Conflict Islands

Final entry on this cruise was to Conflict Islands. Unfortunately, once again, our scheduled stop to Kitiva Island was abandoned due to unsuitable conditions for tendering. It was a pity because the locals rely on the tourist dollar and as we could not land they had nobody to sell there wares to.

Anyway, the Conflict Islands turned out to be my favourite stop. The island was not large and could be walked around in an hour and a half, but the water was crystal clear and that beautiful blue that you associate with tropical islands. The water was really salty which made you really buoyant - floating was a breeze.

Walking around the island there was lots of coral washed up on the shore and we saw several sea turtles very close to the shore... the island is a turtle conservation area. There is even an "ahem" international airport complete with a soccer field at the end of it.

We had some PNG Kina (money) that we needed to get rid of and bought a nice timber sculpture. I had also bought a couple of other timber items (scary mask, carved dish inlaid with mother of pearl) . These all had to be declared at customs in Brisbane but they passed through without any issues.

We had a second day on the island mainly because we had missed out on a couple of stops and we enjoyed another couple of swims and walked around again.

The cruise back to Brisbane was spent watching movies, going to trivia or going to special interest lectures (actually Brad went to these as they were generally to do with WWII battles. ) I did play a couple of games of Bingo and almost won the Jackpot (about $4200). Just needed number 90 to come out... but it didn't ☹. Oh well, never mind - would have been a nice end to the cruise.Read more