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Trip Report of a Trip to Walindi and Kavieng, PNG, in 1999
May 1999 saw a dive expedition organised by United Divers in conjunction with Allways Dive Expeditions to Papua New Guinea. Although PNG has a mixed reputation as a tourist destination, I can say that our trip was exceptional, and we certainly had a great time in two destinations that offered excellent diving - Kavieng and Walindi.
In fact, the only problems we encountered in PNG were with baggage handling on the domestic legs with Air Niugini. Flights were delayed, and we had problems (or near problems) with baggage at literally every step along the way. Otherwise, we were impressed with the diving, the destinations, and the services offered by the operators.
10 - 14 May - Kavieng, PNG
The first leg of the PNG trip was to visit Kavieng - the famous “Big Fish” diving destination. We were perhaps a little unlucky to time our visit to the days when the tides at the main channels were outgoing, and were told that the pelagic action would be better on the incoming currents. Nonetheless we had some great diving, and saw some incredible fish life.
Our diving at Kavieng included the following sites:
- Albatross Passage
- Danny’s Bommie
- Helmut’s Reef
- Lighthouse Reef
- Big Fish Reef
- Silvertip Reef (aka Valerie’s’ Reef - home of incredible Silvertip sharks)
- Eagle Ray Pass
- Planet Channel
- Ral Island (excellent muck diving)
- Der Yang wreck / Echuca Patch
- Nusa Blowholes
- Mitsubishi Fighter (Kavieng Harbour)
16 - 20 May - Walindi, PNG
The second leg of our PNG ‘99 trip was the Walindi in West New Britain Province. Famed as the world’s best dive resort, Walindi is a simply amazing dive destination. The resort is beautiful, the staff excellent, the service outstanding, the scenery lovely and the diving AMAZING. The place is geared up to diving the excellent Kimbe bay, and surrounds.
The management goes out of the their way to protect the reefs, with an impressive mooring installation program, and diligence to using them. The boats are well built and maintained, and the crews know the sites. The sites boast great coral, excellent fishwife, and occasional sightings of Orcas.
Walindi features a photography shop (Walindi Photo), run by Tammy and Peter Manz. E6 processing, camera sales, hire and tuition and various souvenirs are available.
Some of the sites we dived during our visit to Walindi included
- South Ema Reef (swimthroughs deep in the wall)
- Susan’s Reef (great coral growth)
- Inglish Shoal (pinnacle coming to within 13m of the surface)
- Restoff Island (a muck diver’s paradise)
- Otto’s Reef (deep wall dive)
- Otto’s Drift (the other side of the wall)
- Jonno’s Nuts (two large bommies off a wall at Joy’s Reef)
Walindi and Kavieng were both amazing places, and I would not hesitate to return to either.