New Britain, Rabaul, Kimbe, Lae north coast by banana boat

Hi
In June I'm travelling to Rabaul to see where my father was during the early stages of WW2. I will need to travel light and flexible.

He earned the military medal as a dispatch rider at Rabaul and then a group of them escaped along the north coast of New Britain and across to Salamaua by canoe and a small 20 foot plantation boat.
I have my tickets to Rabaul and a few nights accommodation booked, after that it will be go as I can.
I want to ride the roads around Rabaul that he rode on. And then catch banana boats as far as I can along the north coast and maybe to the main land?
Does anyone have any experience on hiring a motor bike at Rabaul or Kokopo? (Nothing flash)
Can anyone recommend a local guide for Rabaul?
Does anyone know anything about banana boat travel along the New Britain north coast, prices, how often they run etc?
I’m new to this type of travel but resourceful and respectful. Any words of advise except don’t do it would be appreciated.

i would suggest you talk to the rabaul hotel - we stayed there a few days and they were
very helpful for arranging guides, cars etc at reasonable (for PNG) prices

we got a boat from new ireland to kokopo (60K each one way) - the beach where they come in
seems busy most weekdays so i would just go down there and ask - most of them seem to be doing short hops
and i think you would be lucky to get round to kimbe or even to join the road to kimbe
by boat unless you had a lot of time

you see very few motorbikes or scooters in png - we were surprised after indo but im sure
you could find something - you certainly wont find anything flash in png motorbikes or
otherwise

Thanks

Hi guys,

I was wondering if you could be more specific about where exactly you caught the banana boat from New Ireland to Kokopo/Rabaul. We're 2 girls, heading to Kavieng then down to Rabaul and we're trying to plan a trip down the coast of New Ireland....we just don't know how far down we should go before heading across to hitch a banana boat across. Any details you can provide would be really appreciated.

you go down the highway to namatanai, from there you pick up a truck from one of the boat companies across the island (about 20 min and included in boat fair) and then on the boat to kokopo

in namatanai the trucks leave from the main square - just ask around - there isnt really a schedule as it depends on tide and weather - best be there early but even then you cant guarantee a boat - if you arrive in the afternoon you will be lucky
to get to kokopo that day - on sundays there are usually no boats at all - everyone is usually very helpful to the few
tourists they see and if the boats are running they will get you on one

there are two main boat companies firefly and solwara meri who are rivals and if you are staying at the namatanai hotel they only book you on firefly so if firefly dont run boats then you can be stuck
(which happened to us) - the two companies ship out from different beaches so you cant easily
just switch once on the other side of the island from namatanai

in poor weather rather than shuttle boats all day they make one run in a group which definitely is safer
but you can end up waiting around a lot (but thats like many things in PNG)

these are open boats and in rough weather you can get wet and it can be heavy going if you
dont have sea legs

hope this helps - new britain is a great and safe introduction to PNG - have a great time !

Banana boats worked out OK if you use them for a regular run. I found that trying to hire one for a day or paying extra to deviate a bit is hard. Both times I settled on a price and then 1/2 way they are hitting you up for more money, I've found it pretty hard as I accepted there price, agreed on it and still 1/2 way there they want more. Next time I would try getting an experienced guide to arrange it. On one trip we broke down 24km from coast, no Emergency beacon, life jackets, floatation, food etc. Fortunately they where able to restart the engine after a while and we limped into shore and caught a truck from there.