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DETAILED ITINERARY FOR:

DISCOVER ALOTAU AND MILNE BAY - 6 DAYS 5 NIGHTS (TOUR CODE EM11)

Tour departs Thursday, Friday, Saturday

 

Milne Bay is a quiet corner of PNG with distinctive traditional cultures and a fascinating colonial and mission history. Alotau is a safe, friendly town. This tour features a tour of Alotau township, day trips to the East Cape and Wagawaga Point, and an overnight trip to Galahi, Samarai and Kwato.

 

Day 1

Afternoon flight PX158 from Port Moresby to Alotau’s Gurney airport, departing 3.10pm and arriving 4.00pm. You will be met on arrival and transferred 30 minutes by road through oil palm plantations to Alotau township where you will check in at Napatana Lodge. In the late afternoon, enjoy a stroll around town or along the waterfront. One of the Lodge staff will be happy to walk with you and show you around. Local artifact shops have an impressive range of handicrafts including woven string bags and beautiful ebony wood carvings from the Trobriand Islands. At night, a buffet dinner is provided at Napatana Lodge and a full bar is available. A local cultural group will perform traditional dance and drama for entertainment. Overnight Napatana Lodge.

 

Day 2

Optional sunrise birdwatching (a short road trip out of town with a trained birding guide). After a continental breakfast, a trip to the Alotau market with the Napatana Lodge staff where you can purchase tropical fruit and vegetables, cooked fish and other seafood, handicrafts and sea shells. Lodge staff will help you find the best bargains. Later in the morning, staff from the Lodge will take you on a walking tour of the nearby site of a confusing battle which took place during WW2 whereby various allied infantry battalions in the vicinity were unaware of each other’s presence due to the lack of accurate information available to General Clowes.

After lunch, local tour operator Milne Bay Magic will call for you in a vehicle to take you on a guided tour of Alotau township and environs including the town market, waterfront, war memorials and historical monuments, and the Cameron Secondary School cultural village where traditional houses and artifacts from different islands in the Milne Bay Province are displayed, and students from the school will show you around.
Late in the afternoon, stroll around town or enjoy the beach. Overnight Napatana Lodge.


Day 3

Day trip by road to picturesque East Cape, stopping at local villages, war relics, skull caves and other points of interest. Picnic lunch on Biwa Beach. Overnight Napatana Lodge.

 

Day 4
Departing after breakfast you will travel 2 hours by small boat to Galahi Island. Here, the Leman family offer a village stay experience with a delightful range of natural and cultural attractions. Their pretty seaside village offers fishing, swimming, snorkelling, beachwalking, bushwalking, birdwatching and observing daily village life. Here you will enjoy village style food fresh from the gardens and the sea. Overnight Galahi Village Stay (improved village stay).

 

Day 5

Today you will travel by boat from Galahi to tiny historical Samarai Island. After a short tour of the township (the former provincial capital), you will be taken across the China Strait to Kwato Mission which was established in 1891. Here you will see a local boat building industry and climb the hill to the Kwato church and excellent scenic views. From here it is a short hop across to Sariba Island where lunch will be provided at Wakoiya village, followed by a two and a half hour boat ride back to Alotau. Overnight Napatana Lodge.

 

Day 6

Day trip to beautiful Wagawaga for a picnic on the beach. Wagawaga is a picturesque village and beach area a short boat ride across the bay from Alotau. At Bisimaki Point near Wagawaga there is a wreck just off the coast to snorkel around.  For the more energetic, there is a walk to the waterfall, or to the moonstones, passing a skull on the way (legend has it that if the skull likes you, it will show its teeth).  There are giant tame eels in the local village stream. A picnic lunch and an esky of iced water will go with you from the Lodge, and you can purchase fresh fruit and coconut juice from local villagers. After lunch you will return to Napatana Lodge and transfer to Gurney Airport for your late afternoon flight PX159 to Port Moresby, departing 4.25pm and arriving at 5.15pm.

 

TOUR NOTES:

1.      Tour variations due to inclement weather. There are times when bad weather conditions may contraindicate boat travel to Galahi and Samarai. In these circumstances Napatana Lodge will make alternative arrangements for you. Hopefully this will only involve re-organising your itinerary to spend a day at Wagawaga first and continue to Galahi the next day if the weather improves. In the event that the weather is still unsuitable for travel to Galahi and Samarai on the following day, an alternative overnight excursion will be arranged for you at a village stay in the Alotau area (or at Wagawaga). Otherwise you may choose to spend an extra night at Napatana Lodge and undertake additional day trips with Milne Bay Magic in the Alotau area, such as the war relics tour, bat cave expedition, bushwalking or birdwatching with a local wildlife guide. These alternative activities would be at no additional cost.

 

OPTIONAL EXTENSIONS: