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| The locals rocked up from all the surrounding islands. |
Kiriwina Island was our third stop on our Papua New Guinea cruise in September, the plan for today was like a lot of others on this trip, get up, get on the tender, and then find another great spot to go snorkelling until we’d had enough of that, and then we would head through the village and check out the cultural side of life on the Trobiand islands. Things didn’t go as planned this morning though, when the alarm went at 6:30 I glanced out the window to see our new South Pacific paradise cloaked in pouring rain, hmm not much to do really but to go back to bed for awhile. By 10am the rain hadn’t really eased much but we figured that we may as well head ashore and check things out anyway, the main aim was to snorkel so it wasn’t like I wasn’t going to get wet anyway.
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| The locals set up the usual market, this one was a little more substantial than some on the other islands. |
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So after negotiating the tender rush hour we eventually set foot on the island just before lunch time, next time I’ll brave the rain and get over while the majority of the punters are grazing at the buffet I reckon, the rain is preferable to being jostled by aggressive pensioners I think. Arriving on Kiriwina Island the locals had set up a craft market along the shore for around 100 metres in both directions so we ambled along checking out the assorted carvings, necklaces and bracelets. Of more interest to me though was the local schools, with the pupils all dressed up and singing for the dim dims off the ship, these kids and their dedicated teachers really appreciate what ever gifts we could spare for them. I have a bit of a plan in that I’ve got some addresses for the schools and I’m going to try posting some school supplies over once I get back to Australia, if it works I’ll retrospectively publish the addresses on my blog in case anyone has anything that may be handy over there. I have to make sure it works first though, its not exactly like posting something to your mum in Queensland.
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On Dioni Island Sam had missed out on the Skull Cave but fortuitously Kiriwina Island had one right on the beach, so after paying our 10 kina for a look and some photos we were soon checking out some more human remains, this trip was turning into a bit of an episode of CSI PNG, if I notice them warming up some water in a feral sized pot I’m outta there! This cave also featured a few bigger bones, maybe tibia’s or fibia’s, but it all looked a little neat and contrived to me, but then again maybe I’m just cynical, and anyway they need the 10 kina more than me. After our skull cave encounter we decided to just head inland up the muddy road a bit and see what we could find. Well today we found a lot of mozzies, mud and the further we went, very few dim dims. What we did find however was a local guide who attached himself to us and insisted on showing us around the villages, now they mustn’t of been Leo’s villages because he was reluctant to take us through the middle of the villages but it was handy to have someone who knew his way around a bit and Leo showed us the local medical Centre as well as the local primary school, something that Sam was very interested in.
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It all looked a little to neat to my eyes.
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A local man showed us around the village.
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| Everyone came down to check out all the dim dims. |
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By now I was ready for a swim though so I asked Leo to take us somewhere we could snorkel, I’d hadn’t had great reports about the snorkelling on Kiriwina hearing that the water was too shallow. So leaving Sam on the beach under a shady tree I pulled on the fins and eased myself off the beach, within a couple of metres I was floating over dead bleached coral in well less than a metre of water, now anyone who knows me would realise that the feral fat guts is probably around a metre in diameter so there wasn’t a lot of clearance as I made my way over the sharp coral. The good news was that after some careful navigation I started to make it out into some slightly deeper water, the fish and the coral correspondingly improving with the water depth. Eventually I got to the spot that I was aiming for, I’d noticed the waves breaking on the outer reef from the beach and was hoping for a good drop off and for once my cunning plan paid off, I was suddenly floating off the reef with a blue abyss below me, the fish and the coral love these spots and so do I.
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Leo showed us around the local primary school.
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The primary school toilets are a more rustic than those back home.
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| Once I got out to the drop off the snorkelling was very good. |
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It turned out that the snorkelling was pretty good here, way better than my luke warm recommendations had me expecting. I spent the next hour or so floating up and down along the drop off, all the while accompanied by a group of local boys in their banana boats, intent on ferrying me back to shore in one of their boats. These young guys might actually be the key to snorkelling here, if your not comfortable floating over the shallow coral out to the deeper water then it would be a simple thing to employ one of these guys to get you out there. For me though they were a little bit of a pain in the arse today as they didn’t want to leave my side in the fear that I’d give my custom to someone else, I was a little concerned that I’d dive down to view some fish or coral and then resurface under one of the boats, knocking my self out wouldn’t be an optimum outcome out here.
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I love snorkelling those big drop offs.
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My biggest danger today was smacking my head on the bottom of one of these banana boats, the local kids were keen
for my custom.
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Eventually I escaped the flotilla of banana boats and made my way back to shore to find Sam….had adopted a local family. We’d been told that the locals would just come a sit beside you on the beach and indeed Sam had a whole family with her. Sitting down, introductions were made and a coconut passed around, we then spent a very pleasant couple of hours learning about life on Kiriwina Island and meeting the family and extended family. If we did this back in Australia someone would call the cops I reckon, but here it was the most natural and innocent thing in the world to do. After exchanging addresses we said our goodbyes, Sam and I heading back to the 21st century, our new friends back to the 19th century but you know what, even though they didn’t have most of the things we consider as necessities they had something that a lot of western people don’t have and that is a loving extended family and happiness.
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I came back from my snorkelling excursion to find that either we had been adopted, or we'd adopted a local family.
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Our new friends mother in law.
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Mum
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And the kids.
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The Dirt.
There is no way to visit Kiriwina Island easily unless it’s on a boat I don’t think, as far as I can tell the island has no tourism infrastructure, although the island is fairly big and I didn’t see all of it so this information might not be perfect. If your go is snorkelling then the best I can do is to say head left from the jetty towards the rocky stacks, if you don’t feel confident swimming over the sharp coral them maybe consider hiring a one of the banana boats to get you out to the drop off.
Relevant Posts.
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| Everyone one here owns a boat, the children are given a boat when they are old enough just like our children would be given a push bike. |
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| By late afternoon most of the other dim dims had returned to the sanctuary of the Horizon Food Court on the ship. |
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| Sailing away from Kiriwina Island after what had been a great day out. |
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