200130315-17 RABAUL, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Friday March 15, 2013 - RABAUL, Papua New Guinea
VOLCANO ADVENTURE- Mt TAVURVUR

Well the clocks went back 1 hour last night so we were awake quite early - the stars were brilliant so I was hopeful for a sunny day! By 6am we were dressed and on the deck since the approach to Rabaul through the massive caldera from the first eruption from the volcano in 540 AD is massive and the other volcanoes which have formed around the rim of the caldera should make for some great viewing as we cruise into Rabaul.

We were joined by many on the bow on Deck 6, everyone interested in taking photos and seeing the sights. Simpson Harbour is a large harbour from the caldera, and quite a few large container ships were anchored since Simpson harbour handles many small islands supply from here. We were on deck for at least an hour enjoying the volcanoes and the views as we got closer to Rabaul. Rabaul played a significant role in WWII and was occupied by Japan in 1942, who built over 500km of tunnels underneath the town and the Gazelle peninsula as protection against constant allied bombing raids. At one point during the war these tunnels housed 15 hospitals (one was 4km long!) and could handle 2500 patients. The labour used to dig the tunnels were Indian POW's who had been captured in Singapore, along with local inhabitants from Rabaul.

Rabaul was converted into a virtual fortress and was the major supply base for the planned expansion into mainland Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Australia. There were many battles supplied from Rabaul including the Kokoda Trail, Milne Bay, Coral Sea Battle, Lae, Guadalcanal and Bougainville. When you realise that the most Northern part of Australia is only 6 miles from the most Southern part of Papua New Guinea - you understand just how close and connected Australia is to all the islands.

At one point Rabaul had 5 air strips, a float plane base, a submarine base, a huge number of navy ships, and up to 200,000 Japanese armed forces. Over the next 3 days in Rabaul we saw many tunnels and remnants of WWII but really interestingly, we didn't see a single Japanese person, or of Japanese heritage while we were there. But today we are off to see the other fascinating side of Rabaul which sits on the ring of fire with a vengeance and is surrounded by volcanoes, and that is the active volcano Tavurvur.

At 845 we were off the Orion, into mini buses and headed from the dock around to the other side of Simpson Harbour to get onto long boats and head over to Tavurvur. We drove through the part of Rabaul that was absolutely covered in up to 6 metres of ash when Tavurvur erupted in 1994 at the same time as Mt Vulcan erupted n the other side of Simpson Harbour. The ash blew over Rabaul and buried the major part of the town and it has never been dug out. This part of the town was on Mango Avenue, with large mango trees each side, government and residential buildings both sides of the street and today there is just thick black ash with the occasional tree poking out of the top, and the buildings are ruins. Of course, this volcanic ash is very fertile, and here there is so much hot sun and rain that when anything is planted it grows very quickly. But the Papua New Guinea government is not spending on rebuilding the infrastructure here since they know it is only time until the volcanoes erupt again.

On top of the ridge of hills behind Rabaul is the seismic observatory for all of Papua New Guinea and every day on the radio here they comment on what is happening with the volcanoes. Mt Tavurvur smoked the entire time that we were in Rabaul (3 days) and you can see the steaming vents on the outside and inside of the volcano. We loaded into the long boats to cross over to the base of Mt Tavurvur and suddenly there was a boom which travels through your entire body and a huge plume of smoke out of the top of Tavurvur - it was an eruption as we are crossing the harbour to see it!

We immediately took photos and were amazed, excited and somewhat hesitant! But we continued the boat ride over and exited onto the black sandy beach at the bottom to get out and explore! We actually walked through the deep black ash and climbed through an area that looks like it has been bombed, but this is where the megapod birds come and lay their eggs - they dig a deep hole and lay their egg (one at a time) which hatches two weeks later. However, in Rabaul there is very little protein available (just a few chickens and pigs) and so the local villagers come and dig up these eggs (which are quite large, much larger than a chicken's egg) and then take them to the market to sell them.

After the somewhat careful hike up through the megapod field of holes, we stood and viewed Tavurvur and the lava flows while listening to vivid descriptions of what had happened (and does happen) from David Scott Silverberg. Also, we listened to the Australian lady who owns the Rabaul Hotel - her father owned the hotel and during 1994 saved it from collapse by standing on the roof shovelling the ash off several times each day until the ash had stopped falling (about 3 months later). It is one of the only buildings (if not the only building) still on Mango Avenue that is not buried, rusted or collapsed. Later in the afternoon we enjoyed an ice cold coke and beer in the bar at the hotel listening to some great local music by GEORGE TELEK and looking at old photos on the wall - there is a huge pool table here in the bar, and the masks and carved drums decorating the reception area are fabulous.

