​COMPANY OVERVIEW Bitmax PNG Travel Agency is a nationally owned Travel Agency, incorporated with Investment Promotion Authority (PNG) It is an International Air Transport Association (IATA) approved Travel Agency. We provide first class travel services to the general public. Bitmax PNG Travel Agency is a subsidiary of BITMAX PNG and organization based in Port Moresby with its branches across the 22 provinces of Papua New Guinea. TRAVEL & TOUR SERVICES Bitmax PNG Travel Agency provides effective and affordable travel services including;
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​Visit Us at: Suite 12, Namona Bldg, Cameron Place, Gordons PO BOX 1380, BOROKO, NCD 111, Papua New Guinea Or Contact Us On: Phone: (675) 3250100 Fax: (675) 3250078) Mobile: (+675) 7244 9081 Email: wtopur@bitmaxpng.com.pg

By Julietta Jameson

EMPIRE BAY, CENTRAL COAST, NSW
My grandparents lived on the Central Coast of NSW in a small community called Empire Bay. Their tidal waterfront home was a dream playground that I enjoyed with my brother Michael and cousins Rob, Chris and Vincent, who, like me, loved the freedom of this hidden boys’ paradise. This definitely contributed to my love of fishing, and adventure in the outdoors.

NEW ZEALAND
I was 14 when I was in a NSW schoolboy team that toured New Zealand, my first big trip overseas. We were billeted with families of the boys we would be playing against. Our welcome was friendly but once we got onto the field, these bigger Kiwi kids played hard. I toured three years in a row in my early teens to New Zealand. These experiences with new teammates and new friends matured me as a person. No doubt it set me on a path to play NRL football professionally.

KANGAROO VALLEY, NSW
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When not escaping to Empire Bay, my other love was to head down “the valley” to visit my Nan and Pop and cousins who lived on the NSW South Coast. Having grown up roaming the hills dodging black snakes and exploring the Kangaroo River, I still have a strong connection to the valley. It had a defining influence on me.

LEEDS, NORTHERN ENGLAND
At 20, I was contracted to play for the Leeds Rugby League Club for an off-season stint in England. I was about to learn how cold and hard a northern England winter could be. Back in 1986 all the English lads had regular jobs with rugby league the thing they did to earn a few pounds on the side.  Many of my teammates worked underground. They would leave for work each day in the dark at 7am and return in the dark at 3pm – an existence that I couldn’t understand. They were a colourful bunch of hard-working middle class and they taught me many life lessons.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA
I was fortunate to experience Papua New Guinea in the mid-1980s. Since then I have visited this amazing country several  times. The week was a memorable one, not so much for the fishing, as for the relationships we formed with these traditional people who invited us into their lives. Each afternoon on our return we would play volleyball. The fun and laughter was a highlight and the whole village would gather around to cheer their team on. We all had tears in our eyes as we departed their village at the end of the week knowing it was more than likely that we would never see each other again. Years later I was told that one of the couples named their little newborn boy ET.

ET’s Ultimate Fishing Adventure by Andrew Ettingshausen (New Holland Publishers, $49.99) is out now. See newhollandpublishers.com

Read more: http://www.traveller.com.au/the-places-that-made-me-former-nrl-player-and-tv-presenter-andrew-ettingshausen-h0bbfa#ixzz53GdhJAqW
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LADIES AND gentlemen, if you would be so good as to take your wine glasses to the top deck, you will see a volcano erupting." The announcement from our captain, Jean-Pierre Ravanat, is barely finished before there's a stampede for the exits from the ship's restaurant.

It's a moonless night, and high above our heads a blade of red fire glows in the black sky. It's just possible to make out the silhouette of the cone as the volcano flares and dies, like a living, pulsing beast. A tongue of molten lava dribbles down its flanks until it disappears, swallowed in the dark of the sea.

We're travelling along the north coast of Papua New Guinea on day three of our expeditionary voyage aboard the MV Orion.

