Papua New Guinea
Traveller Testimonial:
The amount of time spent on each island on this magical tour of Papua and the
area was just right. I especially enjoyed the free days for personal exploration. The
festivities at the Bargam Cultural Show were fascinating and the contrasts of Mount Hagen
were just captivating. I wish I had more time so I could continue and do a third week!
-Walter Stark
One of the most defining features about Papua New Guinea is its
cultural diversity. Many countries across the globe pride themselves
in being host to a multitude of cultures, but Papua New Guinea is in
a league of its own.
This second largest island in the world—the first being
Greenland—owes its assortment of cultures not to the influence of
other nations, as is often the case with multicultural societies,
but rather to its own geography. In the Highlands, where mountainous
peaks and thick forests dominate the landscape, many local tribes of
yore remained either unaware of or indifferent to each other’s
presence, instead developing their own customs, language and
traditions in isolation.
The Papua New Guinea of today is as diverse as that of centuries
past, with a staggering 700 or more indigenous languages, an excess
of 1,000 indigenous groups and several thousand distinct
communities, all within the country’s meagre population of five and
a half million. A tour to Papua New Guinea promises travellers the
once-in-a-lifetime experience to mingle with not just one, but with
many tribes, many of which retain the ancient practices, traditions
and culture of their forefathers. However, since seashells have not
been currency in Papua New Guinea since 1933, be sure to take your
wallet with you on tour.
Papua New Guinea occupies an eastern section of the island of New
Guinea—the west belonging to Indonesia—as well as numerous small
offshore territories. The lush tropical forests that blanket about
85% of Papua New Guinea serve as prime locations for bushwalking or
exploring, as the country is home to a huge variety of exotic bird,
including the majority of birds of paradise, and the 5,000km of
coastline provides a glorious palm-tree studded locale on which to
soak up the rays. The country is world-famous for its incredible
diving areas, and travellers often return to Papua New Guinea to
swim around the superlative corral reefs. Though if a tour to
somewhere loftier is sought after, the majestic mountains that
perforate the country boast the rare phenomena of equatorial
glaciers and are perfect for hiking or mountain climbing.