New Britain

hello

we plan to visit new britain in july. Could you share your experience :

1/ is there good place to stay and thing to do, that is to say : good dive for a reasonnable price (max 50-55 US$/dive), nice villages with good contact with inhabitants, forest

2/ good (and relatively cheap) accomodation (backpackers or even village stay)

3/ Is it easy to move across the island : PMV, boat ...

4/ The Rabaul festival : a good idea ? not too crowded and too touristy / artificial ?

Thanks

1/ There are lots of places to stay - see the LP guide, and maybe the PNG link in my signo for comments on staying in the Rabaul area.
Villages with friendly people are everywhere. Forest is not hard to find either, though tends to be away from where the accomodation is.

2/ See 1/

3/ The islands' two provinces are connected by passenger boats ca. twice weekly. No roads connect them ASFAIK. West NB has more roads than East. But the East has more "tourist attractions".

4/ Not seen it, but I really doubt it would be "too touristy". Package tours go for the Goroka and Mt. Hagen shows.

Dive rates for a 10 dive package in Rabaul area are K1450 as of yesterday, 3rd June, tanks weights & boat inc.