Our last port on this trip was another island tender port to Doini Island. Doini is quite simply the most beautiful and idyllic Pacific Island I have ever seen. Simply stunning in its picturesque beauty – just postcard material. The weather was lovely, the people were friendly and welcoming, the sands were clean and white, the water was cool, refreshing and amazingly clear. Just fantastic.
There is plenty to do here – take a boat trip or sit in the resort and have a beer, swim, snorkel, jump off the jetty, read a book under a tree, just chill and take in the island atmosphere. You can walk around the entire island in two and a half to three hours and there are more anthropological cave sites to explore. There is an eco resort on the island that can be reached by boat from Alotau (flights from Australia to Alotau are becoming more frequent and affordable from what I understand) and I can totally see myself coming up here, armed with snorkel gear, hammock, reading material and just enjoying the island. Hardly any people (except when a cruise ship happens to come in) and no where to be and nothing that needs doing – sounds like bliss. I have a strong feeling I’ll be back in Doini at some time over the next few years… before it gets too over run by tourists and starts to feel like Vanuatu. 🙂
Fantastic. Have just read through all of your reviews. You have done a great job. Maybe you could get a job on the ships as the Tour destination expert. I am going back to read the Alotau one as we are going there in March. Thank you so much. Val Smith
I would love to do that sort of thing. I have only been to PNG once, but have done the NZ cruise four times, so definitely feel qualified to give those port lectures! 🙂
In Alotau, I would probably recommend taking a tour from one of the tour guides who you will meet on the dock. Because we didn’t know what to expect, I was unaware until later that official tour guides have to all be registered with the PNG government – they wear white government tour guide IDs on lanyards so you can be sure they have been checked out and will only take you to safe places. I think we would have gotten to see and hear a lot more about local WWII history if we had tried one of their half or full day tours of the area.
2-2.5 hours to walk around Doini Island…? HA! Try 4.5hours with me pushing it 🙂
Still… it was a nice walk even if my legs felt like jelly afterwards and I walked like a gun slinger from the Old West for the rest of the day