Rabaul Papua New Guinea
Rabaul located on the island of New Britain in the country of Papua New Guinea is a town full of history that really surprised us. We sailed into Simpson Harbour which is surrounded by active volcanoes on a beautiful sunny morning aboard our cruise ship right to the wharf of the new Rabaul township.
On that morning the most noticeable landmark was Mt Tavurvur which had a ragged plume of light smoke rising from the crater. The currency is the Kina and the main languages are English, Tok Pisin and Kuanua which is the traditional language.
Rabaul was established as a town in 1878 and had grown to become the provincial capital with a population at one point of almost 20,000 but it is currently about 3,500 people. It was the headquarters of the German administration until World War One when it was captured for the British Empire by Australian Military and Naval Personal. It was first destroyed by volcanic eruption in 1937. During 1942 Rabaul was captured by the Japanese and became their main South Pacific base during the war. They built many tunnels as well as expanding Rabaul before it was destroyed again by volcanic eruption in 1994. This colourful history provided many of the highlights we visited during our time in Rabaul.
We hired a taxi at the wharf to take a tour of the highlights of Rabaul. Initially the road heading out of Rabaul for the Japanese landing barges was in good condition. However, it didn’t take long for the road to change to a condition that slowed the car down to 10-20kms and at times was one lane and at times the road was abandoned in favour of rough track running parallel to the unusable road.
Entry to the Japanese landing barges in the tunnels required paying an entry fee on arrival. The landing badges once had a direct path down to the harbour for quick launching by the Japanese but most of this path has become overgrown and disappeared into the trees. It was a remarkable contrast to see something in other countries which would have been in a museum or otherwise protected to enhance its lifespan rather than being left to slowly deteriorate. Perhaps this is due to the constant threat of volcanic eruption which could destroy these historical relics.
Our next stop was to see what was left of the old town that had been destroyed by the eruption of 1994 which also involved paying fees. It was weird to see the small remnants of what used to be an airport and buildings which had been covered in metres of ash near the hot springs. Only small parts of the buildings remained but a lot of the ash build up was still visible.
We also travelled part of the way along the path to climb Mt Tavurvur. The climb up the volcano would have taken at least an hour and require better shoes than we were wearing to reach the summit. Dipping a finger in the water along the shore proved that it was very hot but the locals told us it was cold underneath but we didn’t leave our fingers in long enough to prove this.
Near the shore there was a section of orange water and rock due to the colours of the minerals. It was best to step carefully and stay aware of where you walked to avoid the patches of hot spring rising through the ash.
Then it was on to explore artefacts that were not destroyed by the 1994 eruption. The roads into the old town following this eruption were dug out in places from the volcanic deposits leaving 2-metre-high walls of volcanic material on land that had previously been residential areas. There was the remains of a crashed Japanese world war two plane exposed in a grass bunker that was amazing. The New Guinea Club with the Rabaul Museum was fascinating. There was information about the German administration and exhibits from world war one as well as objects and Japanese military items from World War Two.
Outside was Yamamoto’s bunker which must have been very hot and humid when lots of people were working in it during world war two. It was very narrow and small inside the two levels and rooms especially the map room which felt very claustrophobic.
The last place we went was the Vulcanological Observatory up above Rabaul on the rim of the caldera which was a steep drive up the hill. This provided an excellent view of old and new Rabaul in addition to being a fascinating source of information. One of the pictures in the Observatory was of the 1994 volcanic eruption as it started which was very eerie.
Before returning to the ship we also visited the local markets which were interesting and full of colourful clothing items and found the people very friendly and happy. We were disappointed that we did not find the Rabaul War Cemetery but would like to on another visit.
We opted not to go take the road to the provincial capital of Kokopo after experiencing the road to the barge tunnels but it is something we would do if we went back to Rabaul.
Kokopo has other military attractions including the Kokopo War Museum. An alternative to cruising into Rabaul is to take a flight to the airport which has been rebuilt at Tokua which is about 50 km away to the southeast of Rabaul.
There is also diving/snorkelling tours to military wrecks that would be very interesting to try. For more information about Rabaul and New Britain please click here.