PNG!!!

Hey Everyone,

This is a short record of a trip that I (Dana) recently came back from. I went to Papua New Guinea (PNG) with a team of biologists from BYU and BYU Hawaii. Most of us were there to collect insects and the others were there to do marine collecting; as well as a photographer and a videographer. This kind of trip is something I have always wanted to do and now I finally had the chance.
We left on July 17 and came back on Aug 3. Our flights brought us from SLC, on Thursday, to LA and then on to Fiji. It was Saturday when we got there. We were supposed to go straight on, but our connecting flight in Fiji was delayed for almost 6 hrs. The nice thing is some of us got to go down to the beach in Fiji for a few hrs. It was beautiful. There were mangrove trees and really cool crabs and fish.







Eventually we flew out of Fiji and I was able to have a window seat. The view was amazing since we flew over several small islands and coral reefs.







We were scheduled to make a quick 45 min stop in the Solomon Islands, but that turned into a multiple hour stop due to a toilet blockage on the airplane, but eventually we were on our way again.
When we finally got to Port Moresby, PNG's capital, we had long missed our last flight to our final destination. Air Nuigini put us up in the Crowne Plaza for the night with promises of a flight the next day. The next day we learned that that flight was cancelled and we had to stay another night. These shots are from the hotel and the beach that was near by.









We finally got to Rabaul on the island of New Britain on Monday. This was once the main naval base for the Japanese during WWII and latter became a huge tourist draw for the region. But in 1994 the city was devastated by the eruption of Tavurvur, which is still active today. Before we left we had the opportunity to see the old center of Rabaul which is now covered in ash. The stairs are where the movie house used to sit in down town. The road is on top of ash that buried 3 villages.









We stayed at a place called Kulau Lodge, and it was great. It is right on the beach and the lady that runs it is a great person. From there we went out each day to different locations to do our field work. And the last night we were there the locals held a sing-sing for us where they sang songs and performed some of their traditional dances.

This is from a museum that we went to that displayed old WWII things that were left behind all over the place. Most things have been found in the jungle or on plantations. And also the volcano up close. I will be adding a post about the 2nd island we went to and one with some pictures of the bugs and other animals I saw.