EM203 ANZAC DAY PILGRIMAGE TOUR (NON-TREKKING, FULLY ESCORTED) April 2009- CORE TOUR 5 NIGHTS PLUS OPTIONAL EXTENSIONS TO LAE, RABAUL OR MILNE BAY NB Dates and itinerary for 2009 have not yet been finalised but will be available mid-October. Please put your name on our mailing list if you would like to be advised as soon as the 2009 tour program is released. Below is the itinerary for the 2008 tour. The 2009 itinerary will be similar with slight shift of dates and minor amendments to the program. 2009 tour cost not yet available..
Jackson's International Airport, Port Moresby	DAY 1 Wednesday 23 April 2008 When you arrive at Port Moresby airport you will be met by Ecotourism Melanesia staff and transferred to the Hotel. Brief trips to the shops and ATM for withdrawal of credit card advances in local currency, if desired. 7.30pm Briefing for all tour party members in the hotel conference room. Your tour director will brief you on tour activities for the next few days and then a 30 minute Power Point presentation on the Kokoda Campaign. Overnight Hotel. (Meals included in the tour package: nil. The hotel has a good restaurant, a pizzeria and room service. Self-catering supplies can be purchased from the shops. Hotel meals can be paid for in cash or with credit card. Supermarkets accept credit cards but takeaway food shops and smaller eateries only accept cash. We will have a vehicle available to make shuttle runs to the nearby shops.)
2006 RSL Cadets-of-the-Year sightseeing at the National Parliament House. Port Moresby's Fairfax Harbour Urban Motuan village on stilts OId DC3 at the Airways Hotel	Day 2 Thursday 24 April 2008 After breakfast (included), your tour bus will depart the hotel carpark at 7.30am for a full day tour of Port Moresby, including picnic lunch. 7.30am Depart hotel and proceed directly to Bomana War Cemetery which is best visited in the cool of the morning. Inspect the graves and sign the visitors book. See where the dawn service will be held at the cenotaph tomorrow morning. 9.30am Depart Bomana and stop at Jacksons airfield to see revetment embankments which shielded allied aircraft from Japanese bombing. 9.45 am Proceed along the Poreporena Highway (“freeway”) over Burns Peak to the harbour lookout for a photo stop and a 10-minute lecture on Port Moresby harbour’s role in the Kokoda Campaign. Gun emplacement locations will be pointed out, and the location of the army camps where the diggers were accommodated, anf the location of the wreck of the MacDhui, an important cargo vessel sunk by Japanese aircraft 10.00 am Drive through Hanuabada stilt village, the city’s largest urban village of the city’s original inhabitants, the Motu-Koitabu tribe. 10.15 am Drive through the central business district (“Town”) which was he original colonial settlement and up Paga Hill to the ruins of the old fort whose guns protected Port Moresby harbour from the seaborne invasion that never came. 10.30 am Proceed along Ela Beach to the new Memorial Park located on the foreshore. Inspect the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel memorial; your guide will do a reading of the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel poem written by Bert Beros and explain the role of the Papuan carriers during the Kokoda Campaign. 11.00 am Proceed up Two Mile Hill past urban squatter settlements and the Murray army barracks to the Gordons industrial area where the university’s Modern History department maintains a small museum with a variety of WW2 relics and other paraphernalia important to PNG’s recent history. Tour the displays. 11.45 am Proceed by bus to the National Capital Botanical Gardens. Explore the gardens which feature exotic plants and native animals including an aviary with birds of paradise. 12.45 pm Gather at the barbeque area for picnic lunch and cultural dance performance. 1.30pm Depart botanical gardens for the National Parliament at Waigani (via Ward Strip, a wartime fighter strip now a city road). Short tour of parliament building. 2.00pm Walk over to the National Museum which takes about one hour to look through the displays of mainly cultural artefacts. 3.15pm Depart National Museum for the Airways Hotel poolside area which overlooks the airport with excellent views of the runways. Here, an old Air Niugini DC3 Dakota has been turned into a cocktail bar. An hour or so is available here to have coffee while watching aircraft taking off and landing. 4.30pm Return to Hotel. Dinner: pay as you go. 7.30pm Tour debriefing for all tour party members in the hotel conference room. Reflective discussion on the role of the war in Papua New Guinea on the outcome of the Pacific War. Overnight Hotel, Port Moresby (Meals included: breakfast and lunch)
