Kimbe Bay Seamounts, New Britain

Kimbe Bay, West New Britain · Papua New Guinea

Moderate10 daysOceania~£3,200 est.

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Overview

Kimbe Bay is a drowned volcanic amphitheatre. You dive from a small boat on flat water with Mount Ulawun smoking on the horizon, dropping onto seamounts that rise from hundreds of metres to within a few metres of the surface. Surveys credit the bay with more than half the coral species known from the Indo-Pacific, and it shows: Susan's Reef is a wall of red whip corals and orange gorgonians with pygmy seahorses tucked into them. Bradford Shoals and Inglis Shoal pull barracuda and grey reef sharks into the current line. Restorf Island is an easy afternoon of anemonefish and coral heads with a beach to sit on. A Japanese Zero fighter lies almost intact in shallow water near the shore, propeller bent, coral growing through the cockpit. Getting there is the real cost: Port Moresby, a hop to Hoskins, then an hour by road. Book room, diving and transfers as one package through the resort, because independent logistics in Papua New Guinea are not worth the saving. The bay sits in the lee of New Britain's mountains, so the trade-wind months from May to November are usually glassy. Ten days with diving comes to roughly £3,200 on the ground, before flights.