Tuesday 13th August – Port Moresby

• Arrive at your convenience into Port Moresby – the capital city of Papua New Guinea which is well connected with flights from Australia, Singapore, the Philippines and Hong Kong.
• Pre-tour meeting will be held at the lobby of our hotel at 3:00pm to discuss tour itinerary and to meet your fellow travellers and YPT guide.
• We’ll then head out to visit the botanical garden, beachfront to take a dip, and the national museum.
• Dinner and drinks at the beautiful Yacht Club Waterfront.
• Overnight in Port Moresby

Wednesday 14th August – Mount Hagen

Morning

• Breakfast at hotel
• Early morning transfer to the airport to catch our flight to Mt. Hagen with PNG Airlines departing at 8:30am and arriving in Mt. Hagen at 9:30am.
• Upon arrival, we will meet our local guides and transfer to our hotel for check in.

Afternoon

• After check-in, you will go on a guided city tour to Mt Hagen main market and visit the fresh produce market where you can see all kinds of tribal artefacts unique to the interior of the New Guinea highlands. There’s lots of fruit and delicious street food so we’ll grab lunch here.
• Afterwards we head out into the surrounding mountains for more sightseeing where you’ll encounter different kinds of wildlife, much of it unique to PNG, such as multiple species of birds, highland echidnas and cassowaries.
• Return to Mt Hagen for dinner, drinks and overnight at Kuri Lodge.

Thursday 15th August – Mount Hagen

Morning

• Breakfast at hotel and begin making our way deeper into the highlands to join the villagers as they begin preparing for the celebration for our arrival.
• We’ll then head to the village of our local partner to be welcomed by his family and elders. For those wanted to join the festivities further you’re invited to wear local tribal attire, which includes getting your face and body painted.
• The locals will prepare Pig Mumu – Pig Mumu involves the slaughtering of a pig, which is then prepared and cooked in a hole covered by hot rocks with yam and corn. While we wait for it to cook, the villagers will introduce us to different customs and traditional skills such as fire making and archery.

Afternoon

• After a massive feast, we will go for a trek to the nearby waterfall where we can swim and enjoy the refreshing cool water.
• Return back to Mt. Hagen for dinner and drinks at the Highlander Hotel for a treat!
• Overnight in Mt. Hagen at Kuri Lodge.

Friday 16th August – Mount Hagen

Morning

• Breakfast at the hotel
• Begin our drive one hour out to the Luglamp community.
• Here you’ll have the chance to mingle with villagers of this community on their school’s cultural day. It is a much lesser-known festival organized by students, teachers and the administrators of the community. Contrary to the Mount Hagen Festival, we will be the only foreigners at this event.
• Return back to Mt. Hagen

Afternoon

• Lunch at a local restaurant in Mount Hagen
• Tour around a local coffee plantation – Mount Hagen is renowned around most of the world for the high quality coffee beans produced here on site.
• Return to the city where we will have an excellent dinner at a local restaurant, featuring a famous PNG chicken stew, with vegetarian options also available.
• Overnight back at Kuri Lodge.

Saturday 17th August – Mount Hagen Festival Day #1

Morning

• Breakfast at hotel
• Today’s the big day! We head to the local football field which converts into the site hosting the Mount Hagen Festival. We’ll arrive early to ensure you can meet each of the members of the tribes preparing their costumes to get more of an insight of the event.
• You may choose to participate in the games, and opt to have the locals prepare your dressings and make up. (extra charge)

Afternoon

• We’ll grab some delicious various snacks and meals prepared outside on the grounds by the locals
• You will have a unique opportunity to meet the Huli Wigmen – a tribe that wears extremely elaborate headdresses made from their own hair and other materials sourced locally.
• Once the show completes we’ll return to the hotel for dinner.
• Overnight in Mt. Hagen at Kuri Lodge.

Sunday 18th August – Mount Hagen Festival Day #2

Morning

• Breakfast at hotel
• Day 2 at the festival – today you’ll have a chance to spectate the Waipa also known as the “big jump” dance which is a mass dance only found in PNG, quite an incredible sight and definitely the highlight.

Afternoon

• Lunch at Banz Cafe, just beside the show.
• After the show we’ll head further out rural to a river where we can not only swim and jump into the way from a great vantage point, but use the clay in the ground for facial masks.
• As our last night in Mt Hagen we head to Kai Bar to pick up local food, before purchasing some local fire water. We then head to a communal tribal house with a fire built in the middle for our dinner and drinks.  Singing, dancing and partying PNG style!
• Overnight in Mt. Hagen at Kuri Lodge.

