Things to Do in New Britain

Tavurvur Volcano and the Buried Town of Rabaul

You climb Tavurvur in pre-dawn dark. Boots crunch over warm black scoria, and the cone vents a low hiss of sulfur that gets sharper as you near the rim. From the top at sunrise, you look down on Rabaul's harbor, the half-buried colonial buildings still visible under ash, and the matching cone of Vulcan across the bay. The descent through the abandoned streets of Old Rabaul, where palm fronds push up through the cracked tarmac of former main roads, is honestly the more haunting half of the morning.

Diving Kimbe Bay

Kimbe Bay surprises even divers who have done Raja Ampat and the Red Sea. That's saying something. The bommies rise out of 600-meter water like underwater skyscrapers, draped in soft corals the color of bruised plums and surrounded by schools of barracuda dense enough to throw shadows. Visibility regularly pushes past 30 meters. The macro life on the inshore reefs (pygmy seahorses the size of a grain of rice, ornate ghost pipefish) rivals Lembeh on a quiet day.

Baining Fire Dance at Gaulim Village

The Baining come down from the inland villages of the Gazelle Peninsula at night, in towering bark-cloth masks shaped like leaves and faces from another world. They dance directly through a bonfire of dried coconut husks. Embers spray across the clearing. The bamboo flutes shift from a low drone to a kind of shriek, and the dancers walk through the coals with no visible effect. This is not a hotel-lawn performance. It's a ceremony done occasionally for visitors, and the rawness shows.

Japanese WWII Tunnels and Yamamoto's Bunker

Beneath the Gazelle Peninsula runs an estimated 500 kilometers of hand-dug Japanese tunnels. Bring a torch and a guide. You can walk through the better-preserved sections near Rabaul. The Admiral Yamamoto bunker sits half-overgrown above Karavia Bay, its concrete map room still intact. Down at the waterline, the rusting hulks of barge tunnels still hold landing craft where they were parked in 1945. In the afternoon, the steel is hot to touch. The roof drips condensation.

Garu Wildlife Sanctuary and the Beehive Islands

On the West New Britain side, a short boat ride from Kimbe takes you to the Beehive Islands, a cluster of limestone karst pinnacles rising sheer from the sea like green-fanged molars. The Garu sanctuary on the mainland protects megapodes, the curious mound-building birds that bury their eggs in volcanically warmed sand. Around the Beehives, the reefs stay pristine. Free-dive a 40-meter wall. Reef sharks circle below.

Kokopo town is the practical base for East New Britain. The airport sits nearby. Most of the ATMs work here, and a string of mid-range resorts lines the waterfront where you can watch the volcanoes from your room.

Rabaul is moodier and quieter. It sits in the shadow of Tavurvur, much of the old town still half-buried in ash. Pick this if you want history more than comfort.

Walindi sits in Talasea, West New Britain. This is the diving pilgrimage spot. Essentially one resort and its plantation, oriented entirely around boats and reefs.

Kimbe town is a transit hub. Useful for West New Britain, with a couple of business-grade hotels and easy access to the wharf for island day trips.

Vunapope and Kabakaul sit south of Kokopo. Quieter beachfront villages with small-scale guesthouses. Good for travelers who want the sea outside the door and don't need a restaurant menu.

Gaulim and the inland Baining villages offer homestay-style accommodation arranged through community contacts. It's basic. But it's the only way to spend real time with Baining communities.