Diving Papua New Guinea: Main Scuba Diving Locations
The main scuba diving locations in PNG can be divided up into three main geographical areas – those around the main island of New Guinea, the north-east & south-east coasts of the large island of New Britain and those along the chain of islands that make up New Ireland.
Papua New Guinea - Main Scuba Diving Locations
Diving Papua New Guinea: Main Diving Locations – New Guinea
There are four significant diving locations on the main island of New Guinea, all of which offer some really great diving. The following brief descriptions contain links to take you to the starting page of each location and at the bottom of that page you will find links forward to the next page or backwards to the previous page.
Alternatively you can use the Locations tab on the menu bar above an navigate to your preferred destination – sorry there are so many options, but that’s PNG for you… so many places to dive!
Port Moresby & Bootless Bay
Port Moresby - Courtesy Rocky Roe & Neil Whiting
Contrary to what you might expect so close to a capital city, the scuba diving around Port Moresby is actually very good and at times simply excellent.
Often overlooked by diving tourists passing through on their way to Milne Bay or New Britain, a stop over in Port Moresbymay not be as bad as you think as it gives you the chance to sample the local diving and the sites in Bootless Bay and the offshore reefs – in particular my favorite sites of Suzies Bommie and the Pacific Gas shipwreck.
My recommendation would be to avoid Port Moresby completely and stay at Loloata Resort, particularly if your trip coincides with the peak diving season of November & early December when the conditions are usually at their very best.
Go to: Port Moresby & Bootless Bay Overview
Go to: Loloata Dive Resort
Go to: Suzies Bommie
Go to: Pacific Gas wreck
Go to: Port Moresby & Bootless Bay Image Gallery
Milne Bay
Milne Bay at it's best...
This is the place that put Papua New Guinea on the international scuba map, largely because of Bob & Dinah Halstead and their exploits there in their boat the MV Telita. Other adventurers soon followed Bob & Dinah, such as Rob van der Loos and his boat the MV Chertan and Craig de Wit on MV Golden Dawn
These days Bob & Dinah have sold their business but still lead occasional charters on Golden Dawn, which now only does Milne Bay in March, June & October.
MV Chertan concentrates on the Milne Bay area as does Spirit of Niugini and both boats operate under the umbrella of the Tawali Resort on the north coast of the province.
Go to: Milne Bay Province Overview
Go to: Tawali Dive Resort Overview
Go to: Tawali Dive Sites
Go to: Lauadi – Dinah’s Beach
Go to: Lauadi – Deacon’s Reef
Go to: Milne Bay Mantas – Giants @ Home
Go to: B17 Black Jack Wreck
Go to: Skull Caves
Tufi
Beautiful Tufi
Universally know as “Beautiful Tufi” this area of PNG is as scenic underwater as it is above and is one of my favorite places in Papua New Guinea.
Tufi has something for everyone – above water the scenic fiords are quite unique and the local villages are very welcoming in an open & friendly manner.
Below water there is the critter diving right off the dive jetty in Tufi fiord and then offshore there are a series of excellent reefs that are only visited by divers from the resort
I have literally spent weeks diving and exploring Tufi and it’s surroundings and never tire of it!
Go to: Oro Province Overview
Go to: Tufi Dive Resort
Go to: Scuba Diving at Tufi
Go to: Diving Tufi Wharf & House Reef
Go To: PT Boat Wrecks
Go To: Diving Cape Nelson Fiords
Go To: Tufi Offshore Reefs
Go To: Pistoff – B25 Mitchell Bomber Wreck
Go To: Village Culture, Village Homestays & Puri Puri
Go To: Cultural Demonstrations, Sing Sings & Facial Tattoos
Madang & Wewak
Map of Madang & Wewak
This is an area of PNG I have yet to explore, but I have heard a lot of good things about it and it is very much on my “to do” list.
But, for now, I can only point you in the direction of those who I know have dived the area.
Jan Messersmith lives in Madang and runs an excellent blog on the area & life in general called Madang – Ples Bilong Mi, while Golden Dawn bases itself in that general area from June through to September.
Although I have never dived with them, Melanesian Tourist Services have extensive operations in the area and offer diving as part of their overall portfolio.
Go to: Jan Messersmith’s blog
Go to: Golden Dawn’s Madang Page
Go to: Melanesian Tourist Services Nuigini Diving Adventures Site
Diving Papua New Guinea: Main Diving Locations – New Britain
There are three significant diving locations on the large island of New Britain and the following brief descriptions contain links to take you to the starting page of each location and at the bottom of that page you will find links forward to the next page or backwards to the previous page.
Kimbe Bay
Kimbe Bay Locals....
The Kimbe Bay area is to New Britain what the Milne Bay area is to the main island of New Guinea and offers a similar diversity of great sites.
There are numerous excellent sites in Kimbe Bay itself and then to the northwest are the remote Witu group of volcanic islands and the unique Garove Harbour located in the crater of an extinct submerged volcano.
Then to the northeast, along the northern coast line of New Britain, are the series of off shore reefs called The Fathers which are the sunken remains of a huge extinct volcanic caldera.
Go to: (Page under construction)
Rabaul & the Duke of York Islands
Rabaul's Superb Simpson Harbor
Universally acknowledged as the wreck diving capital of Papua New Guinea, the huge caldera that forms the superb natural harbor at Rabaul had a total of 64 Japanese WWII wrecks to choose from prior to the 1994 eruptions of the Tavurvur & Vulcan volcanoes.
Those eruptions decimated the easten part of Rabaul town and covered many of the best wrecks with grey volcanic ash… but time is a great healer and many of the wrecks can be dived again.
The wreck diving in and around Simpson Harbor, combined with the excellent Duke of York islands some 30km to the east, makes the Rabaul area prime diving real estate!
Go to: (Page under construction)
The South Coast
South Coast Coral Bommie
The south coast of the eastern half of New Britain is what you might call a remote location and there is only one logging road over the mountainour hinterland to the north coast of the island.
That same mountain range means that the seasons are reversed, so when it’s the wet season in the north it’s the dry in the south.
The south coast is only visited by one boat, the Star Dancer which is normally based from Walindi Plantation in Kimbe Bay during the XX months and then moves to Rabaul when it is covering the south coast.
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