ANZAC Day dawn service at Bomana RSL Cadets of the Year 2006 pose with PNG Defence Force chief Peter Ilau Leaders of the RSL Cadet-of-the-Year party Bomana War Cemetery in full daylight	Day 3 Friday 25 April 2008 (ANZAC DAY) 3.45am Early rise and shine. 4.00am Board tour bus for 20 minute drive from hotel to Anzac Day dawn service at Bomana War Cemetery. 4.30am Be seated on groundsheets and/or stackable chairs for the ceremony. Your guides will provide printed programs, orange juice / bottled water during the service. We suggest you bring your own key ring torch or penlight torch to the dawn service just to help you orient yourself in the dark: our guides will also have torches and candles are supplied at the venue by the RSL. (Your torch will also come in handy at Kokoda where the electricity supply is unreliable.) NB If you would like to lay a wreath at the service we can order a wreath for you locally and you can reimburse us for the cost on arrival. Please contact us well in advance to arrange. 6.00am Dawn service concludes, people mingle afterwards and wander among the graves. There will be upward of 1,000 people present, most of the Australian and New Zealand community in Port Moresby attends. 6.30am Depart Bomana for Australian High Commission at Waigani and “gunfire breakfast” sponsored by the High Commission. Further mingling with locals and visitors. 8.30am Return to the hotel for rest and catch-up kip. 10.00am Optional artefact shopping trip. The tour bus is available to take you to the PNG Art artefact warehouse which stocks a wide range of carvings, shell jewellery and other cultural artefacts from all over PNG. Remember Australian quarantine regulations are very strict and most wooden and feathery items will need to be fumigated before being taken in to Australia. PNG Art can arrange fumigation. Best buys at PNG Art are Sepik canoe prows, (carved canoe ends cut off the canoe with a chainsaw when it develops a hole and can’t float any more – these are genuine cultural artefacts, not souvenirs) and spirit masks (wall-mounted). Bilum bags and paintings by street artists are also good buys and apart from the selection at PNG Art the tour bus will take you to the entrance of the Holiday Inn where locals sell these items out in the open and are usually willing to haggle on price – your guides will assist! 12.00 noon Return to hotel for lunch (pay as you go). 1.00 pm Depart hotel for afternoon tour to Sogeri and Owers Corner, the beginning of the Kokoda Track. Depending on the condition of the bush track that leaves the main road at Sogeri, you may travel in the tour bus or in a 3-tonne truck with seats in the back. At Owers Corner there is a picnic park with displays of war relics and photographs, and you can see various ridges along the Kokoda Track from this vantage point. If you are feeling fit you can take a 60-minute hike with our guide down to Goldie River and back, just so you can say you have walked part of the Kokoda Track. The rest of us mere mortals will scoff tea and scones at the picnic park while we wait for you. On last year’s tour we were fortunate to have Ron Phillips and George Gwilliam, two surviving veterans who were gunners at Owers Corner back in 1942, who were able to make all come alive for the rest of us as we heard of their experiences. 5.00pm Depart Owers Corners for Port Moresby. Dinner: pay as you go Overnight Hotel, Port Moresby. (MEALS INCLUDED: breakfast at High Commission only - courtesy of Port Moresby RSL)
Kokoda's mini war museum Memorial obelisk at Kokoda Veterans Ron Phillips and George Gwilliam meet up with a surviving fuzzy wuzzy angel at Kokoda - 2006	Day 4 Saturday 26 April 2008 07: 00 Breakfast (included) This morning you will be flown to Kokoda by chartered aircraft. Departure time to be advised. Your guides will travel with you to Kokoda. On arrival at Kokoda you will be transported in the back of a truck (with seats) from the airstrip to a local guest house. Morning tea will be served and then some local guides from Kokoda will accompany you on a walking tour of Kokoda battlefields including a visit to Kokoda’s little war museum and memorials. You will leave your bags at the lodge. Late in the morning you will be driven approx. 20 minutes out of Kokoda to a village, where locals will welcome you with a “sing-sing”, a dance and song spectacular with colourful costumes accompanied by the beat of the hand drums. A traditional style lunch is served, local foods wrapped in banana leaves and cooked under hot stones - delicious. After lunch, villagers will accompany you on a tour of their village showing you how they live. Many of the young men and women from this village work as Kokoda Track guides and carriers during the trekking season. Optional swim in the creek (dry yourself in the sun if you don’t want to carry a change of clothes with you), or take a walk into the forest and see local birds and butterflies – the world’s largest butterfly the Queen Alexandra birdwing is native to this part of PNG and you may be lucky enough to see one in the sweet potato gardens. Mid-afternoon, return to Kokoda by truck (or walk back escorted by the village kids, it takes an hour on foot). Overnight local guest house, Kokoda. (MEALS INCLUDED today: breakfast, lunch and dinner) NB Accommodation at the guest house is very basic, dormitory style. Foam rubber mattresses with linen and mosquito nets are provided. Toilets and showers are located in a communal amenities block, caravan-park-style. This is the best accommodation available at Kokoda.
