KOKODA AERIAL TOUR

Today you commence your adventure, beginning with your flight from your chosen departure city to Port Moresby’s Jacksons International Airport where you will be met in the arrivals hall by our friendly and efficient Advance Native Tours staff.

We then move on to afternoon tea at a nearby hotel to enable the group to meet each other and listen to our short induction. We will also use this time to confirm your luggage weights. Your checked luggage is restricted to 16kg plus a further 7kg for carry on items. Should you have additional luggage you don’t want to take with you, we will arrange for it to be kept securely at the hotel at no additional charge to you.

Following these formalities, we will transfer you to the domestic airport for your short flight to Girua in the Northern Oro Province. At Girua, you will be met by your host for the next few days, along with some of our exceptional team, who have already arranged your transfer to Buna, including a drive along a disused war era airfield runway and a chance to explore the remains of a relatively intact but crashed USAAF, B24 Liberator bomber!

Upon arrival in Buna, you will receive an extraordinary welcome by our family clan including a lei gifting ceremony, welcome drinks of freshly cut coconut and our traditional Oro dancers, clothed in our unique Oro Tapa Cloth and adorned with all manner of shells, feathers, bone and natural paints!

You will then be shown your accommodation for the next couple of nights and allowed time to settle in and familiarise yourself with our guest haus site. We include for your convenience, a solar charging station for your electronics. We have designed this facility to be of most use to you and is capable of charging phones, cameras, Go-Pro’s, drones or even a CPAP machine if you require it.

Finally, we serve you your dinner and allow you time to absorb the many highlights from your first day of this exciting adventure! You are free to retire for the night at any time you wish.

This day is all about exploring, absorbing, relaxing and experiencing!

Buna is such a unique village. It is relaxed and laid back, yet holds so many reminders of those tragic times, so many years ago.

Today is really taken at your leisure. You can do as little or as much as you like, however your host has arranged for you to visit the Buna War Relic Museum, take a paddle across a magical lagoon setting in traditional canoes, view a genuine Japanese anti-aircraft gun still in the same position in the field where in 1942/43, it was actively defending the Buna Japanese airfield that you will be also shown, along with the original trenches and bunkers from that era. Of course, you will also see the many remnants of the downed aircraft, still lying where they contacted the ground. These remnants include whole wings, weapons and engines and you’ll be left in disbelief at the many bomb craters around the village, including one right beside your beautiful guest haus.

As a highlight, only available to our tour guests, you have the opportunity to have your photo taken at the exact spot where Raphael Oimbari was photographed helping the wounded Aussie digger, George “Dick” Whittington, get to the safety of the field hospital at Dobuduru.

Needless to say, all these activities are included in your Buna Experience Tour, at no additional cost to you.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner will be served to suit you. You may wish to have a swim in the inviting waters of the Solomon Sea, have a go at shooting a traditional bow and arrow or simply chat with locals as they go about their daily lives which may include unusual sights like making bilum rope down at the river!

The day starts early! Breakfast is at 6am and it is envisaged that everyone will be fed, washed and ready to hit the road by 7am!

Today is a pretty full day and it’s common for excitement to permeate the group with the expectation the days activities. A short drive will see us visiting the village of Dobuduru where you will once again receive a warm traditional greeting consisting of dancing, lei’s and smiles all round. More importantly, Dobuduru all those years ago, hosted the field hospital that treated Pte. George “Dick” Whittington following his rescue from the front lines by our “brata” Raphael Oimbari. Remarkably, there are still remains of that field hospital right here, exactly where they were left and the Dobuduru residents are very keen to share this with Advance Native Tours guests.

Here you have the opportunity to explore these remains, snap some memories to share with friends at home and to further reflect on the hardships that faced the troops back then.

After bidding the friendly Dobuduru villagers goodbye, we set off for Kokoda village which again takes us past Girua airport.

The trekkers among us will now begin their Kokoda Trekking Tour and continue on by road to Kokoda,

For our Kokoda Aerial Tour guests, you will meet your helicopter at Girua airport to be transferred directly to Kokoda, where you will be able to ponder the history of the monuments and the relevance to the troops of the war (both sides) as well as visiting the interpretive centre to read the storyboards and view the bronze statues. We will serve morning tea whilst you reflect at this very poignant site.
Following the Kokoda visit, we take the short flight to the sad but stunningly beautiful and tranquil jungle war memorial of Isurava battlefield.

Here you’ll be confronted by the semi-circular array of four sombre yet vibrantly imposing Australian black granite pillars, each emblazoned with a single defining word, silently enforcing the significance of this site to the psyche of all Australians and Papua New Guineans …

COURAGE … ENDURANCE … MATESHIP … SACRIFICE

Words that forever cement the sacred bond between Australia and Papua New Guinea! This is truly a special friendship where nationalities have developed bonds that can never be broken.

Complementing these four powerful guardians of reflection, are the telling storyboards of bravery, hardship, despair, valour and misery, all set within luscious lawns with majestic, sweeping views, across the valley and ranges toward the coast beyond. It is not possible to walk away unmoved after visiting this remembrance of Australians and Papua New Guineans who fought and died here.

Continuing on with your return to Port Moresby includes flying past some spectacular landscapes and waterfalls, following the Kokoda Track past Templetons crossing, over the pivotal Myola Lakes and then weaving our way back to Owers Corner flying past remote Mt Koiari villages.

From Owers Corner we follow the steep and spectacular cliffs of the Madu Adu range back into Port Moresby.

On arrival, we transfer you to your hotel where you will check into your overnight accommodation, freshen up and enjoy a sumptuous lunch. The afternoon will include a Port Moresby Tour, taking in the perfectly manicured and extensive Bomana War Memorial, PNG Art Gallery and for those last minute unique gifts, a stop off at the 4 mile markets which offer a wide selection of carvings, jewelry, weaving’s, baskets, bilum bags and clothes.

Finally, we will return to your hotel to relax around the pool, soaking up the wonderful Port Moresby climate before enjoying your dinner and the last night of this incredibly special tour.

As much as we dislike this time, the moment has arrived to bid you farewell. Breakfast can be taken at your leisure and you may relax around the pool until the time comes to depart for the airport and your return flight home or onto your next adventure.

As airline timetables vary, unfortunately we cannot program any activities for today, but we can arrange for your transfer back to the airport with plenty of time for relaxing in the lounge at Jacksons International Airport. In the international terminal, there are many activities to occupy yourself, from duty free shopping with an array of PNG specific items (carvings, books, copper imprints, clothing, bilums etc), right down to having a relaxing Highlands grown coffee in the coffee shop or if you have access, relax in the enjoyable Air Niugini Lounge! Perhaps you may wish to visit the small Kokoda display! In any respect, we here at Advance Native Tours, wish you the very best for your future and we hope to serve you and your friends again in the very near future!

Lukim yu behain wantok na tenkyu tru!
(See you later, friend and thank you so very much)