We next travelled to Tufi, a small town on the northeast coast of Papua New Guinea (PNG) in the area known as the Fjordland of Oro Province PNG.

In the Second World War it provided a temporary base for US PT Boats in the battle against the Japanese.  I have included a vintage photo of the base from that time I found online.  Papua New Guinea is adjacent to the Solomon Islands and the Coral Sea, so the area was a major scene of combat in WWII, such as Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Rabal, and Port Moresby.  Tufi is a major scuba dive destination, with many sunken airplanes and ships in the area. 

On our last night at the hotel in Port Moresby, we met a group of four US Air Force servicemen who are part of an ongoing unit to discover and recover the remains of US Servicemen around the world.  Many American pilots were shot down over the jungles of Papua New Guinea in WWII.

We stayed at the Tufi Dive Lodge, a heavenly South Pacific refuge with great food and drink.  I kept waiting for John Wayne and Lee Marvin to come in and get into a fight in the bar.  We were entertained and sometimes bullied by a pair pushy of hornbill birds, Koko and Lulu,  who were feathered mischief personified. (video) 

This is the intersection of the Solomon Sea and the Coral Sea, and we cruised various bays and coastal areas, visited the Yaugiwa tribal village to see various ceremonies, dances and life skills, including their version of the making of food from the Sago palm.  We traveled across fairly rough waters (watch the video) at 70 mph to reach a coral reef where we snorkeled one morning.   

Finally, we were serenaded by a wonderful family musical troop singing South Pacific songs (again, the video) on our last night in Tufi.