Monday 19th August –Mt Hagen – Simbu – Goroka Road

Morning

• Breakfast at hotel
• We’ll begin our long days drive through Simbu province to reach Goroka on our private bus to explore more of the highlands regions. We’ll be stopping on the way for multiple photo opportunities. Goroka is the site of the other big festival in PNG and its oldest one.

Afternoon

• Lunch will be halfway at Mt Wilheam Hotel in Simbu Province.
• We’ll meet the Mindima Skeleton Tribes – Legend has it that the ancestors of this tribe were tormented by the presence of a monster in a cave and full of bones. So to attack the monster they disguised themselves as bones which was a success according to the locals.
• We’ll greet the tribal chief of Nintul village and visit the Snake village.
• Arrive late afternoon in Goroka
• Stop by the J.K McCarthy Museum – in the city which is made up of several rooms showcasing everything from WWII relics and traditional PNG objects. A highlight of the exhibition is a collection of photos showing PNG as it was when it had its first contact with Australians during the 1930s.
• Check into our hotel for dinner and overnight sleep.

Tuesday 20th August – Lae

Morning

• Breakfast at hotel
• We make our way towards to the beautiful coastal town of Lae – the capital of Morobe Province. On our way we’ll pass incredible sceneries through the thick of the jungle and up the mountains.
• Once through the mountains, we’ll be driving down Shaggy Ridge and through Ramu Valley. Some of the fiercest combat between the Australian and Japanese forces happened here during World War II.
• We’ll stop by Markham Valley village

Afternoon

• As one of the many stops on the way, we will go to a local market which offers amazing street food, including coconut chicken, with PNGs own version of saveloy, washed down by coconut water.
• Arrive later afternoon in Lae – Lae is one of the busiest cities of Papua New Guinea and an important trade centre. This city is not connected to the highland provinces so most freight comes by boat.
• We’ll partake in a city tour which will include a visit of the WWII cemetery, explore the the shipwreck of the Myoko Maru, and a Japanese War Memorial.
• Dinner, drinks and overnight at Morobe Hotel in Lae

Wednesday 21st August – Port Moresby – Buka

Morning

• Breakfast at hotel
• Board an early flight departing Lae at 7:25am back to Port Moresby arriving at 8:10am.
• Group A members conclude the tour. YPT can arrange ongoing transport, optional tours of the area or advice on flights out.
• Group B members continue the tour onwards to Bougainville as we depart on our next flight to Buka.

Afternoon

• Once arriving at Buka Airport we’ll be greeted by our local Bougainville team and escorted to our accommodation at Masalang Village
• Explore the village and visit a small business that produce traditional clay pots.
• Lunch at a local restaurant
• Board our bus to Kubu to visit the parliament house and access a gorgeous viewpoint allowing us to observe the whole of Buka passage, a strait filled with shipwrecks of WWII.
• On our way back to Buka we will stop to explore the ruins of Japanese WWII bunkers in Hahela.
• Dinner and overnight in Masalang Village

Thursday 22nd August – Buka – Arawa

Morning

• Breakfast at hotel
• Depart by bus to a historical site located next to the police station in Buka Town. This site is known as the mass graveyard for the Bougainville Revolutionary Army during the Bougainville civil war. Our local guide will share facts of what happened during those troubled times.
• Board an iconic banana boat and cross the Buka passage to Kokopau.

Afternoon

• Jump in our 4WDs and embark on a 4 hour journey to Arawa with stops along the highway for photo opportunities and lunch
• Before we arrive in Arawa we visit the decommissioned Panguna Mine – this mine used to be the largest open cut mine in the world with a total width of 2 kilometres and a depth of 430 metres. Farmers protested for the mines closure in 1989 which sparked the secessionist movement in Bougainville and the civil war. It’s common to see locals visiting the mine and panning for gold. Here you’ll explore the abandoned installations of this monstrous monument to careless exploitation.
• Continue driving to the Siwai Region until we reach Panakei Lodge
• Dinner, drinks and overnight at Panakei Lodge

Friday 23rd August – Siwai Region

Morning

• Breakfast at hotel
• We begin our WWII relic hunting tour! Bougainville was a the centre of the Pacific Campaign and where the Australian and American forces were locked in a brutal fight against the Japanese. During our relic hunt, we’ll see an Australian tank, cannons, artillery and a small museum, where a local exposes the artefacts he finds regularly.
• Explore a few nearby villages where the locals receive very few tourists each year and are very eager to show off their performances and local welcoming rituals.

