PNG - Two Options

For a first trip to PNG, I'm researching and torn between staying at Tawali for half the time and then boarding the Spirit of Freedom or Chertan for the second half.

The other option is to go with Peter Hughes's boat and do the Walindi/Witu/Fathers/Kimbe Bay or the Rabaul/ Fathers/Kimbe Bay itinerary.

Previously I have done the muck diving in the Lembeh Straits while landbased and also been on the North Sulawesi Aggressor for the Bunaken/Lembeh/Bangka area. I don't wish to do all muck diving in PNG and I understand its not all muck.

The wonderful folks at Tawali have suggested there's great opportunities to see large pelagics, whales, and mantas (with no guarantees) in the area, along with the muck dives. Peter Hughes doesn't provide as much content of what the different itinerary locations offer up.

My questions are:

Has anyone been to both and can comment on what is typical to be expected, or at least what the main draw will be for the areas I mentioned (or can contact me with a few back and forth questions)?

And are there any very good guide(s) on these different areas of PNG you can suggest that is up to date that I can use to do more research?

Thank you very much for any help you folks can provide!

... And are there any very good guide(s) on these different areas of PNG you can suggest that is up to date that I can use to do more research?

.......

Dave Harasti's guide looks like a beauty for critter ID

Tawali is great place to base yourself.

Plenty of Bluewater Pelagic stuff close by and easy macro just right of the doorstep.

Lawadi is just around the point.

And the best part - they are 100% photo friendly and co-operative.

My 2 cents

Thanks Guys. I saw the recent review on the bootless bay creature book, but I was hoping for a larger overall-area dive guide book, it may not be published, I simply don't know?

I haven't been on either of the liveaboards but I did spend 10 days in Tawail last year. The diving was great. The reef was mostly very healthy though unfortunately some of the reefs right near the resort had been damaged by the El Nino a few years ago. Still, lots of fish and great wide angle opportunities. Muck diving was also very nice and the guides did an excellent job of finding critters for us. We didn't see too much big stuff but that may be luck of the draw.

The resort itself is very nice. Rooms were large and air conditioned. Food was good though not exactly exotic. Dive facilities could be a bit better. Hopefully the camera rinse tank is finished. They were very slowly building it during my stay. Most of the boats had mechanical issues of one sort or another but I don't think we ever missed a dive as a result. They do fill nitrox which was a big plus. All the power in the rooms was 240v with the Australian style plugs so bring an adaptor if you're coming from somewhere else.

Pictures here: Tawali Pictures

Clinton

I have spent a lot of time on both the FeBrina and Stardancer in both New Britain/Witu Islands and New Ireland. The reef diving is incredible and the Witu Islands has great muck. If you want pelagics, Killibob's Knob has more sharks than you can shake a stick at. I highly recommend both the boats and the area.

Unfortunately, I have not been to Tawali or used those boats. As such, I cannot compare. If you have any questions about my experiences or suggestions, Please don't hesitate to ask. I love PNG and will be back for a month this coming winter.

Hey, thank you all very much!

Allison, is there one of the boat routes you have enjoyed more than the others, or do you suggest to simply go for it as they are all good?

Ms. Friend did mention the effect from El Nino on the reef in the Tawali area, but it has been making a comeback and of course there are a lot worst places to dive Although Mr. Doubliet did say he believes PNG is teh most diverse area to dive (I couldn't narrow him down to specifics of where to start).

On a side note, would you all say you'd put PNG over the Solomons? PNG is where I'm headed but it helps to bounce off what friends of mine have shared with their Solomon experiences.

When I get some more research done on the specific areas I'm looking at in PNG, I'd love to chat some more. Thank you all for the added help and coments.

Also to clear - the bleaching damage to the reefs we saw was limited to only a few dive sites which happened to be right close to the resort. Most of the reefs we visited were pristine.

Clinton

I always like the route that takes you to the Witu Islands. I have a friend who runs the coconut plantation there. Wonderful place to dive muck. The route you take is often guided by the prevailing winds. You always hope for the best. Kimbe Bay is huge and has extremely diverse diving.

For a first trip to PNG, I'm researching and torn between staying at Tawali for half the time and then boarding the Spirit of Freedom or Chertan for the second half.

 

The other option is to go with Peter Hughes's boat and do the Walindi/Witu/Fathers/Kimbe Bay or the Rabaul/ Fathers/Kimbe Bay itinerary.

