After 6 days in Kavieng, we finally left but we didn't go far. We just took a 5 minute boat ride across the water to Nusa Island. I was very much looking forward to this place. This was our luxurious lash-out. It was Aussie run and not cheap. We had an over-water bungalow and it was amazing. This is the view from our verandah. We spent a bit of quality time in that hammock!
Our rooms were large but had no aircon. We slept under mosquito nets each night with all the windows wide open. In fact we just never closed the bamboo shutters.
There are two Nusa Islands - the small one and large one - and they're separated by a channel. We were staying on the small one and we set about exploring it with John, an Aussie mining worker who was there on a day off. It was all very beautiful and idyllic. There were no roads, just tracks, and simple houses dotted the sandy landscape.
Of course, we were a great source of entertainment for the local kids.
We headed out on the resort's boat for a short snorkelling trip. My chest infection was well on the mend but we didn't want to go out for too long in case it came back. We snorkelled over two wrecks. The first was a fishing boat.
The second was a plane from WW2. It was weird seeing these remains underwater. Both these wrecks were too deep for us to get close just by snorkelling.
The view of our place from the water. Our bungalow is the one on the left.
When the tide went out the sand in front of our bungalow was exposed. John managed to do some kata on it!
The Aussies who ran the resort were bird crazy. Any injured birds in the area were brought to them. The saddest sight was a cocky who was hit by a slingshot from a boy. It was completely paralysed from the neck down. It would drag itself around using its beak, say "hello cocky" and put its head forward for a scratch. It seems to have adapted pretty well really.
This hornbill was my favourite. Its beak was amazing! It had somehow lost its tail.
The female hornbill had just been attacked by a dog when it wandered into the local village. It wasn't too serious though.
The owners would often walk around with parrots on their heads or shoulders. They even did this in the kitchen! If we die of salmonella poisoning we'll know where we got it!
The next day we explored the larger island. This track wandered on the leeward side of the island which meant no breeze - it was sweltering! Anyway we found these old Japanese cannons. It was strange coming across them in the jungle beside the beach.
The resort had a few dogs but these two, Scooter and Buka, were amazing. They adopted us as soon as we arrived and every night they slept under our window on our verandah. If we went out they came with us. When we crossed the 100 metres or so to the next island, Scooter whimpered with excitement when we came back. Wish we could take them home!
It was time to leave New Ireland and head to New Britain. (European explorers seem to have a thing about naming things 'New' in New Guinea!)
Our flight was very early so we found ourselves travelling across the water in a local banana boat at 4.30am. It was lovely. The flight was scenic and, when we landed, we were relieved to find our pickup waiting for us at 6am. They had travelled two hours to pick us up! A lady who worked at the guesthouse had travelled with the driver and his offsider to meet us. She had to leave her village at 3am. She brought her young son with her because she was afraid of walking through her village in the dark. I thought she meant she was afraid of local men, but no, she was afraid of spirits! The poor kid was dragged out of bed for this. When we passed their village later, we dropped him off so he could get dresssed and go to school. This is so different to the way we would do things.
Our Aussie-owned accommodation was in a fairly isolated part of New Britain. We were the only guests there and it was a bit too quiet for us. We had just had three days of downtime at Nusa so didn't really need more. I got sick though so I was happy to chill. I was also very happy that we brought the right antibiotics with us.
There were amazing butterflies there. They were huge! It was so hard to photograph them because they flew very fast. This is a birdwing butterfly.
The bay was so smooth and locals fished on the calm waters by just floating on canoes and spearing fish when they saw them.
We went for a walk by just wandering up the quiet road. Villages lined the road and we soon got talking to people. It's so great that most people speak English!
We talked for a long time to a group of ladies. They were good value. They gave us 'pau' and 'garlic nuts' to try, both of these nuts were ok. While we talked, the girl below practiced cutting nuts with a sharp knife. She was 2 years and 9 months old and was perfectly capable of cutting the nuts on her own - except when she held the knife upside down. Maybe we molly-coddle our kids way too much.
A fire started in the village behind us and they told us they were cooking a pig. When I showed interest, we were immediately invited into the village. A freshly-dead pig hung on a post while the fire scorched off the hairs. It was then quickly butchered and all the offal was taken away to be used. They then offered us some meat but we didn't want to take their precious food from them when we had plenty at our guesthouse. We stayed there talking for half an hour or so. It was great!
The local boys were keen to get their photos taken.
We met an older lady on the way back. Many people have terrible teeth or are missing half of them. The lime from chewing betelnut is really bad for teeth I think.
And more kids....
We wandered back along the beach and picked up this group of kids. They showed off and ran around crazily. A lot of people here have light coloured hair.
John was the pied piper again!
It was Friday night and Richmond were playing Geelong - a big battle. John spent 1.5 hours travelling by local PMV (Public Motor Vehicle - minibuses that pack people in like sardines) to a nearby country club where the footy might be on the TV. All he found was a drunk lady who seemed to be the manager and they couldn't get the TV to work.
The Aussie owner of our place then volunteered her TV so they set it up in our room. The antenna was on a long bamboo pole and the gardener held it while we looked at the picture and said 'turn it a bit more'! It was all to no avail though - only the rugby was on. John was very sad. Thanks for the score updates Chris and mum.
We did a bit of snorkelling. It was ok. There were some really long whip corals.
Whip corals look like rope from a distance but close up you can see all the fuzzy details.
After two days, we had had enough of not doing much and sweltering without aircon so we decided to leave a day early. The owners were fine about it. The adult daughter wasn't well anyway - she was probably coming down with malaria. When you live in a malarial country, you can't take anti-malarials all the time. You just wait til you get it then treat it. (We're taking our anti-malarial tablets religiously!)
I should be back soon with our next post as we have great internet where we are now.
See you soon!
Heather and John.
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