Today, we've seen a spine-tingling sing-sing performed by painted warriors, taken a bird-watching expedition along the Sepik River and shopped for tribal artefacts created by master craftsmen. But every day brings something special.

This is like no other place on Earth. Wild, mysterious, raw and tantalising, it is a perfect fit for the traveller in search of adventure. The PNG terrain is formidable - a spine of unbreachable mountains guttered by vast rivers and impenetrable swamps. It also has the richest ethnography of anywhere of comparable size - about 800 language groups - and a mosaic of tribal cultures that includes some of the most flamboyant people on the planet.

The severe nature of PNG's topography keeps the wider world at bay, but its seas and rivers provide an entree to this amazing world. We're on an 11-night cruise between Rabaul and Cairns, exploring the villages and islands along the country's north coast, east as far as the Trobriands and into Milne Bay, at the forked tail of the bird-shaped island.

Apart from two days at sea, we're onshore most of the time. By night we sail, and every morning wake to another village of thatch and sticks set on a palm-lined shoreline with outrigger canoes bobbing around our stern. At Watam Village, we're met by warriors who dance beneath a dragon that looks uncannily like one from Chinese New Year, weaving to the sound of hand drums and chants.

At Tufi, we board a speedboat from the local dive resort to travel deep inside one of the fiords, formed by a coastal volcano and etched by wind and waves into steep-sided sea canyons furred with greenery.

Deep in the armpit of the fiord, we transfer to outrigger canoes paddled by lithe boys and girls decorated with flowers and ferns. We paddle for about a kilometre along a narrowing ria through a green tunnel of nipa and pandanus palms. Suddenly, a call erupts from the bush, and a black figure bounds from somewhere behind us carrying a spear as he charges through the knee-deep water, screaming. An act, luckily, all choreographed, but some hearts take a flutter.

At every stop it's a warm welcome, and whether it's on the concrete quay in Madang, or a coral beach in the Tami Islands, there's a sing-sing. Throughout PNG, body decoration is raised to an art form. Using feathers, palm leaves, berries and shells, villagers create elaborate headdresses and costumes, decorate faces and bodies with paint and oil and perform sing-sings, the dance-drama that is universal here.
Most memorable of all is the sing-sing on our day in the Trobriands. This is the South Seas paradise - a grass-skirt, thatch-roof, hibiscus-hung tropical heaven. Almost a century ago, the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski set the tone for the Trobriands when he published a book on the islanders' social customs, with the potboiler title The Sexual Life of Savages. The Trobriands have been saddled with the subtitle "The Islands of Love" ever since. Although this has led to many misconceptions about Trobriand Islands life, the local sing-sing is a hot-blooded affair, a nubile, hip-swinging romp through the palm trees performed by adolescents with glossy black bodies polished with charcoal and coconut oil.

Each village offers a retail experience. The people of PNG are expert carvers and craftsmen whose masks, drums, pottery and necklaces are powerful, haunting creations inspired by a rich culture of legends and dreams.

Shopping has a slightly haphazard character. One seller might ask 200 kina ($115) for a carved canoe prow decorated with cowrie shells, while his neighbour might ask 60 kina for a near-identical piece. "How much for this?" I ask an elderly man on the island of Kitava, picking up a hardwood carving of an octopus inlaid with mother-of-pearl.

"Fifty kina," he says. "Or maybe 20." I buy it for 30, and leave to the sound of his wife and daughter giving him a hiding.

Our last stop is Alotau in Milne Bay, a regional capital with paved roads and supermarkets, where several of us head off in search of bags and even suitcases to transport the excess loot we've bought along the way.

Around the islands we are sailing through, the peacock colours below the surface suggest a treasury of corals and marine life. Several times during the voyage we don face masks, snorkels and fins and loiter while clownfish, parrotfish, angelfish and wrasses dart below.

