KAIBOLA BEACH - KIRIWINA ISLAND - PAPUA NEW GUINEA

KAIBOLA BEACH - KIRIWINA ISLAND - TROBRIAND ISLANDS, PAPUA NEW GUINEA.

Visited SEPT 2017

KAIBOLA is a classic South Pacific beach - the soft coral based sand, more white than yellow, backed by swaying palms/casuarinas and frequented by friendly locals. A fringing coral reef close offshore enclosing a shallow lagoon, with deep blue water further out. This is the sort of stuff JAMES A MITCHENER in his TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC wrote about - most of those stories were set in the SOLOMAN ISLANDS not too far from here.
I shot this from our visiting cruise liner, the GOLDEN PRINCESS. KAIBOLA is a kind of secondary call-in area for visiting cruises to KIRIWINA - the alternative is the main town LOSUIA, but our particular itinerary included many similar towns in PNG, VANUATU and NEW CALEDONIA and no individual beach call-ins, hence our arrival above.

KIRIWINA ISLAND is towards the lower right of image - will be clearer if you click-expand.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA is one of those last frontier places, and the TROBRIANDS are even more last frontier (GOOGLE IMAGES shows a disproportionate** # of pix of nubile topless young women in grass skirts and WIKIPEDIA talks about some pretty whacked-out beliefs on reproduction and eating. Not to mention the favoured local currency and the power of magic).

PNG has hundreds of outlying islands with thousands of beaches - the mainland many more. Like I said, this is LAST FRONTIER territory. Aussie and other surfers are already exploiting this.

**I'm not too sure about Google Images photo editors - I think they may be as dodgy as me. Or possibly they have little choice - it's the photographers who are dodgy.

THE TROBRIAND ISLANDS

This image came from BOSTON COLLEGE NEWS via GOOGLE IMAGES

KIRIWINA is the biggest island in the TROBRIAND group. But it's not exactly huge. KAIBOLA BEACH is close to the northern tip. Unfortunately GOOGLE EARTH'S definition of that area is very poor so I can't bring you the usual aerial close-up of the place.

Interestingly my research found KITAVA ISLAND (the small one immediately right of the 30km marker) a popular call-in for P+0 cruises. From pix they show, the beach there is very similar to KAIBOLA.

 KIBOLA-KIRIWANA-PNG (1) relative to other places in this section:  2 MYSTERY ISLAND-VANUATU  3 YEJELE-MARE-NEW CALEDONIA  4 NOUMEA-NEW CALEDONIA  5 ISL OF PINES-NEW CALEDONIA  6 LIFOU-NEW CALEDONIA.
Numbers may be clearer if you click-expand image.

The drop off on the ship side of the reef is steep into very deep water, allowing the ship to get pretty close to the beach and small wharf - which meant transfers via the ship's tenders were pretty quick.
Note how shallow the "lagoon" area beach side of the reef is - pic was taken abt 1500 and the tide had dropped a few feet from early morning, but things were pretty shallow even then.

SHORT SHIP TO SHORE TRANSFERS AT KAIBOLA BEACH

Early returnees line the tender wharf....

....and arriving. Dunno about the cheesy pirate theme - but that's cruising.

SOUTH END OF KAIBOLA BEACH

KAIBOLA BEACH extends about 300m south of the wharf - this is taken from about halfway along this stretch with maybe a bit of telephoto. 
Boat guys were lined up here offering rides out thru the fringing reef to past the drop-off. Proved pretty popular. There was a bit of friction in the group - apparently some outside villagers had paddled up to cash in on the action.
Beach here is typical of the whole - not very wide but plenty of sand left at high tide to lay a towel/sarong (if you click-expand you may be able to see the high-tide mark near the bows of the canoes) - a fairly steep beach profile -,which along with the soft coral based sand and plenty of coral debris made walking a bit tricky (REEF BOOTIES recommended - Aussie supermarts are now selling them for less than $10 - even the ship's boutique had them for under $20). Apart from coral debris the beach free of rubbish - locals probably groom it before ship visits, but this ocean does not get a lot of flotsam and jetsam.
Note the shade in back of the beach provided by scattered trees.

