Trans Niugini Tours - Papua New Guinea's leading inbound tour operator

SOUTH PACIFIC 2011

3. TAHITI TO PNG

1st June 2011 to 16th June, 2011
Last Updated 5th December, 2011 @ 19.00 hrs

You can follow us with SPIDERTRACKS in real time when we are in the air or if we are not moving then you can see where we are parked on the ground.

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WED 1 JUNE - MOOREA (NTTM) - TAHITI (NTAA)- RAROTONGA (NCRG)
Todays flight was 629 Nautical Miles and was 4 hours and 15 minutes flight time.

Left Moorea at about 8.30 hrs for the short 4 minute flight to Tahiti International airport and stopped at the aeroclub for fuel and to say goodbye to our friends at the aeroclub including Antoine.

Taxied over to the southern side of the runway for customs and immigration clearance for our flight back to the Cooks. Again we had headwinds all the way, however we were now well and truly on our way back to home in PNG.

THU 2 JUNE - RAROTONGA (NCRG) - NIUE (NIUE)
Todays flight was 584 Nautical Miles and was 3 hours and 55 minutes flight time.

The first part of the flight was in fine weather, however we started to run into weather during the final stages of the flight. The weather for our arrival in Niue was rain, low cloud and poor visibility. It continued to rain for the duration of the day in Niue but stopped during the night. However it started again and was raining for our departure the next day.

Niue may be the world's smallest independent country with about 1,100 inhabitants living on the island and it is referred to as the rock of Polynesia. About 450 of the population are public servants! It is heavily dependent on overseas aid and is closely tied to New Zealand. The currency is the NZD.

Despite its small size Niue claims a number of "unique features" in the world.

Niue is "the largest uplifted coral atol in the world" (As advised by thr Niue Yacht Club). The height of Niue Island/Atol would probably average about 60 meters above sea level.

We joined the Niue Yacht Club and they also claimed to be "The Biggest Little Yacht Club in the World."

You can check out their web site Niue Yacht Club

FRI 3 JUNE - NIUE (NIUE) - FUA'AMOTU (NFTF) TONGA
Todays flight was 321 Nautical Miles and was 2 hours flight time. During this flight we crossed the international dateline so Saturday did not really exist for us, but at least we are back on the same day as PNG and three hours ahead instead of being 21 hours behind.

Tonga is rather disorganised and we had to wait 2 hours for immigration to turn up and the saying that it is just "Tongan Time" is certainly true here.

Fua'amotu had weather similar to Niue that required another GNSS approach to get in. It also had strong winds gusting to 27 kts.

By the time immigration arrived and we refuelled the aircraft the day was just about over. We stayed at the Dateline hotel in Nuku'alofa.

SUN 5 JUNE - NUKU'ALOFA TONGA
Today is a Sunday and nothing except church happens on a Sunday in Tonga. All the shops are closed and even the airport is closed and aircraft are not allowed to arrive or depart. The internet does not work in the hotel, maybe they shut it down because it is a Sunday.

It rained all day today in Nuku'alofa. So it was a very quiet day for us and a good non flying day for several reasons.

Did an afternoon tour in the rain around Nuku'alofa and came across some fishing pigs. These pigs go out in the salt water and fossik in the mud for fish, by the number of pigs in the water they must be successful at it.

MON 6 JUNE - FUA'AMOTU (NFTF) - VAV'AU (NFTV) TONGA
The satellite picture showed us that the weather was moving away to the east. We waited for it to improve and todays flight was a short 173 Nautical Miles and was 1 hours and 10 minutes flight time.

Vav'au is a haven for yachties, it has a good sheltered harbour and the cafe's and restuarants along the edge of the harbour cater for them. Some are travelling east while others are travelling west and some stay here for weeks or even months and they all meet up here. We obtained some information from them as to our next destination in the Niuias north of here.

TUE 7 JUNE - VAV'AU (NFTV)- NIUATOPUTAPU (NFTP) - NIUAFO OU (NFTO)- TONGA
Just two short sectors today with a total of 267 Nautical Miles which took just 1 hour and 45 minutes.

