Travelling around Weno (Chuuk)

I am going on a scuba diving holiday to Truk Lagoon on a liveaboard boat in January 2013. After disembarking from the boat, I have some 16 hours before my return flight in the early hours of the morning. I thought that I use the time to look around the main Weno island a bit - at the Nefo Cave, Mount Tonaachaw, Sapuk Lighhouse etc just to kill time before the flight - better than sitting around and doing nothing. The trouble is, I am not sure how to do it.

I can secure my luggage at the Dive Centre and either rent a small car or hire a taxi. I would prefer the former if possible but do not know if they even have car rentals in Chuuk and if so it it is safe to drive around.

Any ideas and/or advice would be useful.

Getting around Weno can be difficult. The road is bad, and only goes around part of the island. They're doing construction, but it's slow and makes mud pits for months at a time. There's no telling what it will be like a year from now. The guide might recommend things like mountains and caves, but I've never heard of any tourists actually visiting these. People might tell you otherwise, but if you go to town during the day and use common sense, Weno is safe.

My guess is you'll be at Blue Lagoon resort, which is beautiful, but far from everything. From what I know, you can hire a car to take you to the Sapuk Lighthouse, which I'd say is your best bet. They also have mopeds that you can rent and drive around, which seem to be good because they can go around the worst parts of the road. There's not really much to see, although the ride up to Sapuk is scenic, and you can get a good feel of what the place is like (it's not the same as town). Getting to the lighthouse on your own might be tricky though.

There's some hiking to be done, but without someone who knows the language and a general idea of where to go, you'll most likely get lost with no way to get home. There's only one road, so if you stick to it, you'll be fine.

Thanks. Yes, I will be staying at the Blue lagoon resort simply because the Truk Odyssey is moored and departs from there. I arrive in Weno 2 days before the cruise and paln to do 5 or 6 land based dives through Blue Lagoon's Dive Centre. However, when I have to disembark off the boat, I cannot dive anymore because of the return flight within 24 hours. We have to get off the boat by 9am but the flight is not till 02:30 hours the following morning, which means that I have some 15 hours to kill before starting for the airport at midnight. Rather than just sit around doing nothing, I thought that I'll take a look at what little the island has to offer.

The Nefo Cave seems mildly interesting with its WW2 Jap artillery gun - I am interested in that sort of thing.

I just left Chuuk after doing a few days of wreck diving there. I was based at the Truk Stop Hotel. I know that Truk Stop offers an island tour for 30$ per person. I was interested in doing that on my last day as I was in a similar situation as you will be next year, not being able to do scuba diving anymore because of the 02:30am departure. I ended up not going because it was raining heavily all day so I cannot really tell you too much about it. I imagine those tours don't take very long though. I recommend hanging out at the Truk Stop's bar or restaurant after your tour wraps up. It's a friendly place. Take note of my Chuuk trip report I will post in a few minutes from now...