 

Previously I have done the muck diving in the Lembeh Straits while landbased and also been on the North Sulawesi Aggressor for the Bunaken/Lembeh/Bangka area. I don't wish to do all muck diving in PNG and I understand its not all muck.

 

The wonderful folks at Tawali have suggested there's great opportunities to see large pelagics, whales, and mantas (with no guarantees) in the area, along with the muck dives. Peter Hughes doesn't provide as much content of what the different itinerary locations offer up.

 

My questions are:

Has anyone been to both and can comment on what is typical to be expected, or at least what the main draw will be for the areas I mentioned (or can contact me with a few back and forth questions)?

 

And are there any very good guide(s) on these different areas of PNG you can suggest that is up to date that I can use to do more research?

 

Thank you very much for any help you folks can provide!

Hello Paquito,

I was at Tawali March 2007.

For muck diving and the critters, Tawali is definitely top notch. LAUADI is less than 10 minutes from the resort and offers great little cleaning stations where you will have a buffet of macro life. I have not been to Lembeh, but from what I have read on Wetpixel, it is MUCK CAPITOL. The muck diving in Tawali is very good, but I doubt it surpasses what you have seen in northern Sulawesi.

I felt the best dives in terms of lush coral life and magnitude were at the outer reef which is about an hour or so boat ride from Tawali. Some of the outer reef dives which were excellent were Tanya's Reef, Chroinoid City, Cherrie's Reef, and Cobb's Cliff. The only place that I saw any pelagics in 27 dives were two mantas at Cobb's Cliff. I saw zero sharks. From my experience, almost every dive operation says there is an opportunity to see whales, mantas, and large pelagics. Of course they do not tell you how frequently they see these. Of course a dive operation which is running 3-5 dives per day will run into these animals, but in terms of frequency, I am not sure that Tawali is necessarily the prime location. In terms of diversity and variety of dive sites, it definitely delivers!

I was very happy with the service at Tawali. The rooms are large, comfortable, and clean. The food is good but can get repetitive after ten days of eating it. When I was there, I just happened to be the only diver at the resort (I had arrived just when a large group was leaving, and I was leaving when a group was arriving). As a result I could completely and totally request which locations I wanted to dive each day.

Although I did not spend time on either of the Tawali based liveaboards, I think that a good plan would be to split your trip half at the Tawali Resort and half on one of their liveaboards. I think this way you would have much more access to the outer reefs which are a long boat ride from Tawali. Also I am sure you would have a much better chance of spotting pelagics at the outer reef.

I also will go to PNG for the first time in October .

I found the book "The Dive Sites of Papua New Guinea " by Bob Halstead ( a diving pioneer at PNG ) a wealth source of information .

PNG is huge and you have several areas to choose depending on your preferences.

Have a nice trip

Elbuzo, I'll check out Mr. Halstead's book.

AMW, for Tawali I plan both time at Tawali and time on the Chertan.

With so much to see and such a diverse area, I'm excitedly going back and forth, I can see why so many people find such fondness for PNG as the opportunities are immense.

Thanks Everyone.

With 7 trips on the Chertan, I can certainly recommend it. It is the smaller of the 2 boats there. Try and make sure you schedule when the owner Rob van der Loos is going out. You would be hard pressed to find a more knowledgeable or friendly guy.

He has an excellant PNG critter book for U/W photographers,

"Living Reef of the Indo-Pacific". But I believe it went out of print recently. There were more copies sold in Europe.

I'll certainly vouch for Rob Van Der Loos as a man who knows Milne Bay. However, the Chertan is one boat I'm neutral about in PNG. Shared heads and small cabins, although Rob is a straight up guy and has launched even when he had 2 guests.

As for mantas, there are cleaning stations in a few places around Milne Bay, including one near the B17 at Cape Vogel. Any liveaboard can hit them. A liveaboard is probably the best way to hit Milne Bay because you can hit a site until you are blue from cold. I've done 8 dives in a day in Bunama and Lawadi each, all on rebreather or EAN, just by jumping off the back of the boat. You just can't do that from a landbased ops, well not without some really heavy tipping. The 4 liveaboards I've been on in Milne had open platform on muck sites. They had a crewman stay awake anyhow for security and my group were self sufficient in getting in and out of the water.

For more diversity, New Ireland/Witu/New Britain would probably suit you better. Alan Rabbe is excellent as skipper and his knowledge of the area is as good as anyone else. I always prefer a liveaboard for dive trips due to the ability to just jump in and out.

