The Kokoda Track
This 96-kilometre jungle trail across the Owen Stanley Range follows the route of one of the most brutal campaigns of the Second World War. Australian and PNG forces held the Japanese advance here in 1942 at terrible cost. The track takes 8–12 days to walk and is demanding: steep, muddy, and relentless. Every step is through primary rainforest, across rivers, and over ridges. Trekking companies provide guides and porters; don't attempt it without them. The historical weight of the place is felt the whole way.
The Goroka and Mount Hagen Sing-Sings
The annual sing-sing festivals in the Highlands are extraordinary. Dozens of clans — some from communities that had no contact with the outside world until living memory — come together in traditional dress: bird-of-paradise feathers, cassowary bone, shells, wigs made from human hair, and elaborate body paint. The dancing and drumming go on for two days. These are not staged performances for tourists; they are genuine expressions of cultural identity, and attendance is a privilege.
Diving in Kimbe Bay and around Rabaul
Kimbe Bay on New Britain has over 400 coral species and some of the most biodiverse reefs in the world. Tufi on the northeast coast offers dramatic fjord diving. Around Rabaul, the harbour floor is littered with Japanese warships sunk in 1944, now encrusted with coral and alive with fish. The diving here consistently ranks among the best in the Pacific.
The Sepik River
Few journeys are as otherworldly as travelling up the Sepik by boat. The river is vast — over 1,100 kilometres long — and its banks are lined with spirit houses, crocodile-skull shrines, and villages where the tradition of wood carving has produced some of the most powerful sculpture in Oceania. You can charter local boats from Wewak or Pagwi and stay in village guesthouses; be prepared for basic conditions and mosquitoes.
Mount Wilhelm
At 4,509 metres, Mount Wilhelm is the highest peak in Papua New Guinea and one of the few places in the tropics where you can see both the Pacific Ocean and the Bismarck Sea simultaneously from the summit on a clear day. The climb starts near Keglsugl in the Simbu Province and takes two days. It's cold at the top — well below freezing at night — and the weather is unpredictable, but the views are extraordinary.