There's revelation here, too: PNG comes undiluted from the pages of National Geographic, yet where are the visitors? And where are the Australians, the New Zealanders? The irony is that over dinner tables in Milan or New York, this is spoken of as a glamour travel experience. Yet here, mention PNG as your next holiday destination and the alarm bells ring.

True, the streets of Port Moresby are no place to wander after dark, and the Highlands Highway is notorious for its raskol gangs, but PNG is not so much dangerous as different.

In the villages we find nothing but charm, warmth and smiles. Retired mining engineers and money managers return to the ship wearing floral garlands. Women are frequently escorted through the villages by small children who clutch their hands.

As an expeditionary cruise vessel that carries a maximum of just more than 100 passengers, the MV Orion is lavishly endowed and just as capable of operating among penguins and leopard seals in Antarctica as it is with flying fish in the Coral Sea. There's a spa, beauty therapist, boutique, lecture theatre, two inside restaurants and one on deck, two bars, a gym and a library. Early-morning yoga classes are held outside on the sundeck. Every afternoon at 4.30 is team trivia time, accompanied by a scrumptious afternoon tea.

Cabins come in three styles, ascending in size and magnificence as they rise from deck three to five, but even the most modest are large and luxurious, with en suite bathrooms, satellite internet hook-ups, oodles of storage space, glossy wood veneer and nautical brasswork.

Meals offer endless opportunities for waistline expansion. Breakfast and lunch are buffets with fresh croissants, fruit salads, eggs benedict and smoked salmon on the menu. There are fish salads and sliced meats, icecream made on board and a decent cheese platter for lunch, a proper afternoon tea, and espresso any time I feel like one.

Apart from the barbecue nights, dinners are a five-course table d'hote menu by Serge Dansereau of Sydney's acclaimed Bathers' Pavilion. Fish is prominent, and several times during the voyage the chef goes ashore to buy from the locals.

It's a cruise for connoisseurs of the unusual who want to travel with maximum creature comforts. When we leave the vessel for the Zodiacs, there are beach towels spread out to protect tender flesh from hot rubber. Solicitous arms help us to board, and hold the boat on the beach against the slosh of the sea. There is always a waiter nearby who knows how you like your coffee and is ready with a cool towel when we return to the ship.

The Orion also carries an expedition team who together make up a compendium of scientific, ethnographic and technical expertise. Sue Flood is a noted wildlife photographer who specialises in polar regions and whose images have appeared in National Geographic. For many years she worked with David Attenborough at the BBC's natural history unit.

Her photo tips and slide presentations inspire even the point-and-hope snap shooters among us to greater heights. Chris Cutler is a naturalist and field biologist who spent several months in a Sepik River village being devoured by mosquitoes while he hunted butterflies. Orchestrating our shore excursions is Justin Friend. Erudite and experienced in the manners and mores of PNG tribal life, he illuminates our travels with his insider knowledge of everything, from the intricacies of New Guinea pidgin, the no-frills lingua franca, to the wearing of penis gourds.

One evening, before dinner, Friend gives a hilarious account of a highland wedding - his own - which involved the building of a house, the buying of pigs for the bride price, a feast for hundreds that turned into a riot, and a murderous father-in-law with an axe to grind, preferably in Friend's cranium.

The voyage aboard the Orion through PNG is not for everyone. The country's cultural and scenic splendours do not come cheap, nor does it fit conveniently into travel agents' schemes. Yet, if you want to wake up daily in a world where magic and mystery still holds sway, there's nothing quite like it.


Source: Fairfax NZ News

Papua New Guinea's dense rainforest hides poignant reminders of a brutal Second World War campaign, says Mark Stratton
Anthropologists adore Papua New Guinea. Most of this immense country remains blanketed by impenetrable tropical forests while its numerous indigenous tribes pursue rural subsistence lifestyles. Yet, running through much of the country, you find evidence of the Second World War – a conflict that remains exposed like an open wound.

"Two years ago near my village, a B-26 bomber was found in the jungle with six dead American crewman," said Rodrick Vane, my trekking guide. "The airmen were still strapped into the plane and American officials came and took them away for burial more than 60 years after they'd died."

