Just got back from the Pacific Dawn's first cruise to Papua New Guinea. PNG is a great addition to the cruising agenda, and considering it was a maiden trip, everything ran pretty well, after a false start in Townsville. After getting on the ship, we received a letter saying that the Townsville call would now be at Magnetic Island - it appears the shiny new cruise terminal in Townsville isn't suitable for Pacific Dawn which would appear to be a bit of cock-up! However after 2 hours of trying to start tendering the whole thing was called off due to rough weather and we missed the stop all together.

In contrast PNG went well. A rapturous welcome in Alotau at their new port (which was officially opened when we arrived) and a great day at the Canoe and Kundu Festival. The Prime Minister of PNG came to town to welcome us (and he did the same at Kiriwina Island, the first time he'd ever been there) and the locals were genuinely excited about the advent of cruising. The port has a few 'supermarkets' selling souvenirs, and there was a small market on the wharf. I recommend getting Kina in Australia, as the service on the ship was slow, and there are only 2 bank branches in town which saw people queue for up to 45 minutes to change their AUD. The town is close enough to the wharf to walk, but it's a long hot walk. I recommend the Battle of Milne Bay war memorial about 5 minutes walk from the centre of town back towards the ship.

Kiriwina Island was another friendly stop, although the tender service brought some complaints with some passengers waiting nearly 3 hours to go ashore, despite a very short tender ride. This may get better with experience at this port. Good snorkeling, friendly locals and crazy Trobriand Cricket are highlights, however the souvenirs and crafts were pricy ($250 AUD for a wooden bowl anyone?) and some of them appeared to be mass produced elsewhere. Again this may improve with experience. Read more