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KAVIENG Home of the pigmy seahorse 

Papua New Guinea's best land based diving destination

MAY 2002 Expedition

As hit the water the reef floor in 40m is clearly visible. As we begin our descent a very cruisy 3m silvertip shark comes up to check us out followed by a huge school of brilliant rainbow runner and a camera shy turtle. Further  along the reef wall we meet up with several reef curious reef sharks and some very graceful eagle rays. This is typical of many of the dive sites around Kavieng, a small town on the northern tip of New Ireland in Papua New Guinea. Our accommodation here is at Malagan Lodge a 2 story colonial hotel ideally located on the beach. The rooms are clean & comfortable and all face the water with balconies for after dive lounging. The food served in the beachside dining room is plentiful and of a very high standard — but very slow in coming so don’t go to dinner hungry. Our dive hosts, Scuba Ventures picked us up on the beach each morning and we set of to explore the reefs and wrecks on offer. Diving Albatross channel with a strong incoming current was amazing for the amount of pelagic's that cruise around in the fast moving water. You have to wonder why a small trevally can sit easily in a howling current while we had to cling onto the mooring rope for grim death. Other reefs dropped off in a endless wall of beautiful soft corals and gorgonians—the colors are brilliant and an entire dive can be spent looking for the tiny creatures that make their home there—we found anemone shrimp, porcelain crabs, arrow crabs and even the elusive pygmy seahorse, this rare creature is a mere 5 mm and a perfect color match for a certain type of gorgonian fan. Also on offer are a variety of WW2 wrecks including several sea planes and B25 bombers, these are in relatively shallow water and each has an interesting history. Aside from the airlines losing one dive bag for 3 days, Greg attempting to dye the boat carpet pink and John giving our fearless dive host a hard time the trip was a smooth one. Thanks to Bob, Doug, Garry & Jan, Greg, John, Phil & Terry for making it a fun trip!