Buna PNG

Buna Experience

Why do we include the complementary Buna Experience Tour?

Well for a start, Advance Native Tours is a Buna based business. It’s also our home and we are keen to promote and advance our beautiful village and share our idyllic lifestyle with our many guests.

But that is not the only reason to include Buna in all our Kokoda treks. Ask yourself these following questions and you’ll begin to understand why we are so passionate about increasing awareness of Buna’s history:

Did you know …

> The Japanese invasion across the Kokoda Track, destined for Port Moresby and maybe even the Australian mainland, started and finished on the PNG Northern Beaches, including Buna, Sanananda and Gona?
> Buna, Sanananda and Gona, are the villages that were at the heart of the ferocious battles that finally saw the entire defeat and subsequent expulsion of the Japanese forces from PNG?
> The fighting here in our home villages claimed more lives than all the fighting combined on the rest of the track?
> The famed Kokoda Track was originally named the Buna-Kokoda-Moresby track?
> Arguably the most famous photo of the PNG campaign depicting our fellow Sauga tribesman Raphael Oimbari leading the blinded Aussie digger Private Dick Whittington to safety, was photographed on our clan land?
> We can show you the remains of the Australian field hospital to where Pte. Whittington was taken?
> Our Buna clans were instrumental in starting and continuously improving the now famous Kokoda Trekking tourism industry and have also been involved from the start, of the less well-known Kapa Kapa trekking?
> The PNG National Museum and Art Gallery, who is the legislated owner of all war relics in PNG, have bestowed custodianship of the many relics resting on our customary lands, to us. This is in recognition of our ongoing commitment to preserving these relics and making them available for viewing by our many guests. Some of these relics include ammunition, apparel, utensils, personal effects, weapons, aircraft parts (in fact a substantial USAF B24 Liberator wreck), a 72mm anti-aircraft gun, bunkers, trenches and even complete, albeit overgrown, airfields and we are more than happy to include in your complementary Buna Experience Tour, fully guided visits to these incredible relics of the war.

We can amaze and fascinate you with many sights of historical and personal interest in and around our home, whilst also allowing you time to simply enjoy our hospitality.

Many of our fellow Kokoda trekking companies ignore Buna and the Northern beaches entirely, or only include them as an expensive add-on tour. We believe that is ignoring an important part of the Kokoda Track history and we are actively correcting that shortcoming!

In fact, we are so passionate about our oft-forgotten history, we include in your Kokoda trekking tour, and at no additional cost, a Buna Experience Tour as well. Two exceptional tours for the price of one!