From Darwin to Tufi

So I gave up trying to keep this current over in PNG as the internet just would not co-operate with me very well, and then halfway through a cockatoo actually ate the wifi cord where I was staying and so it really went downhill after that .. So stay tuned and quite a few posts should all come up in the next few days-week :)

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After leaving Darwin I headed back to Queensland for a few days before taking off overseas to Papua New Guinea.  It was a short stopover but I managed to get quite a lot of stuff done! (thankfully).  Shopping, sorting and packing and deciding what I couldn’t do without, what wasn’t essential and what I really shouldn’t even consider.   The whole time I was packing and preparing I had in the back of my head the fact that I only had 16kg of room in my luggage … Talk about restrictions!  In the end I was 1.5kg over and decided that I would just have to go with it and pay any extra fees that may get thrown my way.  While I was home I was also lucky enough to be there for my little sister’s birthday dinner and Mother’s Day.  Fantastic timing if you ask me – especially seeings as I’ve done well thus far this year with being home for things – such as earlier on when I was here for Dad’s birthday.  Will have to see how the rest of the year pans out (as a complete aside I get back home from PNG on one of my brother’s birthdays!).

Anyway, Thursday afternoon on the 16 May saw me at the airport ready to board for stage one of my trip away – heading to Brisbane.  I stayed overnight there and then back to the International Airport bright and early ready to head off.  Bags checked, ticket printed, some currency converted and off I went down to customs and immigration.  Had enough time to go for a wander around duty free and make some decisions about what I thought I might get on my way back through .. but not enough to make me 100% sure and to pre-purchase it all to pick up.  Made it to the gate with time to spare and boarded nice and early.  I had a pretty good seat up the front of the plane with heaps of leg room! Very thankful for the way that turned out.  The only thing which would have made it better would have been to have not been in front of the exit … which sadly meant that there was no seat reclining for me … :( but – seeings as it was a morning flight hardly the end of the world!  I think my favourite part of the inflight announcement was the fact that there was to be no chewing of betelnut on the flight … meanwhile I’m thinking where the heck are they buying that in Australia???  

The flight was unremarkable (the way you want them to be) and landed safe n sound in Port Moresby.  Customs was nice and easy – and they didn’t care about my foodstuffs thankfully.   Quick stop to pick up a PNG SIM card and then off to the domestic terminal to check in for the next leg of the trip.  It was quite interesting seeing all the security around the terminal and all bags went through the bag scanner before you could go in – suitcases and all – and you walked through the usual metal detectors.  After picking the right line and getting the bag checked in (with no problems about being overweight thankfully!) it was through another security checkpoint to the departure lounge.  For an airport that is physically smaller than the Rocky Airport there is an awful lot of security around!  Initially in the departure area I felt incredibly conspicuous as there weren’t many other Caucasians of any nationality around – but fortunately that changed before too long.  I spent a long time just checking out the selection of foodstuffs before buying this rather yummy muffin for lunch and some passionfruit Fanta!  Do we have that in Australia?? If not I think we should get some!  I grabbed a few extras for snacks (Twisties and a brownie) for while away and then settled down to wait.  I did find the decorations on the wall quite interesting once I started looking at them too … very peculiar and yet very Papua New Guinean at the same time :)

 

Gotta love the natives dancing on the wall!

The trip over was again uneventful and filled with who could only be more guests for the resort .. at least at the front of the plane in my opinion (and I was right).  The domestic plane was quite interesting in itself!  It was basically a mini dash-8 with 8 rows of 2 x 2 on each side.   The hostess was lovely but her safety brief she had to half yell as she was the only attendant and was both demonstrator and speaker.  Was hilarious, and felt a little sorry for her as well!  The runway at Tufi is pretty short and you take off and land straight from the ocean.  When the plane touched down the brakes get slammed on so you manage to stop before you run out of runway and end up in the village (or Tufi Station as it is called) … rather an abrupt landing but understandable!

Such a baby plane!