Also on Mango Avenue is the old "New Guinea Club" which used to be THE place to go during the Colonial Times for dancing, eating and drinking but today is a museum with lots of interesting papers and relics from before WWI with the German Colonials, through Japanese occupation, and Australian government. We spent quite awhile there in the afternoon (Orion ran a shuttle bus every 30 minutes all day) and even though much of what is displayed is old and faded it was very interesting. We also stopped in Rabaul town and tried unsuccessfully to buy a George TELEK music CD from one of the local stores but they had none, and in fact like most islands and countries in Asia and the South Pacific all they have are Video CD's (and they all appear to be pirated copies).

Our time on the road and in town was quite an event. The locals do not get very many white tourists - there are only 4 cruise ships a year that come here and some tourists mostly from Aussie or Japan who fly here. As a result they all stare at us and wave, and most say Hi or Hello. They all speak English here so it is quite easy to talk to them although many are quite shy. It was truly a very interesting day and incredibly hot! By the time we came back from our shuttle bus adventures in the afternoon, and walk back from town, which was only about a 20 minute walk to the pier - we were soaking wet and red faced - the shower was so welcome! Our shoes and feet were black from all the dust that we had walked through! The Orion left us a bowl full of water and scrubbing brushes for us to wash our shoes and feet before climbing the gangway onto the ship - and there are towels on the gangway and all through the ship on the carpets to try and protect the ship from the dust! Even the water jugs (that we refill our bottles from) have been brought inside along with all the furniture from outside to try and protect them from the ash.

It was the last night for the majority of the guests, only 18 of us were staying on for the next leg through Papua New Guinea - the rest are flying back to Cairns on the charter flight tomorrow. Joan will be arriving on the same flight from Cairns so we are looking forward to seeing Joan again. For tomorrow the 18 of us will be on a bus tour to Kokopo (the new capital city) so some sight seeing will be in order. It was great evening - Helen (Expedition Team) had made a wonderful DVD which covered much of the last 10 days and we all enjoyed watching that in the lounge before our last supper together.


SATURDAY MARCH 16, 2013
KOKOPO TOUR & AUSTRALIAN CEMETERY

This morning was all the frantic activity that comes with a change over - gusts coming and going, everyone saying their goodbyes - but at 9am the ship went quiet as the departing guests left. The remaining 18 of us all headed out onto our 2 buses at 10am and were off for 5 hours. Orion had provided us all with a large packed lunch with an ice pack in the bottom - just like on our Borneo Camp Leakey day out they had given us enough in case we got lost on the return! Cheese and ham sandwich, fried chicken on a bun, orange, apple, orange juice, walnut cake, 2 large cookies and chocolate bar! No - we didn't eat it all!

We drove through Rabaul and headed left (South) around Simpson Harbour and past Mt Vulcan and the village that was buried underneath the ash here during the 1994 eruption. I probably mentioned this before but there was warning that an eruption would happen and everyone had been evacuated so there were only 5 killed during these massive eruptions. The roads are not in great condition, some really big pot holes along the way so everyone crosses from side to side to find the smoothest part of the road.

Our first stop was at the Japanese Barge Tunnels where there are 5 rusty barges still in the tunnel that were pulled along rails to the shore and back by prisoners of war during WWII, carrying supplies and keeping them hidden from the allied forces. As we walked into the tunnel (which was very dark) Terry spotted a snake curled up in a hole in the roof hanging on to a vine that was growing along the roof! Glad that didn't drop on me while we were inside looking! Outside this tunnel several men, women and children arrived within minutes of our arrival setting up their sarong (lap lap) on the ground and then displaying their baskets, shell necklaces, shells and "shell money" - what they still use here to buy goods from each other and in the markets (but not in the stores). Unfortunately they all sell the same things so there is not a lot of buying that goes on from the tourists. Dozens of sunken aircraft and ships dot Simpson Harbour and to the North are sea caves used as a drop-off point by Japanese submarines. Along the road at one point we passed a rusty old tank that has been by the side of the road since the end of WWII.

Our next stop was the Australian War Memorial, from WWI and WWII with rows and rows of headstones for the soldiers killed. It also has Indian soldiers who were brought as POW's by the Japanese from Singapore to Papua New Guinea to do the hard work. Our tour guide also told us that the Japanese were pretty wicked and they kidnapped young Korean women and brought them down to provide sex for the Japanese during the war. We read that there were over 2000 of these unfortunate women.