LADY T TAKES ADVANTAGE OF THE SHADE

Note people paddling in the shallows. Lotsa coral here -  those reef booties would be extra useful: although maybe not on the upper part of the reef itself where these people are - a key way to destroy the coral.

SNORKELING KAIBOLA

This southern section seemed to be most popular snorkeling spot. 
Water pretty shallow even at mid-tide - in many places found I had to stick to channels* obviously cleared for the canoes, otherwise I was scraping coral. By the way, I have found the best way to start snorkeling in such areas is to fall prone and start finning** immediately off the beach:none of this wading further out which can be real painful and unstable without reef booties.
Coral in this area okay without being mind-blowing - a few colourful small bommies etc. No shortage of tropical fish/sea slugs/starfish etc. But the best coral and sea life is found on the drop-off. A few intrepid folk were waiting for gaps between canoe trips in the bigger channels to access the open sea, but I've snorkeled plenty of drop-offs - couldn't be bothered (cut me a break trendsetters: I'm a 72yo geezer).
Note kid in tiny canoe - his type was also offering rides. So polite. But only for passengers who are good swimmers - those tiny things not all that stable.

*the small channels I selected didn't seem to penetrate the slightly higher outside lip of the reef unlike 2 or so bigger channels the commercial canoes were using.

**okay, I don't bring my fins (they take too much space in my bag and I travel light) - only my face-mask without snorkel (breath to the side a la freestyle). Of course the ship will sell/hire equipment as do some locals.

LOCAL HANDIWORK 

Behind the southern section sand locals had set up a line of "stalls" offering all types of local clothing, artifacts, fruit, some other food etc. Of course it was possible to get the ubiquitous "hair plaiting" too. They were amazingly polite - sitting patiently and quietly, saying "hullo" - "good by", never pushy like in south east Asia.

PNG MONEY IF POSSIBLE - see if you can get a few PNG KINA beforehand: most ships exchange them. The locals will accept Aussie dollars but have to take them to LOSUIA to exchange and get a lousy rate. 
We also had a lot of kids coming up with $5 or $10 of Aussie dollar or 2 dollar coins asking us politely if we could swap for a banknote (Aussie would do) - the forex people will not exchange coins. So even if you plan not to buy, it will be appreciated if you have some small banknotes on you.

NORTH OF THE PIER

The beach is much the same and extends 500+m - the first 100m above gets plenty of people - further on fewer, so if you like seclusion....

APPROACHING THE NORTH END OF KAIBOLA BEACH....

....these dudes had a good display of freshly caught fish going. No doubt had we bought some COOKIE in the ship's gallery could have fried (or otherwise) them up.

Far north end of the beach delineated by this rocky outcrop, beyond which the sand kinked....

....to the east to run a km or so across to the north-west corner of the island.

DIFFERENT ASPECT OF THE SHIP FROM THE NORTH END

Those small canoes seemed more interested in fishing than tourist rides

Behind the beach in this section were half a dozen fishermens' huts....

....which were a lot simpler than the housing in the main village immediately inland from the pier area. Kinda a communal thing going on here - more stuff for sale, some local dancing yada. 

BUSY WALKWAY BEHIND THE BEACH

 Locals seemed prepared for the ship's visit dress wise - I didn't see any topless grass-skirted nubile young ladies - maybe PRINCESS CRUISES told them I was coming.

BACK TO THE SHIP

As many arriving as leaving at this early stage, but I can't resist the ship's free late luncheon buffet.

CASHING IN

Little kids collecting the occasional coin - bloke in front of my bent down and gave them a $10 bill! Good grief - where do I get me a small canoe?


ACCESSING KAIBOLA BEACH - most visitors arrive off the beach on cruise-liners like us. Others arrive by liner in L0SUIA from where the ships and local operators run trips up to KAIBOLA.
You can also fly or ferry into KIRIWANA, where there is limited local tourist accommodation. 
KAIBOLA BEACH is visited by cruising yachts.

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