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MTP Member Photos - New Britain
MTP Member Posts - New Britain
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2014 Dec by Jorge Sanchez |
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I arrived to Kokopo from New Ireland island. I had to wait there to continue my journey to the Solomon Islands via Bougainville.
I found a hostel inside the Catholic Mission. It was the cheapest price that I could get and I was very well treated, given a room only for myself and meals were included.
The port was in Rabaul, therefore I travelled to that city by bus, only to find that the weekly ship to Buka Island had just left a couple of days eartlier.
The market was very exotic, as they use to be in Papua. Betel nut was very popular and chewed by most of the population, including children.
When the date of the flight arrived, I hitchicked to the airport, spent the night there (I had an early flight) and the next day I flew to Buka Island.
The Kokopo market: This was probably the most exotci place in Kokopo. It was the place where I had to eat and drink something. It was very hote, so I always sat there, under the shadow, and saw how people came and went buying food.
Besides the market of Kokopo there were drawings representing the provinces of Papua. I took a picture of all of them.
RABAUL: reached Kokopo coming by boat from the island of New Ireland. I was travelling around Papua New Guinea with no much money and the planes are very expensivfe in that country while travelling by boat os more affordable.
I was told that the boats to the south of New Britan and to Buka sailed from Rabaul, the old capital of the province, until the eruption of the volcano that half destroyed the city. Therefore I caught a bus and went to Rabaul. The journey was wonderful, specially the views over the volcano.
Once in Rabaul I walked to the port, that I was not fortunate, the ferry to Buka island was weekly but the last one had sailed two days ago, so I had to wait for five more days if I wanted to travel by boat to Buka.
The airplane ticket costed about 350 kina, while the boat only 200. But waiting in Rabaul or Kokopo five days would be more expensive than buying the airline ticket, therefore I returned to Kokopo and one day later I flew to Buka Island.
But while I was in Rabaul (half a day) I had the opportunity to get to know that city, especially its exotic market. I saw how people was selling shells of coral, which is like money.
I did not spend the night in Rabaul, since I had got a good price in the hostel of the Catholic church of Kokopo, including meals, while in Rabaul the cheapest hostel charged over 100 kina per a single, without breakfast.............................................................
Vunapope Mission (Sisters of War): This is a very historic place (Do you know about Sisters of Wars telemovie?).
It is up a hill at the outskirts of Kokopo.
I went there to visit its cathedral, which was built in the form of a shell. There are frescoes, totems, and old colonial buildings since the German\'s times.
The complex is huge. There are many sisters living, and a press, school, gardens, etc. It is indeed a lovely place and the views over the sea are wonderful.
You can stay there since there is a guest house, what I did. | |
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2010 Mar by Veikko Huhtala* |
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After one hour flight our plane arrived Kokopo airport in New Britain Island. As normally we had no hotel reservation, but one local lady told that she can take us to one cheap hotel and so she did. She took us to Takubar Beach Resort which was really cheap, 45 euros a night. There was nice beach, but sand was very dark because of Rabaul Volcano which erupted 1994. Rabaul was capital of New Britain but was partly destroyed in eruption. We visited also in Rabaul and saw a lot of ash on the way. Road is in terrible condition, holes, ash, big water holes and broken asphalt. New capital Kokopo is much nicer town than Rabaul, from where many people are moved after eruption. Rabaul Volcano is still active spewing smoke out all the time. At the Kokopo Airport we met MTP traveller number 11 Roman Bruehwiler from Switzerland who was also flying to Kavieng as we did. | |
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