We were picked up and taken over to the resort – probably only a km away and our bags managed to magically follow us with some other people.   We had a welcome drink and then signed our lives away with an indemnity form (seemed a little odd) before being assigned our rooms.  I had a lovely cabin with a little verandah and hammock which was just beautiful.  I think that the hammock made my day … and felt that a fitting end to the daylight part of the day at least was to spend some time in it :)

The view from the dinner deck at Tufi .... Really hard to handle

Blissful Hammock ... Everyone should enjoy one :)

View from the Hammock

I wandered up to the verandah for a pre-dinner drink and to make myself be sociable.  I met some of the guests staying there for the weekend – a lovely lady and her husband – Cate and Ian.  While we were sitting around – chatting and waiting for dinner a group from the villiage came up and did a ‘sing sing’ for us.  Beautiful costumes and lovely voices from them all :) (and sadly my picture of the singers is not very good ... the one of Ian and Cate is lovely)

Beautiful Sing Sing Group from Tufi

Cate and Ian

It was then time to head for dinner.  All meals are included in the accommodation at this place and each and every one of them was quite extravagant.  Three courses and absolutely delicious!  Fresh seafood, steak, chicken and produce .. what more could you ask for!

The next day I went for a bit of a boat ride with Cate and Ian down to a waterfall down one of the fjords about 2 fingers down from the one in which we were staying.  The trip down was pretty rough but so much fun at the same time!  The fjord was peaceful and the waterfalls were beautiful when we got there.  After watching the water for quite a while and bobbing along we headed back around to another fjord and then jumped in for a snorkel.  The water was lovely, and while the coral was not the most amazing I’ve seen, or the fish in plentiful supply it was still quite fun to wander around there for an hour or so.   It did mean, however, that we were back to the resort quite late for lunch.  Fortunately they had saved us a little!

View from the boat up one of the fjords on the way to the Waterfalls

More fjords

One of the beautiful waterfalls .. nearly jumped in the water!

More waterfall - how inviting is it!

Another one of the waterfalls - apparently locals would stand on the little platform singing/dancing and otherwise welcoming tourists to the waterfall from the big cruise ships which would sometimes stop at Tufi

More of the waterfall

Yeah .. I like the waterfalls ;)

Looking back from the waterfall - we could feel the spray from where we were.

That evening we ended up under attack .. of sorts .. by some of the local people who came up in full dress and demonstrated some of their dances and customs.  It was quite spectacular to watch and fascinating.  It was like a whole different take on Bush Dancing (besides the obvious) but there was a lot of interaction between the lines and back and forth that reminded me vaguely of Aussie Bush Dancing (for better or worse). 

Warriors all dressed up and dancing for us.

After dinner I got to know the other group of people who were staying at the resort that weekend also a bit better.   They were all from a company called Trukai (PNG relative of Sunbeam Rice) and there for a meeting to start the financial year.  There was a mix of PNG Nationals, a few Kiwis and some Aussies.  Lovely people and we had quite a late night involving all sorts of cocktails and random conversation .. some medical .. some very much not.  A few of them had quite a fascination with all things related to medical practice which kept it quite hilarious!

The Trukai guys

The following day (Sunday) I was meant to go on a special trip where we were going to be shown a lot more of the local traditions and customs and finish off with a beach bbq … however after I woke up my lower back completely spasmed on me.  After I managed to convince myself to get upright again I quickly realised that there was pretty much no way that I was going to cope with another rough boat ride around to the where the trip was meant to go to.  So that day ended up being a rather quiet one spent scarfing anti-inflammatories, stretching my back out and getting some decent movement into it once more.  Probably the enforced rest didn’t go too far astray either :) .  

The following morning I waved goodbye to my newfound friends from the weekend as they all were headed back to Moresby but knew that I was going to be in touch before too long.  Cate had offered to pick me up from the airport when I got in a few days later if I was unable to contact the driver who the place where I was going to stay recommended, and then Debbie (who is the wife of one of the managers of Trukai) had offered to show me around Port Moresby for the day which I was going to be there as she currently was not working.

And pretty much I’m going to leave that there as I’ve had enough of typing .. and you have probably had enough of reading for now at least :)