Afternoon

• The village prepares an absolute feast of local delicacies for us. Bougainvillians eat mostly yam, root vegetables and chicken. We might have the opportunity to try other very special delicacies.
• Tour highlight – As part of the preparation of our Bougainville tour, YPT will prepare your visas to visit the micronation of the Twin Kingdom of Me’ekamui and Papaala. During the civil war of Bougainville, and after the takeover of Panguna Man, the leader of the rebellion group, Francis Ona, owned half of the island and proclaimed himself as Kim of Me’ekamui. However, on the other side of the island, another man known as King David Peii II proclaimed himself King of Papaala. Upon Francis Ona’s passing, King David Peii II then combined both kingdoms of the island into a Twin Kingdom. We plan to be the very first tourists to set foot in this fascinating micronation.
• Head to the Hurai Guesthouse for dinner and drinks. Located right under a Digicel satellite tower, this guesthouse probably has the best network signal on the island.
• Overnight at Hurai Guesthouse.

Saturday 24th August – Buin Region

Morning

• Breakfast at hotel
• Begin the drive south towards the region of Buin.
• We’ll take our 4WD as far as possible but eventually we’ll need to get out and explore by foot for roughly two hours until we reach the wreck of Admiral Yamamoto. Admiral Yamamoto was the leader of the Japanese Army who planned the attack against Pearl Harbor –  thus declaring war against the US. Yamamoto was flying to inspect his troops within a certain region of PNG. His flight itinerary was intercepted by the Allies and a surprise attack caused Yamamoto’s plane to crash into the remote jungle.

Afternoon

• After successfully exploring Yamamoto’s wreck,  we’ll continue our drive south towards the coast and to stop for lunch.
• Explore Japanese War Relics such as bunkers and artillery cannons. From here it’s possible to see the islands belonging to the Solomon Islands. It’s common for the locals to take their boats across to enter the Solomon Islands which share a similar culture with Bougainville. Most agree that Bougainvillians feel more like Solomon Islanders than Papua New Guineans.
• We return to Arawa, which used to be the capital and take a boat to cross to Pokpok Island, stopping on the road to buy some refreshments!
• Check into the Uruna Resort to drop our luggage before we head out for an afternoon of island hopping.
• At this moment, there is nothing more heavenly than Uruna Resort. This will be the nicest accommodation arranged during your tour. We’ll be based on a pristine island without a single other tourist in sight. The ocean is crystal clear, our surrounding is incredibly peaceful, what perfect way to relax.
• Fresh seafood for dinner, and our little own party on the island!
• Overnight at Uruna Beach Resort

Sunday 25th August – Pokpok Island – Arawa

Morning

• Breakfast at resort
• Continue island hopping where we can swim, snorkel and fish in untouched waters.
• Board a banana boat and travel to a cliff over the sea called “Eberia”. “Eberia” literally translates as ‘’this way‟ in the local language and according to local folklore is rumoured to be the gateway to the Underworld. It is a truly unique and spooky sight. We’ll stop and explore the abandoned Arovo Island Resort. Its services were disrupted by the civil war.

Afternoon

• Continue by banana boat to Pidia village, if you are familiar with the movie ”Mr. Pip”, staring Hugh Laurie, which tells the story of a girl in Pidia village going through the events of the Bougainville civil war. It happened here!
• On our way back on the mainland, we’ll stop by a WWII memorial by the town of Kieta where a Japanese Zero plane and a Japanese tank are exposed.
• We stop by Arawa market to meet the locals and shop for souvenirs – most of this city was destroyed from the civil war.
• Visit Topiniang village where villagers will welcome us to stay and eat with them. They will show us their flower gardens as well as a living bridge made up of vines from a Ficus tree. The most intrepid of us will get to cross this bridge which goes over a mountain stream and takes us to pools and caves for us to explore.
• Back in the village of Topinang, we will see women weaving a traditional fan called Biruko and relax in the afternoon by the beach.
• The villagers will send us off with our own personal ‘singsing’ and a night of storytelling
• Dinner and overnight at a homestay in the village.

Monday 26th August – Kieta

• After an early breakfast, we transfer to Kieta Airport to catch our morning flight back to Port Moresby.
• Tour concludes with airport drop-off arranged according to your flight details – YPT is also able to arrange post-tour accommodation or advice for flights.

Read More