PNG Overview

Truly one of the last frontiers, Papua New Guinea is located north of Australia and occupies the eastern half of the island of New Guinea (the second largest island in the world), the Bismark & Louisade archipelagos, the Admiralty Islands, Bougainville Island and numerous other smaller islands in the Bismark & Solomon Seas.

The country is a wild and adventurous place both underwater and on land, offering some tremendous scuba diving and some unique & fascinating things to see.

PNG Scuba Diving - Resort or Liveaboard?

Papua New Guinea is an integral part of what is known variously as the Indo-Australian Archipelago, the East Indian Triangle or more commonly as the “coral triangle”. Generally considered by zoogeographers as the global epicenter of marine species diversity, the Coral Triangle encompasses the countries of Indonesia, East Malaysia (Sabah), the Philippines & Papua New Guinea and, simply stated, is probably the richest area of marine biodiversity in the world.

This incredibly rich marine biodiversity means that PNG offers some of the best scuba diving in the world and the really interesting thing about PNG scuba diving is that, in terms of exploring what it has to offer underwater, the surface has only really just been scratched!

Resort based scuba diving is well established in Bootless Bay near the capital of Port Moresby, in Milne Bay, Tufi and a couple of other locations on the main island of New Guinea, plus in Kimbe Bay & Rabaul on the island of New Britain and there are some dive operators on New Ireland focused on Kavieng. But liveaboard dive boats are the only way to access some of the many remote locations such as the south coast of New Britain.

Milne Bay is serviced by MV Chertan and Spirit of New Guinea, and the venerable MV Telita while it's sister ship the Golden Dawn also covers Milne Bay plus the north coast of New Guinea around Madang & Weewak, the northern part of New Ireland and the very remote Eastern Fields area roughly one third of the way between PNG and the tip of north-east Australia.

Kimbe Bay & New Britain is serviced by the MV Febrina and the Peter Hughes boat Star Dancer, both of which operate from Walindi Plantation dive resort.

Wandering from area to area and very much focused on wreck diving is the MV Barbarian and it's captain Rod Pearce.

PNG's Marine Diversity

PNG's physical location at the eastern end of the vast South-East Asia archipelago means that it is subject to the effects of both the South Equatorial Current and the formidable Indonesia Throughflow.

The eastern half of Indonesia owes it's incredible marine diversity to the Indonesian Throughflow - the phenomenal flow of water from the Pacific Ocean in the north, to the Indian Ocean in the south.

But PNG also benefits from the South Equatorial Current, which flows east to west across the Pacific Ocean. An excellent explanation of the South Equatorial Current, and the associated Trade Winds & monsoon seasons, can found on this link to the Australian Institute of Marine Science’s website.

These massive movements of water, together with the high levels of tropical light and warm regional temperatures, produce the conditions that have created the incredible marine diversity of PNG.

PNG - Underwater Photography

For the underwater photographer PNG offers an incredible selection of subject matter ranging from large pelagics to the smallest critters.

Some of my best images have been taken in PNG and I have created a PNG section in the Image Gallery section to showcase those images.

PNG - Dive Travel

Traveling in PNG can be quite challenging as there is very limited tourism infrastructure and it can also be quite expensive, particularly in the capital Port Moresby where a boom town phenomena has developed since the recent arrival of "big oil" for the development of the nation's gas reserves. Hotel & rental property prices in Port Moresby have skyrocketed - often doubling in price as the limited supply adjust to the strong demand.

However the challenge is well worth it because if you want to experience some of the best diving in the world and maybe include a side trip to see tribal culture at it's raw best or perhaps a Bird of Paradise, then Papua New Guinea is the place.

Formerly an Australian colony, the now independent country has a population of around 6.5 million people, with about 80% of them living in rural areas with virtually no modern facilities such as electricity or running water

PNG Culture - Quite Unique!

PNG is very much in the developing nation category. But what makes PNG so special is that there are an estimated 700+ tribes, over 1000 different cultural groups and 823 languages, which in itself make Papua New Guinea somewhat of a ‘linguistic superpower’.

An appreciation of the "Wontok" system is the key to gaining an understanding of PNG. In the common Pidgin language that is spoken across most of the country, Wontok literally means "one language" and refers to the language of the tribe a person belongs to.

But Wontok is much more than a language as it encompasses the basic philosophy of life for the people of PNG.

If your Wontok is in trouble, you are honor bound to help them, or if they need money or are hungry again you are compelled to help them as much as you possibly can.

In many ways the Wontok system is the social glue of PNG and is admirable in many ways in a country that is so poor and has such basic services and no safety net for the poor.

Truly a fascinating country and one that although I have visited it many times, I feel that I have only just begin to scratch the surface.

Go To: Bootless Bay in Port Morseby

Go To: Tufi in Oro Province

Go To: Milne Bay

Go To: New Britain

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