I'd met Rodrick in Popondetta, the northern airport hub of the Kokoda Track – and the beginning of my journey through history. This year marks the 70th anniversary of fighting all along this route between Japanese and Australian soldiers. Having steamrollered through South-east Asia, the Japanese invaded northern Papua New Guinea in July 1942. They set off south along a jungle trail over the Owen Stanley Mountains of Kokoda towards the Australian-held capital, Port Moresby.

The Australians were fearful the Japanese foothold would prove a stepping stone to an invasion of Queensland, just across the Torres Strait, or Darwin. What ensued was a long and bloody campaign featuring pitched battles and hand-to-hand fighting.

These days, things are more tranquil. The Kokoda Track is now a 96km-long hiking trail that has become Papua New Guinea's most popular tourist attraction, courtesy of several thousand annual Australian hikers to whom the trek represents a war pilgrimage to rival Gallipoli.

My intention was to hike the Kokoda Track north to south across the Owen Stanley Mountains' dense jungle to its end at Owers' Corner near Port Moresby. It's a physically demanding hike through mountainous rainforest and jungle. However, planning anything in Papua New Guinea is tricky. Tropical downpours had precipitated landslides, and my planned six-day traverse had stretched to nine days even before I was trapped in Port Moresby airport for 48 hours because of flooding. Rodrick suggested I downsize my aspirations, and take a four-day taster trek along the track instead.

The drive from Popondetta to the trailhead – in the company of Rodrick, a porter and a cook – followed an abysmally rutted road where numerous river-bridges remain collapsed from a 2007 cyclone. The road was probably in better repair when the Japanese advanced along it after landing on the Pacific Ocean coast on 25 July 1942. Oil-palm plantations now smother the lowland jungles they marched through.

At Awala village, in sight of Mount Lamington volcano, we stopped to inspect a plaque marking where the 39th Australian Infantry Battalion fired the campaign's first shots. Then in the village of Kokoda an excellent museum explained how both sides endured terrible conditions of quagmire mud, exposure, starvation and unforgiving malarial-ridden jungle.

The museum's crisp wartime photographs also highlighted how native Papuans supported the Australians as stretcher-bearers and supply-carriers. For this, the Aussies christened them "fuzzy wuzzy angels". It's not the most political ly correct term of endearment, but Rodrick doesn't seem to take offence. "My father was a fuzzy wuzzy angel," said Rodrick.

From Kokoda's trailhead we ascended on foot as oil-palm reverted to rainforest peppered with the breadfruit, papaya, and banana trees that spill out from the food gardens of local villages. Fast-flowing rivers skidded off the Owen Stanley Range ahead and the birdlife proved scintillating: not least the raggiana bird of paradise, which flounced its gingery-orange plumage like a Moulin Rouge can-can dancer. Accommodation along the track is provided in Kokoda's scattering of simple village communities. We overnighted first in a basic thatched palm-wood shelter in Hoi, home to the Biage tribe, one of Papua's 820 distinctive language groups. Hoi's residents proved generous hosts bringing us young coconut milk and a starchy meal of yam, taro and red-coloured plantain.

After overcoming Australian resistance in the first skirmish at Kokoda on 29 July 1942, the Japanese pushed into the mountains – as did we. The lung-bursting ascent to Isurava imbued in me a sense of shared adversity as a downpour turned the steep track into mud and swelled fast-flowing rivers that we crossed on slippery single-log bridges. Unlike the soldiers, though, my only assailants were horseflies that left tennis ball-sized welts. "Bombs and bullets crashed in an uncaring clamour … as Nippon's screaming warriors streamed out of the shadows," wrote Lt-Col Ralph Honner, who commanded the 39th.

The Japanese eventually reached Isurava's grassy plateau in August 1942. Here they started the pivotal battle against the Australians, who had dug in and offered tigerish defence. It proved a turning point because although they overcame the Aussies here, heavy casualties would undermine their push towards Port Moresby.

