If your perfect holiday includes sleeping late, sitting by the swimming pool ordering drinks topped with little umbrellas and greeting the wee hours in a rowdy nightclub, then this story isn’t for you.
But if you want to rise before the sun for an early-morning visit to a remote village, sit on the ground while locals wearing feathers and flowers perform traditional ceremonies, or snorkel above flawless coral reefs before feasting on bananas cut fresh from the tree, then read on.
And if you want to sip sundowners on the deck of a boutique expedition boat, while watching the sky cycle through the fiery shades of a tropical dusk, before returning after dinner to see the lightning that flashes across thunder clouds crowning a coastal mountain range, then prepare to be captivated.
Expedition cruising isn’t for everyone, but if you can handle being without Wi-Fi, sightseeing sans souvenir stores, and doing destinations so undiscovered they don’t have maps, then there’s a good chance it is for you.
Coral Expeditions’ sleek white Coral Adventurer launched in 2019, less than a year before the pandemic hit, and is still only a few months old when I join a two-week expedition to Papua New Guinea’s remote north coast. It’s a region that feels undeveloped and unexplored, faraway and fanciful, a frontier not yet affected by the 21st century.
My travelling companions and I explore from the Sepik River to Milne Bay Province, every day featuring rare and remarkable travel encounters that elevate a holiday to something more significant.
See also: Why adventure cruising has me hooked
See also: 10 reasons to visit Papua New Guinea
The Coral Adventurer sails into the Sepik River at daybreak, when the landscape wears the steely blue silence of dawn, creeping carefully along this shallow waterway.
Not a light bulb glows in villages along the river bank; no hut is crowned by a satellite dome, and there isn’t a mobile tower to be seen.
Once the sun rises a flotilla of traditional canoes floats towards the vessel with locals of all ages, including little tots no bigger than the oars they so expertly carry, balancing through the rolling bow waves for a close look at our floating hotel.
Some wave so enthusiastically they make canoes wobble to the point of tipping; others channel their warrior instincts to playfully mimic throwing spears at the ship, and a few stare at what must be a surreal sight for people who so rarely see a modern vessel.
Our destination is Bien where the rugby pitch is turned into a stage. We sit on desks retrieved from the classrooms to watch the juniors perform the national anthem, senior students run through traditional dance routines and a theatre group tell an old story of the settlement.
After leaving the Sepik River late in the afternoon of that first full day at sea we continue sailing north towards the string of volcanoes sitting a few kilometres from the coast and the cone we’ve been watching vent a white ribbon of steam since first light.
This end of the Solomon Sea is dotted with active volcanoes and Kadovar is the current crew favourite because it released a mighty belch when the Coral Adventurer was here a few days back at the end of the previous cruise.
Captain JB positions the ship a safe distance from the volcano, doing lazy circles while afternoon drinks are served on the sun deck, and right at 6pm there’s a deep rumble as boulders bounce down the steep sides to crash into the waves. A black ash cloud billows from the summit and mushrooms into the pastel purple evening sky before being diluted when it’s caught by the breeze and falling into the water like mizzle on a winter’s day.
It’s tough to pick a single favourite moment from my two weeks in PNG, but an afternoon walk on the beach at Buna, a significant spot in the Kokoda campaign, appeals to the Australian history nerd in me.
Buna sits on one side of the wartime route between Port Moresby and the Japanese landing site on PNG’s north coast – and after the traditional sing-sing welcome we walk a few kilometres to what remains of the wartime runway.
The sing-sing costumes are elaborate – women wear strings of shells draped from their shoulders and the men feathered crowns.
Earlier in the day we visit Sanananda and spend time browsing the rusting, but carefully curated museum where Japanese relics sit in one grass hut and Australian treasures in the neighbouring structure.
The Trobriand Islands sit so far north of the mainland they feel more South Pacific than PNG, and we land at a village where palm trees bend above the beach towards water that blurs through shades of blue from aquamarine to sapphire.
American troops were stationed around the atoll in World War II and legend has it locals would congregate each morning to watch troops parade before returning in the evening to watch movies.
This wartime presence continues to influence Trobriand culture and on Kuiawa Island, our destination for the whole day, we watch a dance performance with the young men “marching” in straight lines and theatrically brandishing sticks that resemble wartime rifles.
After the show there’s time to wander the village and drift around shacks where fish are smoked on smouldering charcoal, mothers wash toddlers in the lagoon and craftspeople sell the colourful floor mats famous in this part of PNG.
The last morning in PNG waters, a few hours before JB points the ship south to start the two-day crossing of the Coral Sea back to the company’s Cairns base, the ship pauses beside Samarai Island on the eastern edge of Milne Bay Province.
While most head ashore to explore and shop at the pearl farm, a small group takes the plunge to snorkel the most perfect coral reef I’ve seen. Schools of fish hover confidently above the flowers and more timid creatures cower in the canyons, but I float along the outer edge where the coral ends abruptly as the submerged slope descends dramatically into a neon-blue abyss.
Before climbing back on board the dive boat I ditch the snorkel, goggles and fins to float on my back – gently rocked by the rolling swell with my face to the sun – and make the most of this last moment in the private paradise to Australia’s north.
The writer was a guest of Coral Expeditions.
Coral Expeditions’ next New Guinea and Micronesia voyages depart in 2023. They include a 16-night itinerary from Darwin to Guam departing on August 22; two separate 12-night PNG itineraries with December departures, followed by a New Guinea circumnavigation leaving Cairns on January 11, 2024.
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