The Niuias are in the northern part of Tonga and closer to Wallia & Futuna and the Samoas than they are to Vav'au. Niuatoputapu was our first stop and was the island that was devastated by the Tsumani in Tonga a couple of years ago. There were 7 adults and 2 children that lost their lives in the Tsunami and fortunately most of the population were able to run into the hills in the centre of the island.

You will notice the cone shaped island behind Niuatoputapu that is Tafahi and is part of the group. Tafahi bore most of the brunt of the Tsunami otherwise there would have been a loss of much more life on Niuatoputapu.

We went into town, there was no accommodation on the island, however we were invited to stay if we wished and could have stayed with someone in their house. However we only stayed about two hours saw the graves of all the people killed in the Tsunami and departed for Niuafo Ou.

There is also no accommodation on Niuafo Ou and it has a population of about 700 people in a total of 8 villages. It has 13 churches and everyone seems to go to church at least 4 or 5 times a week. We stayed in a local family house not far from where we left the aircraft for the night. It was the first time that an aircraft had ever overnighted at Niuafo Ou. It was a grass airstrip about 1,000 meters long.

The island is also called Tin Can Island because in former times there was no anchorage or landing site. The mail and supplies for residents were sealed up in a biscuit tin and tossed overboard from a passing ship and a strong swimmer would retrieve the parcel. This method persisted until 1931 when the mail swimmer was taken by a shark.

The Island resembles a doughnut floating in the sea. It has an interesting lake in the centre of it with some islands in the lake. This is a fresh water lake and contains fish and the local people catch fish in the lake rather than going out to the open sea to catch fish. We went to the lake and paddled across it in a canoe.

During out night there a person on Tin Can died. He was to be buried on the day that we left and we were advised that all 700 inhabitants on the island would go to the funeral.

WED 8 JUNE - - NIUAFO OU (NFTO)- VAV'AU (NFTV) - TONGA
Todays flight was 204 nautical Miles and took 1 hour and 25 minutes.

We had intended to depart Niuafo Ou (Tin Can Island) for Port Vila in Vanuatu however as Niuafo was not an International Airport we had to return to Vav'au before we could depart for Port Vila. We therefore decided to spend another night in Vav'au.

THU 9 JUNE - VAV'AU (NFTV) - TONGA - PORT VILA (NVVV) - VANUATU
Todays flight was 1013 nautical Miles and took 6 hours. It was good weather all the way and it was not necessary for us to pick our way through any of it. We even had some tail winds which reduced our planned flight time from six and a half hours to six. We went through two time zones so we lost two hours as well and are now only an hour ahead of PNG time.

Customs and immigration were quick and easy in Port Vila and we soon settled in and found a spot to park P2-BOB for the duration of our stay.

FRI 10 JUNE - PORT VILA (NVVV) - VANUATU
We decided to stay another day in Port Vila, hired a car and did the traditional round trip of the island. The round island road was good but there was very little development along the roadside as we had experienced in some of Islands in the Cooks and French Polynesia.

The local beer of Vanuatu is Tusker Beer, the same name as one of the beers in Africa. However in Africa the "tusk" referred to is that of an elephant while in Vanuatu it is the "tusk" of a pig.

The logo on the shirt sleeve of all the "Airports Vanuatu" staff makes for some interesting thoughts.

SAT 11 JUNE - PORT VILA (NVVV) - LONORORE (NVSO) - SANTO (NVSS)- VANUATU
Just two short sectors again today with a total of 165 Nautical Miles which took just 1 hour and 20 minutes.

It was Saturday and the day that the Pentecost people do the original Bungee Jump so we decided to head off to Pentacost to see if there were any jumps happening. When we arrived the lower jumps had already taken place but on hearing our aircraft arrive they held up proceedings so that we could get to the jump site and witness the last few remaining jumps from near the top of the tower.

The weather was not kind to us at the Bungee Jump, there were passing showers and one was very concerned about keeping ones camera dry while waiting for the next jump.

After the last jump we headed across to Santo on Espiritu Santo where we decided to spend the night.

We had dinner at a nice French Restuarant and Big Bob ordered flying fox.

SUN 12 JUNE - SANTO (NVSS) - VANUATU
No flying today and the morning was spent catching up on paperwork, and other things that needed to be done. The satellite picture shows that it would have been a good flight with little weather around to go to Honiara today so let's hope that the good weather hangs around for another day.

