Dive Review of Walindi in
Papua New Guinea/Kimbe Bay

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Walindi, Aug, 2006, by Lori Brown, Chris Green, WA, USA ( Sr. Contributor 22 reports). Report 2618.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Walindi Resort is on a Palm Plantation in the West New Britain Province on Kimbe Bay about an hour ride from Hoskins Airport. This is the second time we have been to the resort. We were there during the windy winter time so there were few guests diving. That meant we had the dive sites to ourselves. Immediately after our arrival and a brief lunch, we went out for a boat dive. Our first dive was at the aptly named “Hanging Garden.” As soon as we went down, my husband spotted a fair sized octopus. It retreated into its crevice but after a few minutes came back out allowing us to look at it until we tired of it and moved on. Hanging garden has tiers of overhanging coral covered with sponges, soft coral, and sea fans. We dived the Zero Japanese WWII plane wreck which was discovered by fisherman in 2000. It is near the shore at about 50 ft. The water was amazingly clear and the plane is intact and covered with a beautiful layer of encrusting sponge. There is an anemone on the hind part of the cockpit and the cockpit was filled with fish, including a lionfish. There were two pipefish on the wing and an assortment of gobies. The plane was surrounded by gobie/shrimp pairs. During our safety stop, there were three little squid directly under the boat. As I ascended, they squirted their ink and jetted away. It was most amazing and almost comical. The ink hung in three little blobs, not concealing the squid at all. Then the squid (I imagined they were overcome by curiosity) came back under the boat and hovered nearby for the remainder of the safety stop. Another great dive was Kirsty Jane. There were amazing sea fans, whips, and bright orange anemones. We saw a small black tip reef shark. There was a huge baitball of silvery fish moving along the surface of the reef: they looked like magically flowing silver. We searched the gorgonian fans for pygmy seahorses and were rewarded with a few. There were swarms of fish all around. After picnicking on Rensdorf Island, we went for a leisurely shallow dive. There was a yellow colored coral covered with dozens of shrimp and a little orange cling fish. We also spotted a twinspot (signal) goby, a yellow goby paired with 2 shrimps, and a lone barramundi cod. We went on a land tour to the hot springs nearby. It is a half hour trip from the resort and a dip in the “therapeutic” spring seems to have cured all my ills (although the cure didn’t seem to last long since I did have to go back to work when I got home). The diving was as wonderful as I remembered it from years ago when we were at Walindi. But some aspects of the resort itself seemed to be on the decline. At the same time that they were renovating the central resort, including the office and gift shop, the accomodations in the bungalow seemed to have declined. The sheets in our bungalow were threadbare and torn, the shower in the bathroom rusty, the bathroom and the towels were musty, the hot water pot in the kitchenette didn’t work, and the upholstery on the furniture was a bit worse for the wear. On the first full day of diving, there was a problem with the boat and it was grinding away at half-speed so we ended up not going to our first choice of dives (a further site), but to two closer sites that we could reach in the impaired boat. The consequently long trip on the choppy water took its toll on my son, who became seasick as a result. I would readily return to Walindi again, especially paired with a trip on the Star Dancer, because the diving is so great there. It just didn’t seem to be the bright penny that I remembered from years past.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	North Carolina, California, Washington, Bonaire, Cozumel, Fiji, Indonesia, Jamaica
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	windy	Seas	choppy
Water Temp	80-82°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	40-70 Ft/ 12-21 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	[Unspecified]
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	We used the kitchen area in our bungalow to set up camera and charge batteries.

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Dive Review of Walindi in Papua New Guinea/Kimbe Bay

Walindi, Aug, 2006,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Walindi in
Papua New Guinea/Kimbe Bay