Today, Isurava is divinely peaceful. The rainy mistiness parted like stage curtains to reveal spellbinding views back down the forested Yodda Valley towards the Pacific Ocean. An Australian memorial to Isurava Battle perches on the plateau in the form of four polished granite stones inscribed: "Courage, Mateship, Endurance, Sacrifice". Nearby is a plaque to Pte Bruce Kingsbury, awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for a solo attack that broke up a Japanese advance. There's also a tiny museum run by Martin Liva, whose folks once farmed this land. I was examining a rusting grenade when Martin casually mentioned it was still live. Replacing it among rusting Bren guns and bayonets, I noticed a sack of bones. "They're human," said Martin, "we find them all the time but I've no idea if they're Australian or Japanese."

My trek would go no further. The Japanese, however, struggled on until 50km from Port Moresby where their assault foundered on 25 September 1942 at Ioribaiwa Ridge. The Australians pursued the retreating enemy. By early November the Japanese were cleared from the Kokoda Track after 97 days of bloodshed that cost them several thousand lives – many through disease. The Australians lost 600 men.

Japan's stubborn occupation continued until 1945 as they hung on to important parts of the coast. Several hundred kilometres north-west along the Pacific coastline, near Wewak, is a whitewashed cenotaph on Mission Hill – paid for by a Japanese visitor who, in 1969, was appalled to find his countrymen's bones still scattered on the hillside.

I walked from here to Surrender Park along a coconut palm-fringed beach of caramel sands that conformed to every preconceived idea of a South Pacific paradise. When Lt-Gen Hatazo Adachi handed over his sword to the Australian High Command in September 1945, Papua New Guinea was left to resume its stumbling progress through the 20th century and beyond.

Getting there

British Airways, Qantas and Singapore Airlines fly from Heathrow to Singapore, where you can connect with Air Niugini (airniugini.com.pg) to Port Moresby.

Staying there World Expeditions (0800 0744 135;worldexpeditions.com/uk) offers 10-day group traverses along the Kokoda Trail, June to September, from £2,790pp excluding flights. A local cheaper option is Kokoda Trail Adventures (kokodatrailadventures.com.pg). Source: The Independent 

IN PAPUA New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, coral-ringed beaches, smouldering volcanoes and rainforest-covered mountains set the stage for unforgettable adventures.

* Exploring the landscape

Test your mettle on a 10-day trek following the steps of Australian Diggers along the Kokoda Track, or climb Highland peaks for a glimpse of both sparkling coasts on a clear day.

Prowl through jungle-clad scenery with village guides, en route to thundering waterfalls or in search of magnificently plumed birds of paradise.On the coast, hundreds of islands and atolls cry out for exploration. You can travel by slow-boat along pristine stretches of shoreline, staying overnight at peaceful villages.

* The life aquatic

The Solomon Islands and PNG are world-famous diving destinations, with excellent conditions most months of the year. Live-aboard boats and first-rate dive resorts provide access to sites far from the hordes. The waves are equally uncrowded for surf lovers, with fantastic reef, point and beach breaks scattered around the northern shores.

There's also fantastic fishing, with yellowfin tuna, mackerel, sailfish and Papuan black bass in abundance.

* Cultural wonders

Home to more than 800 distinct languages and lifestyles, Papua New Guinea and the Solomons provide fascinating opportunities to be immersed in traditional cultures.

It's well worth planning your trip around over-the-top annual festivals: see colourfully painted and feathered Highland warriors, fearless snake-wielding fire dancers and brilliantly attired island oarsmen chanting.

Festivals aside, there are myriad ways to have a paradigm-altering experience: an impromptu singsing on the Trobriand Islands, learning about the legends of an eerie skull cave or sharing fruit with new friends on a bumpy PMV ride. 


