New Ireland's allure; its people's warmth

FOR TRAVELLERS desperate to find a spot untouched by tourism New Ireland clearly fills the bill.

Writing in last weekend's Melbourne Age, Louise Southerden said while kayaking between remote islands in the Bismarck Archipelago the days had no names.

"We didn't see a single other tourist all week and the only other non-locals we came across were missionaries," she said. "There aren't many places you can say that about these days."

The heat stripped away anything extraneous leaving just what was essential which on the first day of the five-day island journey meant paddling from Kavieng to Kabotteron, the first village campsite.

Snorkelling just offshore and looking through water as clear as glass anemone fish, parrot fish, hard and soft corals and three brown-skinned boys came into view.

A 10-year-old boy, David, showed the visitors how the village lads use their handmade spearguns. David demonstrated to the visitors how fish spearing was done, standing barefoot on a sea-smoothed coral head and spotting his prey.

He dived deep and the watchers heard a clink as David's spear hit a rock, pinning a pretty reef fish to the sea floor.

When he resurfaced David bit it around the gills ("to kill it") before tossing it to one of the other village boys to be placed in one of the canoes.

The Age writer and her companions were met at Kavieng airport by their Australian guide, a 67-year-old former Army SAS commando with a decade of experience as a Kokoda guide.

New Irelanders Wotlom and Levi, who grew up paddling their home waters in dugout canoes, were also among the guides.

Southerden reported a few rough edges on the trip. The paddlers were dependent on villages for lunches and dinners and a few times arrived at spots only to find the 'coconut telegraph' out of order: the villagers hadn't been expecting them.

That was part of the adventure of travelling in PNG they agreed and it was easy for a few people dispatched in canoes to catch the fish for the meals. The fish was supplemented with canned peas and instant noodles, a PNG staple.

The allure of New Ireland was evident. Southerden reported the remoteness of the place and the quiet warmth of its people was touching especially on the last night when guide Levi's family farewelled them on the island of Tsoilik, where they operate a little resort.

Read Louise's full story here

Comments

[Arthur Williams]

Beware! For those of you who read the 'PNG Forum' blog site – look out!

I only came across the site recently, and thought it was properly controlled. There were some good blogs on it, but I personally think far too many are signed ‘Anonymous’.

Anyway, I made what I felt was a balanced post on a New Ireland issue. But sadly since then I have had four posts attributed in my name that were not posted by me. They appear to come from a New Irelander.

The ‘wronguns’ are:
11/8/10 at 2.29 pm
12/8/10 at 2.29 pm
16/8/10 at 3.42 pm
22/8/10 at 11.19 pm

Some immature ‘kipper’ is falsely blogging to impugn my honesty.

I cannot find any administrator link on the site and my attempt to put the record straight was also edited by someone who deleted that part of the post.

Anyway I shall steer clear of it. So any new posts purporting to come from me on that blog site after 21/08/2010 are false.

[Reginald Renagi]

Hi Louise - I read your great travel article about New Ireland. You make it sound very interesting for any tourist or interested traveler reading the Herald.

Through your interesting story many overseas people will now want to see a great PNG maritime province to experience what you yourself felt. That's what the allure of what PNG provinces can do to visitors to our fair shores. Please come again.

Thanks for promoting my country, PNG.

[Louise Southerden]

Thanks for featuring my recent piece on kayaking in New Ireland; it's a special place indeed. Just one thing: there were parts of your story "borrowed", let's say, from mine - perhaps your readers would appreciate seeing the original story in its entirety?

Here's the link (same as the print version in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald):

http://www.smh.com.au/travel/powered-by-paddle-20100806-11nss.html

Many thanks.

[Reginald Renagi]

Ah, beautiful New Ireland. It's like many PNG maritime próvinces, such a beautiful place to visit and experience if you do have time to transit through PNG.

Having sailed through its waters many, many times during my seafaring days in the navy, I now highly recommend New Ireland to readers of PNG Attitude.

Once you visit New Ireland, you will be changed forever. You will be reluctant to leave.

The friendly atmosphere will seduce you to stay a little bit longer, or you would want to make a promise of returning again. That's what the allure of this paradise will do to you.

Are you reading this Paul Oates? Try out New Ireland, mate, and you'll find it a much varied change from your recent Mediterranean tour with a different but great flavour!