PNG has some lovely, isolated islands where life has remained unchanged for thousands of years with very little external influence excepting for some brief visits by Christian missionaries. We were able to spend a day each on Kitava, Kiriwina, and Doini Islands.Whilst some of the cruise ship guests remained on the boat and others just plopped themselves down on the beach for a sunbaking and swimming day, we did walk into the villages and tried to get a feel of l...

 Rabaul harbour is gorgeous. It has been called the most impressive harbour in the Pacific Basin and rightly so I think.As we sailed in, the impressive and brooding Mt. Tavurvur volcano loomed above, puffing smoke above several smaller ones. The area around the bay appeared extremely mountainous and its lush greenness spoke of regular heavy rains.And what of the "Unlucky Past"? In 1937 and 1994 Rabaul had to be rebuilt from the ground up after volcanic eruptions...

We were chafing at the bit to be some of the first to get onto dry land. Not because we were seasick or sick of being aboard after two days, just because we were craving travel experiences and knew, with the nature of cruise stopovers we would have precious little time ashore.By happy chance our stopover coincided with the annual Canoe and Kundu Festival and we set off quickly for the 3km walk into town from the ship's berth. We passed family groups with childre...