Rural tansport PNG-style - a "PMV" Gona beach Rusted anti-aircraft gun, Gona Human bones on display at Gona village - identity unknown Cross marking the site of the now-abandoned Gona Anglican Mission razed by the Japanese	Day 5 Sunday 27 April 2008 After breakfasting on hot scones, your tour group will depart Kokoda at 8am in the back of a chartered PMV truck (PMV = public motor vehicle, covered with a canvas and with bench seats in the back), and drive down to Popondetta, arriving by 12 noon. The truck travels slowly and safely so you can enjoy the view. Stops will be made en route for going behind a tree (literally) and purchasing refreshments from roadside stalls (coconut juice to drink and fruit to eat). Riding in the back of the PMV truck is exhilarating because of (a) the rush of fresh air on your face and (b) the adrenaline rush that comes with doing something that would be totally illegal back home! However the bench seats can be a little uncomfortable for long trips like these so if you have a favourite travel pillow you’d like to bring to sit on, by all means do so. (Those of us, who are in the know, do so!) On arrival at the Lamington Lodge Hotel in Popondetta town, you will check in to twin share rooms and have lunch. A set-menu lunch is provided.At 1pm, you will board your PMV truck again and after a stop at the Popondetta Memorial Park which has excellent displays about the Kokoda and Buna/Gona battles, drive out to Gona village, the site where the Japanese landed before they headed up to Kokoda. Gona and the neighbouring villages of Buna and Sanananda were also the sites where many Japanese, Australian and later American soldiers were killed during furious battles while the retreating and cornered Japanese waited for their ships to rescue them. Your guide today is local historian Mr Maclaren Hiari who is the founder of the Kokoda-Buna Historical Foundation and a published academic whose research focuses on the role of the Papuan carriers (“fuzzy wuzzy angels”) and Papuan Infantry during the Kokoda campaign. At Gona, you will be met by a welcome group and shown the village museum and a variety of war relics still in situ in the grass and scrub around the village. You may be able to talk to a surviving fuzzy wuzzy angel. Afternoon tea will be served at the Gona Guest House and your PMV truck will be waiting there to transport you back to Popondetta. For dinner tonight, order a la carte at the hotel restaurant (pay as you go). Overnight Lamington Lodge Hotel, Popondetta (phone contact 0011-675-329 7222). (MEALS INCLUDED today: breakfast and lunch)
View of the airport from Airways Hotel brasserie Private "Dick" Whittington escorted by fuzzy wuzzy angel Raphael Oimbari on the way to a field hospital near Buna	Day 6 Monday 28 April 2008 After breakfast (included) we drive out through oil palm plantations to the Girua airfield complex and onwards to Buna village. Tour Buna village memorials and battlefield relics, morning tea and children’s sing-sing performance at Buna village guest house. At 12 noon we check in at Popondetta’s Girua airport for Air Niugini flight PX857 to Port Moresby, departing 1.50pm arriving 2.25pm. A packed late lunch is provided by our tour staff on arrival at Port Moresby airport, and we will assist you to check in for your onward flight to Lae, Rabaul or Australia, or transfer you to your hotel if you are overnighting in Port Moresby again. (MEALS INCLUDED today: breakfast and lunch)Core tour ends… PRICES (rack rates) 2008 ANZAC NON-TREKKING TOUR Core tour 5 nights AUD$1900 pp Lae extension 2 nights extra AUD$900 pp Milne Bay extension 4 nights extra AUD$1200 pp Rabaul extension 2 nights extra AUD$900 ppNB Minimum 4 bookings are required for the 2-night extensions to operate.INCLUSIONS Core tour includes accommodation and meals as indicated, charter flight to Kokoda, transfers, services and activities as indicated, local tour escort. Packages are twin share and solo pax can elect to share with a stranger at no extra cost or pay single supplement of 10% of rack rate for sole occupancy. Single supplement is also available for extensions @10% additional charge.EXCLUSIONS Prices do not include scheduled Air Niugini flights: - one way Popondetta-Port Moresby flight for the core tour (Monday 28 April) - return POM-Lae-POM, POM-Alotau-POM or POM-Rabaul-POM for the extensions. Purchase best-available airfares through your travel agent or Ecotourism Melanesia.