Dive group lead by Kevin Botherway from Dive HQ Napier.

Friday 14 July: We took off driving from Napier to Palmerston North, stopping in Woodville to pick up other group members. At 8.00 pm we arrived at Palmerston North to spend the night at the Braemar Motor lodge.

Saturday 15 July:  We had to rise at 3.00 am to check into our Freedom Air flight, a 737 which was half full and after a good flight we arrived at Brisbane at 8.10 am Aussie time. 

We had the rest of the day free to explore Brisbane.

Sunday 16 July: After a good breakfast we all took off to the airport to check in for our PNG flight, and found out our flight had been delayed in Sydney.  Finally we took off and arrived in PNG to find our plans had turned to custard because we missed our connecting flight from Port Moresby. So we had to stay the night there. 

Monday 17 July: As it turned out, this didn’t interfere too much with our dives because after our morning flight to Rabaul at 6.00 am (having to rise at 4.30 am) in a Fokker F28 twin jet plane, we found we could still get in two dives that day.

Jerry, our dive leader, met us at the airport and took us to the almost new Rapopo Plantation Resort to have a good breakfast and make ready for our first dive. Our first dive was around 100 metres from the Resort; a small wall drift dive in lukewarm 30 degrees water watching the small coral fish for about 40 minutes.  It was a good chance to sort out our weights and gear.

After lunch, we had our second dive, on a tug boat in 20 metres of water with visibility of 8 metres.  All the dive gear checked out fine, so it was then back to the bar for a drink,  a good meal and early to bed.

Tuesday  16 July: The dive team split up, with Johnny, Fred, Iain and I taking off in the dive boat.  Our third dive was a wall drift dive out from the air field, 36 metres in depth with 10 metre visibility: great fish life, good currents along the wall, then it was over to a small island (Pigeon).  Our fourth dive was on a small freighter called the “Kazi” at 26 metres with good fish life, on to the wall and then to shallows.  We then headed back for lunch.

In the afternoon we went out with Steve on his 42 foot steel hull catamaran for a spot of fishing and a look at the volcanoes Tavurvar and Vulcan, which erupted in 1994 dropping 11 cubic kilometres of ash over Rabaul, burying the old airport and half the town!  Johnny was rapt, he had the best catch – a 2 metre 100 kg bronze whaler shark, but was looking pretty knackered after struggling with it for an hour!

Wednesday 17 July: Jerry drove us around to the other side of Rabaul to where the Jap submarines came in for supplies.  We walked through small caves and entered the water, which 5 metres from shore fell to 100 metres along a very deep wall.  We went down to 42 metres and saw a torpedo in the wall.

Our sixth dive was from the shore to a Piper Cherokee plane, then on to an old barge with lots of fish life – a good dive.

Later in the afternoon some of us decided to try out the nine hole golf course, complete with caddies and dilapidated sets of clubs. Some of the group  went fishing and Iain went for a shore dive from the Resort.

Thursday 18 July: For dive number seven we travelled to Rabaul Harbour in Jerry’s 4WD to meet the dive boat to dive on the 7000 ton shipwreck “Italy” at 41 metres. We had 14 minutes bottom time: a good dive through parts of the hull but the visibility was down to 6 or 7 metres, probably due to the falling ash from the volcano.

Lunch was at Rabaul’s Hotel Resort that was buried in the 1994 eruption - but because it was a pub, it was the first building to be dug out! 

The next dive was on a small ship called the “Manko Maru”. This was a 27 metre dive with large bat fish, low viz but an OK dive.  As we were leaving the ramp, the volcano Tavurvur erupted – a great show! We roared off to the harbour for a better view: it was blowing it’s stack every 10  to 12 minutes – a great experience!

Friday 19 July: With the volcano still working well at 20 minute spurts, we loaded up Steve’s catamaran and headed across Blue Lagoon, around the point from other volcanoes, and headed up the coast for our ninth dive. Here we viewed a small mine layer at 42 metres, moved up the ship to the wall and along the wall to the end of the dive.

Our tenth dive was on a Jap float bi-plane down at 21 metres.

Dive number eleven was our last dive of the trip.  We headed back to the harbour under Tavurvur volcano and, at 15 metres, spotted coral reef gardens and fish; the black volcanic bottom providing the coral with a contrasting background.  This last dive was a good one in luke warm water of 30 to 31 degrees.  We headed back late, and watched the All Blacks beat the Springbox!.

Saturday 20 July: This was our lay day,  so we headed off to do a spot of sight seeing, George, our guide, showed us the submarine caves and explained how the subs were loaded and supplied. He also showed us  the gun turrets on the hill built to  protect this area.

Fred thinks he’s a Volcanologist now after visiting the observatory with it’s displays on volcanoes and earthquakes; a very interesting tour. 

Off then to the hot springs by the old airport which remains buried because it’s not as important as a pub, to see how the town was half buried.  Over the other side we passed the volcano Vulcan near Kokopo and visited the cave for the barges that were used for the ship’s unloading. Four barges are still in the caves.  We also saw the hospital caves where over 300 people lived underground - very interesting.  Then off to the cemetery to see a well presented Australian and Indian tribute to the people who lost their lives in WW2.

Sunday 21 July: We headed out to the new Rabaul airport took off to Port Moresby where we swapped flights onto a 767-300, enjoying a  great flight to Brisbane.

We stayed at the Ibis Hotel enjoying beer and a pizza.  It was our last day to fill in before our late flight home.  The day started with Kevin’s “Tours On Foot”, through the city’s main shopping areas, had lunch, still walking through town to the university ground near the river, through parks etc and back to the Ibis.

Took the mini bus to the Brisbane airport and had a good flight home to Palmerston North.  Kevin drove us home to Napier.