Kiting and Cruising the Louisiades, Papua New Guinea

A repeat of #191. The Louisiades are one of the great island arcs of the South Pacific stretching some 400km along the northern rim of the Coral Sea. A wonderland of islands, lagoons, and extensive barrier reefs; this remote area is the home of the seafaring Dobu people and boasts some of the best diving, snorkelling and fishing to be found in Papua new Guinea. Snorkel over the Japanese Zero wreck at Deboyne lagoon, swim with Manta Rays at Losai Island and finish your day with a drift snorkel amongst the huge trevally at Nivani Pass. Sport fishermen can expect to tangle with sailfish, Spanish mackerel and giant dog-tooth tuna whilst postcard-perfect beaches and islands will inspire the inner photographer. Did we mention kitesurfing? You've hit the season in the heart of the trades, you shouldn't be disappointed!

"Traveling in PNG can be challenging. With almost no tourism infrastructure and limited information available in books and on websites, it can feel like you’re stepping into the great unknown. But this is exactly why travellers find this country so compelling. Nothing is contrived for tourists and every experience is authentic - even the main island of Bougainville is a largely DIY travel experience. The striking natural beauty and myriad complex cultures offer some riveting and truly life-affirming experiences. The island of New Guinea, of which Papua New Guinea is the eastern part, is only one-ninth as big as Australia, yet it has just as many mammal species, and more kinds of birds and frogs. PNG is Australia’s biological mirror-world. Both places share a common history going back tens of millions of years, but Australia is flat and has dried out, while PNG is wet and has become mountainous. As a result, Australian kangaroos bound across the plains, while in PNG they climb in the rainforest canopy.

PNG is one of earth’s megadiverse regions, and it owes much of its diversity to its topography. The mountainous terrain has spawned diversity in two ways: isolated mountain ranges are often home to unique fauna and flora found nowhere else, while within any one mountain range you will find different species as you go higher. In the lowlands are jungles whose trees are not that different from those of Southeast Asia. Yet the animals are often startlingly different – cassowaries instead of tapirs, and marsupial cuscus instead of monkeys." - Lonely Planet