One of the Australian Ladies on our cruise (Alison) had a cousin who's husband had been killed here during WWII. She had a piece of paper with the exact row and grave number of her buried husband - so Alison looked for it and found it immediately - so she added a few flowers and took a photo for her cousin back in Australia who is now in her 90's. Alison's husband, Newell, was born in New Guinea and amazingly enough he spent time in the logging industry in Prince George, B.C. - small world eh?

We spent about an hour at the Kokopo Beach Resort (who works with Orion each time the ship visits) and enjoyed eating our lunch there - they had a wonderful gift store with fabulous artifacts, masks etc (mostly from the Sepik area of the mainland). Of interest perhaps is that the Managing Director was sitting eating lunch with 8 Chinese business men - we can only imagine what the Chinese are doing here and what PNG resources they are after now! But another note on that later!

After lunch we had a short walk through the very busy Kokopo Market (there is a population of about 20,000 in Kokopo). The amount of fresh fruit and vegetables for sale is amazing, and each lady is selling something, so you see bench after bench of peanuts, betel nuts, green vegetables, fruit, smoked fish, cooked fish wrapped in banana leaves ready to eat, fried banana, fresh banana, live fresh crabs stacked 6 high and tied together with string - and a few benches of ladies' dresses, earrings and shell necklaces. We were the main attraction for the locals! There are also cigarettes for sale, mostly individual since they are about 40 cents each which is very expensive for PNG locals. Of interest is that the cigarettes (factory produced) are in cigarette paper that looks like newspaper. Apparently the home made cigarettes always used to be rolled in newspaper and when they started being factory produced in white cigarette paper the PNG locals would not buy them - so the factory fixed that problem by printing the cigarette paper to look like newspaper - so now the PNG locals will buy them!

We were back at the Orion by 3pm and the orientation was on in the Leda Lounge for the new arrivals including Joan. After the orientation we all got together - Joan said her plane ride up on the Fokker had not been too bumpy so she didn't have a rough time with Cyclone Tim! We all joined in the optional 3pm walk back into Rabaul to have a walk through the market - the market is closed on Sunday, so today being Saturday was the last chance for the new arrivals to see the town and market. Fortunately today was quite cloudy so even though it was very warm and humid it was not broiling like our walk yesterday afternoon. We walked with Justin - his experience, relationships, past PNG history, and knowledge of the local customs is invaluable - he was just so interesting to walk through the market with.

Back on the Orion we washed all the black volcanic ash off ourselves and were soon enjoying G&T's and in the Cosmos Theatre listening to Mick Fogg's presentation "In Vulcan's Shadow" telling us all about the volcanos in this area - it was our second time for this lecture but there was so much in it that we enjoyed it second time around! I did leave when I had a coughing spell, and outside Liz and Gray were just getting out of the hot tub on deck 6 - they had been sharing a bottle of champagne and Tavurvur has erupted and given them 3 small puffs. As Mick says, they are expecting some significant activity in the short term from Tavurvur!

After a lovely dinner with a couple from the States, we were all ready for an early night - but we did make it to the Leda Lounge for a glass of Tio pepe sherry (Joan) and Tawny port (Jan) before crashing! A good night's sleep is needed to be ready to enjoy tomorrow!



SUNDAY MARCH 17, 2013
RABAUL HIGHLIGHTS, OVERLOOK, HOT SPRINGS
Joan headed off at 845am for the Volcano Adventure (which we did 2 days ago) and we waited for the vans to arrive half an hour late, for the Highlights of Rabaul. Unfortunately Terry was not well this morning (some stomach bug) so I was off with the other half of the Orion passengers. Because of our extra day here for turnaround of the Orion - we had seen many of the highlights, but there were still a couple of new experiences.

Our mini buses were late - today is Sunday and everyone is at Church - the majority of PNG folk are Catholic but there are also some Methodist and 7th Day Adventist. Along the roads there were lots of people walking to Church, and most of the girls and ladies were wearing loose white dresses with a frill around the sleeves, hem and bodice.

The new stops were for the overlook and seismic monitoring centre - unfortunately the chap with the key for the office with all the gear in was at Church so we couldn't see inside! But the views of Simpson Harbour were spectacular. Then we were off to the Hot Springs at 75C down at the shore towards the Tavurvur volcano - we drove several KM over the black sand / ash and it was really warm - again the children and women come running with goods to sell as soon as they see our vans arriving!

After lunch, Joan and Jan took the shuttle to the Rabaul Hotel to look around and see the underground bunker (which was a WWII museum untilit was filled with ash from the 1994 eruption) but unfortunately the pub was closed for Sunday! so afterwards we walked to the New Guinea Club (a current Rabaul museum with photos and history since the late 1800's when the German's first arrived until the present day) and Yamamoto's Bunker. That walk definitely earned a cold shower on our return, especially since I took the long way round so we walked a couple of extra blocks through the black sand!!

