If you want to love this country, you got to experience it

For the amateur and professional bushwalkers, trekkers, rock climbers, cave explorers and mountaineers, Papua New Guinea offers adventures to suit everyone be it a short tour around a local village or weeks of trekking. [Read more →]

New tide of waves is crashing upon the shores of Papua New Guinea as more and more surfing gods across the globe expand their horizon and come looking for the ultimate waves here in the Pacific…in Papua New Guinea. [Read more →]

In the heart of Wabag Town, the capital of the mountainous province of Enga, lies a masterpiece of cultural learning and preservation.

The Enga Take Anda (pronounced Takkeh Andaa) Tradition & Transition Centre is a beautifully designed building that houses a great collection of Engan traditional and modern history, organised fantastically as exhibitions.

The Enga Take Anda Tradition & Transitional Centre ( more images below)

These exhibitions include wall montages, reprints of old and historic photographs, documents, stone artefacts, carvings, wigs, miniature buildings and examples of Engan architecture, explanations of folk lore and folk songs and more.

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While much of Papua New Guinea may have celebrated the New Year with partying and alcohol, the people of Surinki, a place once notorious for violent tribal fights, brought in the first day of 2012 with peace and calm.

Stuffing the intestines, for old people with no teeth.

The community in Enga created their own history when over 3000 members of various churches held a multi-denomination mass on the 1st of January at the open air auditorium of Yaskom Hotel & Resort. [Read more →]

“The child who is a warrior now, where is his future tomorrow?”

One of the Classrooms built by Yaso Kome

It was philosophical question, a musing on the place of the traditional warrior in a modern, progressive Enga.

The soft spoken Engan gentleman sitting in the drivers seat of his Toyota Landcruiser asked it calmly, the glint in his grey eyes reflected his unwavering belief – that the way to peace in his often violent province can be found with the children.

His name is Yaso Kome.

We had parked the car at a former tribal battleground. There was nothing here at one time; everything that was here, houses, crops, cars, pigs, dogs, and people were destroyed in one of Enga’s notorious tribal fights between enemy clans. [Read more →]

One of the most scenic towns in Papua New Guinea is Wabag the capital of Enga.

Sugarcane seller at Wabag Town

Surrounded by mist covered mountains with a river running through a gorge in the centre of town and another river, the famous Lai, running around it, the town is green all year round with flowering plants and green pines flourishing beautifully in the cold alpine climate. [Read more →]

If you are ever in Mt Hagen, Western Highlands, one thing to do is take a road trip from Mount Hagen to Wabag and upwards to Porgera along the Highlands Highway.

The Highlands Highway is the major road network for Enga. It begins in the coastal towns of Lae and Madang and snakes up into the Highlands Region. The part of the highway that come through Enga passes through Wapenamanda, Wabag, Laiagam and goes as far as Porgera, the site of the giant Porgera Gold Mine. [Read more →]

What happens when a dreamer dies in Papua New Guinea? What happens when the shining light of a rural village, the person with the dreams and ideas, the one with the spark, the one who learns from elsewhere and starts a project to teach his people about science and botany, passes away?

Ipi's daughters at the entrance of Waiap Lodge

If you visit the Waiap Orchid Lodge in Enga, about 1 hour of Wabag, between Surunki and Laiagam along the Highlands Highway, you will find the Waiap Orchid Lodge. Behind the house is a hill, fenced all the way to the top.  The fence protects a  beautiful forest garden filled with orchids, trees and shrubs, and alive with the sound of birds. [Read more →]