* Bountiful rewards

Travel is rarely easy in Melanesia, but the rewards are bountiful. After a few weeks of hard travel you can find your way to a pristine swath of coastline and unwind for a few days in a beautifully sited ecofriendly resort or bush-material village guesthouse overlooking the sea.

Spend your days snorkelling coral reefs, walking sandy beaches or paddling up placid rivers. By night, watch the sunset, feast on fresh seafood and watch the sky slowly fill with stars while daydreaming about the great adventures still ahead. 

                                                         *** Top experiences ***

-- Diving

PNG and the Solomons rank among the best destinations on Planet Scuba, with an irresistible menu of underwater treasures: luscious reefs festooned with huge sea fans; warm waters teeming with rainbow-coloured and bizarre critters; eerie drop-offs that tumble into the abyss; and a host of atmospheric WWII wrecks.

A handful of beautifully set dive resorts provide the idyllic gateway to your undersea adventure.

-- Seeing a festival

Rio's Carnival has nothing on the magnificent pageantry of a Highland festival.

PNG's biggest fests, such as the Goroka Show, are pure sensory overload, with massive feather headdresses, rustling grass skirts and evocative face and body paint adorning enormous numbers of participants  - more than 100 tribal groups at last count  -  from all across the Highlands.

-- Rabaul

One of the prettiest towns in the South Pacific was devastated by Mt Tavurvur, which erupted in 1994 and buried much of Rabaul under volcanic ash.

Today you can wander the abandoned, apocalyptic streets of this once-thriving community and take in adventures further afield.

You can visit Matupit Island, with its village of megapode egg-hunters, go diving in wreck-strewn Simpson Harbour and peer back in time at eerie WWII bunkers hidden in the hillsides. There are great views to be had, particularly from atop the volcanoes looming over the town.

Marovo Lagoon (SI) A visual feast awaits you at Marovo Lagoon. A profusion of dive sites at South and North Marovo offer excellent fish action, suitable for all levels of proficiency. South Marovo has scenic sites off a cluster of three islands  - Kicha, Mbula and Male Male islands  - while North Marovo has a vibrant assemblage of dramatic walls and uncomplicated reef dives. 

-- Idyllic islands

There are some places where you arrive, put down your pack and think: this is it! This is why I travel. White-sand beaches, swaying palms, the day's freshly caught seafood served by moonlight. Outside Kavieng, a handful of thatch-roof guesthouses scattered on tiny islands near Lavongai provide the type of getaway that would make Robinson Crusoe proud. 

--- This is an edited extract from Lonely Planet Papua New Guinea & Solomon Islands (9th Edition) by Regis St Louis, et al. Published this month, $42.99, lonelyplanet.com

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- PNG & SOLOMON ISLANDS

- Getting there

The good thing about flying into PNG is that you don't have to shop around too much looking for a ticket. The only international airport is Port Moresby's Jacksons Airport (POM), and presently only the following three companies sell tickets to PNG: Air Niugini (airniugini.com.pg), Airlines PNG (apng.com) and Qantas (qantas.com). 

- Money

Mid-range: PNG Kina (K) 300-600 ($A140-$280)

Double room in mid-range hotel: K300-K450

Flying between regions: K350-K600

- Safety

 PNG has a notorious reputation, though the dangers are overhyped. Outside Port Moresby, Lae and Mt Hagen, things are much more relaxed. Tribal fighting is still an issue deep in the Highlands but rarely involves outsiders or foreign travellers. 

 Don't flaunt your wealth - wear unremarkable clothes and keep your camera hidden. Carry a bilum (a traditional string bag) rather than a daypack.

 Always keep at least K50 "raskol (bandit) money" in your pocket to appease any would-be thief. Hide the rest in a money belt or your shoe.

 Speak to people rather than be aloof.

Be especially careful on the fortnightly Friday pay nights when things get pretty wild.

If you get held up, try to stay calm. Most robberies are fairly unsophisticated affairs.  News.com

- More: See pngtourism.org.pg