Soon it was time for the mandatory lifeboat drill and our sailaway with complimentary champagne on deck 6 at 5pm. The sunset was perfect as we sailed past Mt Tavurvur, still steaming, and waiting anxiously for it to puff some ash (which it didn't) followed by
a presentation by Mick Fogg about the activities for the coming week starting with a delicious seafood extravaganza on the rear outdoor deck, which Terry missed because he was still in bed, but fortunately by the following morning after 40 hours bed rest and sleep he was ready to go once again!


MONDAY MARCH 18, 2013
At Sea on the way to SEPIK River & WATAM Village

I woke up at 4am and looked out to see sheet lightning on the horizon - and drinking our early morning coffee at 7am in the Galaxy Lounge we cruised through a quick rain cloud but apart from lots of cloud everywhere, that's all the rain we've had so far for this second part of the cruise from Rabaul. The sea has been calm so that is great.

There are so many new faces everywhere but we're starting to get used to them now, and so many from the USA and also lots of single ladies on this cruise, although I think there were 5 singles on the last cruise. Today is a full itinerary of lectures and presentations and we're getting ready for our first at 930am in the Leda Lounge with Justin Friend - An Introduction to the History of Papua New Guinea. We know this will be fun and informative since Justin is a great presenter and actually lived in Papua and married a Papua lady many years ago.

We are currently on the Bismarck Sea heading to the Sepik River and tomorrow we will be visiting the WATAM village, after leaving Rabaul PNG yesterday which used to be the capital until it was moved to KOKOPA after the eruptions in 1994 almost completely wiped out Rabaul.

Justin did another grand job - he is such a storyteller! An hour and a half seems like just 15 minutes. The history of Papua New Guinea is very complicated, especially because it began its colonial life under three different powers (Dutch in the west, German in the north and British in the south) and still today is part of Indonesia in the west and an independent territory in the east but still part of the Commonwealth. Justin did a good job of trying to simplify it for us with a lot of humour along the way. Already we'd love to come back on a trip if he was a major part of it. Anyway, one of his main points was that PNG has very significant resources and is attracting huge interest from (you guessed it) China!! He described PNG as "An island Of Gold floating on a sea of oil". The island of Bougainville (between PNG and the Solomons) has the world's largest copper mine and Justin's dad was a civil engineer that helped get it operational. Well, The government of PNG was using all the revenue from Bougainville to fund the development of the infrastructure & resources in central PNG but there was no benefit to the people of Bougainville. So that lead to a civil war in Bougainville in the 90's and the closure of the mine (and it is still closed). The civil war is now over, and Bougainville is scheduled to become independent in 2017. But guess what - the Bougainville government is favoring having the Chinese reopen the copper mine rather that the original operator. We are really starting to see that China is going to become a very powerful economic powerhouse very soon with it tentacles everywhere (not just Africa but here too in Melanesia). Seems an offer of any Chinese funded activity gets them preferred access to resources and food around the 3rd world these days. And with the rest of the world in economic decline and in debt, they seem to have us but good!

Next was a presentation by Guest lecturer Pieter De Vries (was director of photography for the TV series "Discovery Atlas"). He showed some interesting footage of his work but we were not very impressed with his presentation and the footage he showed was not very relevant to either helping you take better video or learning about PNG.

This afternoon David Silverberg presented Geography in Deep Time (long ago) but this time oriented more to Papua New Guinea instead of the Solomon Islands like his last presentation. We enjoyed it just as much as last time and David is so passionate about his topics and a great presenter.

Mick and Justin talked to us during cocktail hour in the leda Lounge about our visit tomorrow to Watam Village, Justin is just too interesting and funny - we really enjoy his talks. Tonight we learned that Justin is actually an 8th chief of Watam Village and has a house there, but all the houses in Watam are on stilts and he has fallen through the floor in one house and broken the stairs up another house - he is such a big fellow and much too heavy for the way that they build their straw and bamboo huts on stilts here! .

Later on at 645pm was Captain Vincent Taillard's "meet and greet" cocktail event to introduce the management team followed by the captain's dinner in the main Constellation Restaurant on deck 3.

Kathy and Terry were doing their Andrew Lloyd Webber musical tonight, but none of us had the energy to stay awake past 9 - and we wanted to be ready for our day at Watam Village which will be very special due to Justin and Orion's very special relationship with this village since 2006.


Cheers ..... Jan Umbach
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