side of Collingwood Bay.
Rabaul lies within a volcanic caldera flooded by the sea, surrounding Simpson Harbour. The town was buried in ash during the 1994 eruption and is gradually rebuilding. There you can find the still-active Tavurvur volcano and the Rabaul Volcanological Observatory, which overlooks the caldera. From the time when Rabaul was the main Japanese base in the South Pacific remain Admiral Yamamoto’s bunker and the Japanese barge tunnels cut into the rock at Karavia Bay.
Kavieng is the capital and largest town of New Ireland, at the island’s northern tip on Balgai Bay. It survives on diving, surfing and fishing, with islets and reefs a few minutes by boat. On Harbour Road a Japanese cannon atop a bunker recalls the Second World War occupation. From there the Boluminski Highway departs, following the east coast to Namatanai and passing the Laraibina eel sanctuary.
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