New Britain, with her former capital in Rabaul, is an awesome corner of the world.
Image via Wikipedia
In 1983, I was lucky to visit the Gazelle Peninsula with school. Rabaul looked beautiful. Then it had way more character than Port Moresby or Lae. We had the chance to go into the cone of that beast, Mt. Tavuvur. Walking around on the floor of an active volcano is one adventure few are likely to try. You were on tenterhooks, although you hoped the nearby monitoring station, was doing their job. It was eerie down there and smelly, too, with the sulphur-fumes nearly choking you. The ground had a strange, light-yellow hue with tiny vents of steam puffing around about. I took home a canary yellow sulphur stone which I held in souvenir for a few years after. I wasn’t the least surprised when that mountain blew. You felt you were a hairsbreadth from it on that high school Geography trip.
Image via Wikipedia
New Britain Today
New Britain, comprising West New Britain, with her capital in Kimbe, and East New Britain, with her capital in Kokopo near Rabaul, is magic. The level of danger that one sees in the Port Moresby just isn’t there. It’s a safe place to visit and steeped in history. From the time of Queen Emma, the fall of German rule, at the end of World War One, the invasion and occupation by Japan in the Second World War plus all the volcanism any visitor is sure of a great time. It’s also unique with her tribes and cultures staging the wild Baining Fire Dance or the mysterious juju dance of the Duk Duk.
Kimbe and Hoskins, in the West, are famed for amazing diving adventures and not as developed as the East. New Britain is a magnificent, magic destination.
Kimbe Bay is the oldest coral reef on the planet:
· With an amazing 60% of all known coral species in the Indian and Pacific Oceans in one bay
· And 860 species of reef fish
· And a little known diving realm, holding an amazing dive trip, for you.
My heart is in the Gazelle Peninsula. I spent my years in Port Moresby but it was New Britain that bewitched. I was fortunate to have visited Rabaul before the obliteration. I hear Kokopo just doesn’t cut it architecturally. I suppose when they grew Kokopo as the new provincial capital after 1994, they had to throw it up fast, as there were many refugees. Calls are underway to rebuild Rabaul but with volcanic eruptions still occurring near the old Capital it seems pie-in-the-sky.
Niugini Tales
The Sad Story of Christopher Robinson
Errol Flynn’s Century of Whoa!
The Ringer, the Riot and the Right Royal Visit
The Islands of Love and the Crocodile Pit
Welcome to Authspot, the spot for creative writing.
Read some stories and poems, and be sure to subscribe to our feed!
