In fact, the town of Rabaul was covered in 15 feet of ash following a September, 1994 eruption of Mt. Tavuvur. Following a week long spewing of ash, substantially all of the businesses of the town relocated to Kokopo which is located on the other side of the island and reachable by a 45 minute drive by car. About all that remains is the port area because of its significant deep water location in the very ancient and large caldera.
After our visit to the observatory, we made our way to the former Japanese tunnels that housed the small ships that were winched into the tunnels for protection. All that remains now are the severely rusted hulks of 4-5 ships. The salt water environment has taken a real toll on them. Also there are a number of bats that live in the cave. A number of merchants set up their colorful wares and we ended up purchasing a couple of very colorful shirts. This was probably the most popular souvenir item plus a significant number of locals were. Wearing them as part of their 44th Anniversary of Independence.
The Kokomo War museum was our next stop and it had all kinds of military memorabilia stored on the grounds and in buildings. These items included tanks, an airplane, a raid roller, a generator truck, cannons, machine guns, and the like. When we left Kokopo to visit the Bitapaka Memorial and cemetery, we encountered a very long parade of autos and trucks heavily decorated in the Anniversary celebration colors. There were so many vehicles, we had to wait a good 10-15 minutes to be able to make a right turn on the cemetery road. We were able to observe a memorial service for the fallen. An Australian Air Force veteran was invited to participate in the service and afterwards I was able to share a few pictures of him with his wife.
We returned to Kokopo to the gazelle International Hotel for a simple hamburger and French fries lunch. The hotel was located next to the fairgrounds where the festival celebration was taking place. Many people were there and we could hear numerous speeches like at a political rally. The crowd was really enjoying it.
After lunch we headed back to Rabaul and went to the volcano viewpoint. There were many vendors set up there. The viewing area was on top of some extensive geothermal activity as the sand and ocean water were extremely warm. There were a couple of small very hot streams that flowed out of the ground and down to the sea. In one of them, the water was crystal clear and one could see the steam rising out of the ground under the water! And the view of the crater remaining after the 1994 eruption was terrific.
Admiral Yamamoto's bunker was our last stop. It was also very hot down in the bunker due to the thermal activity. There's also a small museum nearby. Our shuttle driver then took us back to the ship where Angela and I walked back out of the port onto the main drag where we found a couple tapestries we liked and used up most of the remaining amount of our kina.
The local Methodist church choir serenaded us before our departure. One last tour with 7 vans arrived just after 4:30pm. Shortly after they boarded we slipped away from the dock, rotated clockwise to point the bow of the ship out to sea. The Captain announced that he would rotate the ship 360º in front of the volcano. Also, the reef pilot provided a bit of commentary. It was a very pleasant viewing from outside up on Deck 14 and as the sun set, the lighting was perfect for photos.
I ate a very light dinner of a couple appetizers and we watched the Game Show 'Call My Bluff before watching the excellent documentary 'The Biggest Little Farm'. With my light dinner, we went to the 10:30pm feeding before retiring for the evening a losing an hour on the clock as they were set forward an hour overnight.
REFLECTIONS on Papua New Guinea
I sort of didn't know what to expect in visiting these three ports. A number of persons on the Cruise Critic website got pretty worked up about the need for mosquito protection as well as malaria. We had bug spray with us, but for one instance, we didn't feel the need to use it. It was pretty hot in all of the ports (in excess of 90º Fahrenheit). What really surprised me was the amount of crime. Several passengers lost cameras and/or cellphones. It was relatively hard but not impossible to easily get local currency. This was especially true at our first port of call at Wewak. Also at Wewak, which was the poorest of the locations, I felt like many people were scoping us out. But I'd have no hesitation in returning or recommending others to visit. Just plan to come with local currency and be very cautious with displaying locations of where one's money or valuables are. Seeing the water village at Wewak on the Sepic River was a clear highlight but came at the cost of a 3 hour each way ride on a very rutted road.
It's a sea day tomorrow so we can catch up on rest. Stay tuned.
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