It turned out to be a rather lazy day with not much more happening that a walk up the street and some reading. It was hot and humid and the best place was in an airconditioned area.

MON 13 JUNE - SANTO (NVSS) - HONIARA (AGGH)- SOLOMONS
Todays flight was 523 nautical Miles and took 3 hours and 20 minutes.

We arrived at Henderson Airport only to find that they had run out of Avgas in Honiara and that there was none in town. We chased around and found out that we could get 2 drums or 400 liters from Solomon Island Airways in Gizo. We purchase the fuel and planned to go to Gizo in the morning to pick it up. Gizo was more or less on our track so it was not a big diversion to go to Gizo. Gizo was about 1 hour and twenty minutes from Honiara and we did have sufficient fuel on board to get to Gizo.

This time we stayed at the Mendana Hotel in Honiara.

TUE 14 JUNE - HONIARA (AGGH)- MUNDA (AGGM) - GIZO (AGGN)- SOLOMONS- BUKA (AYBK) - PNG
We finished up doing three sectors today with a total of 420 nautical Miles and this took 2 hours and 50 minutes flight time but was spread over most of the day.

On the previous day when we arrived we requested customs and immigration to be at the airport for a 9.00 am departure to Gizo for fuel and then onto Buka. We arrived at the aitport at about 8.00 am and prepared the aircraft for departure and did the custom formalities, however immigration did not turn up. Customs were most helpful in trying to contact immigration and get them to the airport for our departure. The first call was made to the immigration driver after 9.00 am but he seemed too sleepy to give us an answer as to when he would have the immigration people to Henderson Airport for our departure. Customs continued to call immigration for us and after 10.00 am when no one had turned up they called one of the senior people in Immigration for us and he said that he was having trouble in getting one of his staff to go to the airport for our departure and that we should just fill in the departure cards and go. This we did. This put us two hours behind schedule and we were rather concerned for we had customs/immigration teed up in PNG at Buka for mid day.

On out way to Gizo to pick up fuel we received a radio call from Air Traffice Control to divert into Munda as Immigration wanted to see us. I requested confirmation from ATS that immigration was indeed at Munda to see us and he confimed that this was the case so we diverted to Munda. On arrival at Munda it was the police that met us and took us to the police station and it was then that we realised that they wanted us for allegedly trying to leave the Solomons illegally and without going through immigration. The police said that we had to remain at the police station until immigration arrived but no one could tell us when they would arrive. Immigration finally arrive at their own time after we had been there over two and a half hours. Immigration took us to a room in the police station and accused us of trying to leave the country illegally and threatened us with jail and a large fine and being prohibited from being able to return to the Solomons. They did not seem too interested in the fact that no one from immigration was at work at Honiara by 10.00 am and after being interrogated for about an hour they finally let us go on our way. They also charged us for their transport from wherever they were to the Munda Airport.

We then flew the 10 minute flight to Gizo for our fuel and departed for Buka about 5 hours late.

Gizo airport is an amazing sight from the air and it would not be easy to make it larger.

PNG customs/immigration at Buka could not stay around at the Buka Airport for 5 hours to wait for us so they had to go off and do other customs/immigration work. When we finally arrived in Buka the Buka airport people contacted the customs/immigration people and they said for us to go to wherever we were staying and they would come around at night and do the necessary paperwork. This they did and they even apologised for the fact that they were not there for our arrival, a far cry from the attitude and treatment that we received from the immigration people in the Solomons.

WED 15 JUNE - BUKA (AYBK) - RABAUL (AYTK)- PNG
Todays flight was 155 nautical Miles and took 55 minutes.

We hired a car and went into the part of Rabaul that was destroyed by the volcano in 1994.

THU 16 JUNE - RABAUL (AYTK)- MOUNT HAGEN (AYMH) PNG
Todays flight was 495 nautical Miles and took 3 hours.

PNG TO TAHITI(16th MAY TO 22nd MAY 2011)

TAHITI AND HER ISLANDS(22nd MAY TO 1st JUNE 2011)

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TRANS NIUGINI TOURS is Papua New Guinea's leading inbound tour operator. Trans Niugini Tours operates cultural and nature tours in Papua New Guinea and owns and operates a number of award winning Wilderness Lodges there.