It is a pretty basic PNG town, no real large stores as we know it. It had a couple of banks with 15m long queues at any working ATM. So changing money was not going to happen. The local currency is the Kina with an exchange rate of 2.3 Kina to 1 Australian dollar. For convenience all stores offered a 2 to 1 exchange rate, anything to help out the local economy.
The walk into town was a 30 minute trip in the tropical heat so we made an early start. The people were so friendly with heaps of morning greetings coming as we made our way along the streets. It was a lovely small town in a tropical paradise. A cooling sea breeze came in late morning. Trish had a bit of a cold so we grabbed something for her at the one and only chemist in town and wandered around the streets and several markets.
All the time we were approached by locals wanting to know where we were from. Rugby League is the local sport so when they found out we were from Queensland we were quizzed on which NRL team we supported. They knew more about the NRL than I did! But that's not hard.
Kids darted around between us laughing and playing as we walked along. The markets were overpriced but not too extravagantly for our pockets. We bought 2 cans of Coke which cost 5 Kina, we gave the lady $4 and took our drinks and walked away not wanting any change. We had paid her over 9 Kina and she was over the moon with the deal. $4 for 2 Cokes was a great deal for us too we thought.
On our way back to the ship we spotted a small shop as a part of a larger building and Trish said she wanted to have a look around for a few minutes. As we went inside the lady said I was welcome to look around out the back, have a cool drink and take some photos if I wanted. It was actually a hotel with a sensational outdoor bar right on the sea and under an attap roof.
The sea breeze had come in, the local beer was cold and the view from our seats in the semi outdoor bar was of a tropical paradise. (photo above). After a cool drink we walked back to the ship after a wonderful morning in a beautiful idyllic tropical town.
After arriving back at the ship it was time to sit back and recall our visit to the delightful Alotau.
The next 2 days were spent at sea heading to Brisbane. We had been told that as there was a manageable problem with the ship's engines meaning it couldn't travel at full speed, the visit to Cairns had to be bypassed to conserve time. In place we would spend the 4 days at sea, 1 day at Alotau and then 2 days at sea until we reached Brisbane. To the novice's eye, the distance from Darwin to Alotau looks almost identical as the distance from Alotau to Brisbane. The former took 4 days, the latter 2 days.
We seemed to be getting the run around and not being told the truth. It was quite rough for one day on the way to Brisbane, free sea sick bags were available all over the ship. The wind blew a gale outside on the open decks. The rough weather did not bother us.
Our cruise was now heading into its final phase.
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