Things to Do in Papua New Guinea in December

Kimbe Bay, on the north coast of New Britain, holds over 400 species of coral and roughly 900 species of reef fish in a body of water that stays warm and diveable year-round. December's early wet season brings nutrient-rich runoff that draws pelagic species closer to the outer reef walls. At sites like Fathers Reef and Inglis Shoal, the water is warm enough, around 29°C (84°F), that a 3mm shorty is all you need, and the visibility on offshore sites often holds at 20 to 30 metres (65 to 100 feet) even when coastal waters turn milky from river sediment. The real advantage is solitude. Operators who run full boats in August may have only two or three guests, which means longer bottom times and more flexible site selection. Mornings tend to be calm with light winds building through the afternoon, so most operators schedule two morning dives and return before the afternoon thunderheads build over the Willaumez Peninsula.

Port Moresby's National Museum and Art Gallery anchors a cultural precinct that introduces you to Papua New Guinea's 800 plus language groups and the material culture that staggering variety produces. December brings something no other month can match. Communities across the capital rehearse singsing for Christmas, and the sound of Highlands kundu drums and coastal garamut slit-drums drifts from community halls and church grounds throughout the city. Day tours loop through the National Parliament Haus, its facade modeled on a Sepik haus tambaran (spirit house), the Bomana War Cemetery, and a village visit in the Hanuabada stilt village over Fairfax Harbour. This gives you a compressed cross-section of the country. The stilt village smells of woodsmoke and salt. Outrigger canoes rest beached under houses while children swim below, a scene that resets your assumptions about capital cities. Mornings are best. By early afternoon the humidity sits heavy enough that even locals retreat indoors, and the 32°C (90°F) heat radiates off tarmac and tin roofs.

Rabaul sits inside the caldera of a volcano that last erupted in 1994, burying most of the old town under metres of ash. The result is one of the most surreal landscapes in the Pacific. You walk on grey volcanic grit that still radiates warmth, past half-buried buildings whose rooflines peek out of the tephra, while Tavurvur volcano steams on the caldera rim across Simpson Harbour. The Japanese wartime tunnel network, carved into volcanic rock, is cool and damp inside. The temperature drops 10°C (18°F) from the surface heat, and the scale of the underground hospital and supply depot makes the Pacific War feel immediate in a way museum exhibits rarely achieve. December's rains keep the ash damp enough to suppress the dust that plagues dry-season visitors. The harbour water, warm as a bath at 30°C (86°F), invites a swim among submerged Japanese barges visible from the surface. The Rabaul area also produces some of the best cocoa in the Pacific. December is when the pods hang heavy on the trees. Drying racks at local plantations carry the sharp, fermented smell of raw cacao that bears no resemblance to processed chocolate.

Papua New Guinea hosts 38 of the world's 42 recognized species of birds of paradise, and December's early wet season coincides with increased display activity among several species. At Varirata National Park, 42 km (26 miles) east of Port Moresby and about 800 metres (2,625 feet) above sea level, the temperature drops to a more tolerable 26°C (79°F) and the forest canopy drips with moisture from overnight mists. Raggiana birds of paradise, the national emblem, display at traditional lek sites in the park's mid-canopy, fanning their rust-orange plumes in courtship rituals that start at first light, around 5:45 AM. You hear them before you see them. A guttural, sawing call carries through the forest understorey. The trail network is muddy in December but manageable with proper boots, and reduced visitor numbers mean your guide can position you at a lek without competing for sightlines. Further afield, the Tari Valley in the Southern Highlands holds Superb and Blue birds of paradise. But getting there requires a domestic flight and Highland road transport that becomes less predictable in the wet months.

The full 96 km (60-mile) Kokoda Track is inadvisable in December. But the memorial sites at the Port Moresby end remain accessible and affecting. Bomana War Cemetery, maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission about 19 km (12 miles) north of the city, holds over 3,800 graves in rows of white headstones set against cropped tropical grass. The silence there, broken only by lorikeets and the occasional distant thunder of afternoon storms building over the Owen Stanley Range, is as powerful as any battlefield tour in the world. The Kokoda Track memorial at Owers Corner, where the trail begins its climb into the mountains, gives you a visceral sense of the gradient and jungle density that Australian and Japanese soldiers faced in 1942. On a December morning, mist clings to the ridgeline and the air smells of wet earth and decomposing leaf litter. Standing at the trailhead knowing what lies ahead along that muddy corridor is a more honest encounter with the history than any museum reconstruction.