Rabaul - Papua New Guinea

RABAUL – PAPUA NEW GUINEA
What an amazing day! We spent the night on board Orion in Simpson Harbor, Rabaul.
Rabaul is set at the eastern end of the island of New Britain and is famous for its spectacular setting. Nestled beside Simpson Harbor, the township is surrounded by six volcanoes, one of which, Mt Tavurvur, is currently active. During more than 100 years of settlement Rabaul has been rocked by massive volcanic eruptions and war. On 11th October 2006 at 10:00am local time Tavurvur erupted with ash reaching up to 25,000ft in elevation.

It is hard to explain how the town looks today. However, a visit to the New Guinea Club is a great way to become acquainted with the history and legacy of a town that was once known as the “Pearl” of the pacific. Today piles of black ash cover most of the old town and ash continues to fall daily over every inch of the town.

We started the day with the optional Volcano Adventure tour. We boarded buses (best available, which means exactly that, the best available) and headed with our local guide towards Mt Tavurvur and its column of ash. The closer we got to the volcano the more desolate the surroundings. This was once a thriving town of over 10,00 expatriates from all over the world that came to work on the coconut and cocoa plantations. Today very few of the original buildings remain except for concrete foundations.

The road is also covered in meters of ash, so much so that it completely disappeared the further we went until there were only sticks strategically placed in the ash with small blue pieces of plastic attached and a local guide who walked in front of the mini bus to ensure we didn’t get stuck. We arrived at a beach opposite the volcano and boarded local banana boats that ferried us across the foot of Mt Tavurvur, which may I say is quite daunting as it continually shoots huge clouds of ash and rock into the sky above you. A key safety hint, when you hear a bang look up and watch for falling lava…..then duck out of the way!

The water at the base of the volcano is rather warm and is full of a bright rust colored alga. Everything else is black ash or yellow sulphur ….another hint don’t hang out in the gullies, sulphur and carbon dioxide pool in these lower areas and can be deadly….basically keep moving. We walked along the base of the volcano taking some amazing shots of the ash plumes and moon like terrain before setting out to search for a local bird called the Megopod (Big Foot), a rather small bird with very large feet. This same bird digs very deep nesting holes around the base of the volcano and lays eggs that are 20% of their body size every 15 days. These eggs are a delicacy to the locals as they are predominantly yolk and there were several people digging them out during our visit. Each egg is worth about 2kina back in Rabaul so it is a rather good little business, if you can forget that you are hanging out at the base of an active volcano.

We also had the chance to see some World War II gun emplacements, very interesting!
We spent approximately 2 hours exploring the volcano and then boarded our banana boats for the return journey. When we reached the beach we were greeted by about 20 locals and children selling shell jewelry and woven bags. The children are amazing and love to have their photographs taken. Just make sure you are ready to share your digital images as they love to see themselves and their friends. I had the chance to meet a wonderful girl by the name of Brenda, who I chatted with for several minutes. As we were leaving she ran up to the bus and presented me with the most wonderful necklace as a parting gift. They are just so warm, friendly and gracious it is hard to put it into words.

I think the highlight of the day was the Easter procession that surrounded our mini bus on the way back to the ship. We were driving across a wide area of volcanic ash, everything is black, and then directly in front of us were over 200 people, dressed in bright colors carrying a huge white cross covered in yellow streamers and singing. It was stunning to say the least!
After lunch back on board we headed out on the shuttle bus to tour Rabaul with visits to the markets, Diabetic Center (run by an amazing German gentleman who provides assistance to diabetics the local community at no charge) the New Guinea Club which is adjacent to Yamamoto’s bunker and then the Rabaul Hotel.

The day culminated with our departure from Rabaul and one final opportunity to photograph Mt. Tavurvur from the comfort of Orion’s sun deck.

Tomorrow will be a sea day as we make our way across to Watam village on the Sepik River.