I've spent two terrific trips on Chertan, and am planning to do a joint Tawali (4 days) and Spirit of Niugini (11 days) trip in September. The accommodations on Chertan are basic, but for me and the folks I went with, the diving was the main thing, and I can't imagine how it could have been better. Rob is an avid photographer, and he runs the boat to accommodate photographers "unique" dive plans - any time, and don't get in the way. There are a couple of dive guides on the boat, but they are well-behaved and not intrusive, but willing to find the hidden critters if you want them to.

The area in which Chertan is based has a great diversity of habitat, from muck (but not as "mucky" as Lembah) to walls to blue-water. Although we were run over by a 20' whale shark on our first dive in 2006, we saw few pelagics thereafter. The manta cleaning station that was packed with mantas in 2004 was empty in 2006. The most impressive areas for me are the open-ocean patch reefs, with terrific coral and sponge-covered walls and clouds of fish.

No place on the Great Barrier Reef or in Hawaii that I've been to can hold a candle to PNG.

Dive Safe.

Me and the hubby had wanted to go on Chertan june 23 - July 4 but apparently there is noone else signed up and the boat needs 6 pax to go. So looks like we will end up at Tawali instead, which is not an altogether bad option as they apparenlty use Chertan as their "dayboat" when she is not out as a liveaboard. However I really would have liked just going on the Chertan. Anyhow, if I can rustle up 4 wetpixelites for Chertan, that would be awesomeness. Anyone interested? Can contact me at p h o t o ( a t ) m a r j o a h o (d o t ) c o m

Me and the hubby had wanted to go on Chertan june 23 - July 4 but apparently there is noone else signed up and the boat needs 6 pax to go. So looks like we will end up at Tawali instead, which is not an altogether bad option as they apparenlty use Chertan as their "dayboat" when she is not out as a liveaboard. However I really would have liked just going on the Chertan. Anyhow, if I can rustle up 4 wetpixelites for Chertan, that would be awesomeness. Anyone interested? Can contact me at p h o t o ( a t ) m a r j o a h o (d o t ) c o m

I thought I'd revive this thread rather than start a new one. I'm planning a trip to PNG in July. We're looking for mix of some pelagic action with good reefs, and maybe a bit of muck/critter hunting. Right now, my plan is to do a week at Walindi followed by a trip on the Star Dancer to minimize the time and cost of flying around PNG. But we could substitute Tawali for Walindi (and/or Spirit of Nugini for Star Dancer.) So, I'm wondering, has anyone been to Walindi lately? Also, Arcatus, how was your September trip?

I spent a few days in Tawali last year and I was extremely disappointed with the Dive Op's.

It is the first time ever that I have been very disappointed by a dive operation. In my opinion

the Dive Op just did not fit the price of the Resort. For a Resort that charges that amount of

money, I expect everything to work and run smoothly. Well, it did not at all. The Dive Ops

was simply not up to the standard. The resort itself is quite nice, but I judge a Dive resort

on the diving/dive op.

I assume that you are Ok if you go there as a group (that fills up a boat).

Would I go back? No!

We also wanted to go on the Chertan, but it seems quite normal that it does not get enough guests.

/Erik

I've been on both the Star Dancer and the Spirit of Niugini. My last trip was in Sept. 08 in the Milne Bay area. Unfortunately we had pouring rain every day our trip. On top of that we were the first charter on the Spirit of Niugini after its long dry-dock. To say it was a shake-down would be an under statement. Regardless, the diving there definitely had potential if we would have had good conditions. If I were to go back, I would try to get on the Star Dancer if possible. I have been working on a trip report for months now, but can only give you the highlands portion of the trip at this point.

http://www.underwatercolours.com/PNG_08_trip_report.html

I'll set up a new post when I get the diving part done. If you have not been to the highlands, do consider it. Diving was good, the the highlands was the best part of our entire trip.

Bonnie

Hi Erik,

Wonder what you did not like about the dive op in Tawali? I went there this summer and I was quite happy with the dive op. The guides were fantastic critter spotters and they went above and beyond to accomodate our wishes for sites and in every way to make the diving suited at least for my "photoneeds". Any time I had a special wish for a site, they made it happen and for macro subjects the guides were simply falling over themselves to find the most exortic critters. I did dive a few days off the Chertan, which I found cozy, but crowded due to its small size. But the Tawali dive staff, especially the guides, was great. I would go back for sure. I think I could go back and spend a month just shooting in 7 ft of water at Lawadi with the guide Albert and not become bored...