It’s hard to imagine a more picturesque setting than the one that Tufi Dive Resort enjoys – picture if you will the fjords of Norway, or the south island of New Zealand, but set in a tropical location with a dense covering of rainforest that descends to the water’s edge.
Then picture a small resort consisting of a very pleasant colonial style main lodge, surrounded by a number of timber guest cabins, perched on a ridge overlooking one of these magnificent “tropical fjords”.
The beautiful Tufi Fiord
The area’s unique topography is the result of an ancient eruption of three volcanoes on Cape Nelson, the lava flow from which created the long & narrow coastal inlets as it poured into the Solomon Sea.
Geologists refer to such coastal inlets as “rias”, because a true fiord is created by glaciers – large but slow moving rivers of ice that carve out U shaped canyons over thousands of years – the fiord being what remains after the climatic conditions change and the ice melts.
Located at the western tip of Cape Nelson in Oro Province, Tufi is the second largest of the 9 tropical fiords found in the area.
The dive resort is built on the site of the original pub & hotel that served the small expatriate community prior to independence, when Tufi was a settlement for the Australian Administration.
The main lodge is a single story colonial style wooden building with wide verandas which houses the common lounge, the restaurant and the bar.
The accommodation consists of a number of self-contained bungalows distributed around the main lodge. There is also a very nice terrace & BBQ area that overlooks Tufi fiord and provides superb views all the way to the extinct volcanoes in the distance.
Tufi Dive Resort Image Gallery
Diving Papua New Guinea: Tufi Dive Resort – Getting There
Tufi International Airport
Located as it is on the east coast and separated from Port Moresby by the formidable Owen Stanley mountain range, there are only two ways to get to Tufi is – by air, or you can go the long way round by sea.
Driving is simply not an option as there are no roads…
The original grass strip at Tufi meant that flights were restricted to Twin Otter aircraft and Airlines PNG had flights from Port Moresby on Monday, Wednesday & Friday.
Although this meant a restriction on the number of passengers it did mean that you got to land at the delightfully named Tufi International Airport…
Early in 2010 the resort completed a major project to build a larger strip so that Airlines PNG could use their larger Dash 8 aircraft.
The flights are still from Port Moresby on Monday, Wednesday & Friday but now fly via Popondetta.
Next Page: Scuba Diving at Tufi
Back To: Oro Province Overview
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