Coconut Spray; The Niugini Experience
Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2015 9:25 am
I just got back from a trip to PNG (11/02/2015). We had surf every day which was pretty good. The first 2 days were small and average around the islands, so for the next 2 days we did road trips down the main island of Kavieng and scored 3-4' glassy waves both a left and a right. Then the predicted swell finally hit the local islands (Nusa, Nago, Ral, Kavieng) and the winds swung offshore and we had 4-6' perfection for 3 days and 3-4' of good waves for the rest of the time until the last day which was back down to 2'.
The surf was good but I have to say Air Niugini the national airline is something else. I was thinking about whether I'd go back as I went with a number of guys for whom this was their third trip and were it not for the debacle with flights I'd have no hesitation. Air Niugini got us both ways.
We were supposed to arrive Saturday afternoon at Nusa Island Retreat in time for an afternoon surf, but the flight out was apparently delayed by weather conditions. It was raining heavily in Port Moresby. We sat in the plane at the gate for about an hour while captain Eric Pearson kept us informed. Until finally he announced he had some bad news for us, it was now too late to fly out because it would be dark soon. We had to stop on the way to Rabaul and I think this runway did not have any lights. As we later witnessed flights did arrive in Kavieng after dark every night! It makes me wonder why we just didn't drop Rabaul and disembark those bound for it and just fly direct.
Be that as it may we had to spend a night in Port Moresby. Air Niugini were going to put us up at the Crowne Plaza somewhere in town about 20 minutes way. The problem; they had to move 50 passengers or so up there with one shuttle bus that only takes 8-10 people. There were 18 of us plus all the others unloaded. Fortunately, we could leave the boards inside the secured terminal area and we hired Gabriel for 150 kina (AU$75) to stay with them all night. Apparently that is 2 weeks wages anyway he was willing and it was 10kina each - bargain. One problem solved, we still had to get 50 people to the hotel.
With a 40 minute round trip it was going to take 3hrs and 20 minutes to move us all up there, it was now 7pm with all the stuffing around we weren't going to get there perhaps until 10pm or later. We decided we'd try catching taxis but when the taxi drivers said only 2 per taxi instead of 4 we ditched that idea. We were a little concerned about security as well, Port Moresby isn't the safest place after dark. After some phones calls and more liason with Crowne staff they sent a bigger bus to get us. I had all but given up hope and said I'll sleep with the boards because if it was this much buggering around to get there how would we ever get back on time in the morning?
To be continued...
The surf was good but I have to say Air Niugini the national airline is something else. I was thinking about whether I'd go back as I went with a number of guys for whom this was their third trip and were it not for the debacle with flights I'd have no hesitation. Air Niugini got us both ways.
We were supposed to arrive Saturday afternoon at Nusa Island Retreat in time for an afternoon surf, but the flight out was apparently delayed by weather conditions. It was raining heavily in Port Moresby. We sat in the plane at the gate for about an hour while captain Eric Pearson kept us informed. Until finally he announced he had some bad news for us, it was now too late to fly out because it would be dark soon. We had to stop on the way to Rabaul and I think this runway did not have any lights. As we later witnessed flights did arrive in Kavieng after dark every night! It makes me wonder why we just didn't drop Rabaul and disembark those bound for it and just fly direct.
Be that as it may we had to spend a night in Port Moresby. Air Niugini were going to put us up at the Crowne Plaza somewhere in town about 20 minutes way. The problem; they had to move 50 passengers or so up there with one shuttle bus that only takes 8-10 people. There were 18 of us plus all the others unloaded. Fortunately, we could leave the boards inside the secured terminal area and we hired Gabriel for 150 kina (AU$75) to stay with them all night. Apparently that is 2 weeks wages anyway he was willing and it was 10kina each - bargain. One problem solved, we still had to get 50 people to the hotel.
With a 40 minute round trip it was going to take 3hrs and 20 minutes to move us all up there, it was now 7pm with all the stuffing around we weren't going to get there perhaps until 10pm or later. We decided we'd try catching taxis but when the taxi drivers said only 2 per taxi instead of 4 we ditched that idea. We were a little concerned about security as well, Port Moresby isn't the safest place after dark. After some phones calls and more liason with Crowne staff they sent a bigger bus to get us. I had all but given up hope and said I'll sleep with the boards because if it was this much buggering around to get there how would we ever get back on time in the morning?
To be continued...