Kavieng Getting there & around

Getting there & away

Land

Car & pmv

There are PMVs leaving Kavieng for Namatanai (K50, six to seven hours, six weekly) every day except Sunday. There are also passenger trucks and PMVs which head some or all the way to Namatanai, or elsewhere, every day but Sunday. Services to the west coast, including Kontu and Tembin (K30), are irregular. Ask around in town.

There are a few car-hire companies in town. You’ll definitely need a 4WD if you plan to go as far as Namatanai and beyond. Count on K250 per day plus K1.10 per kilometre. If you’re going to the west coast, it’s not a bad idea to hire a driver (about K10 per hour of driving).

Avis (984 1190; Malagan Beach Resort)

Drimas (984 1792; Tanga St)

Hertz (984 2374; Malagan Beach Resort)

Kavieng Hotel (984 2199; kavienghotel@daltron.com.pg; Coronation Rd) Also rents 4WDs.

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Boat

Banana boats and work boats run to the nearby islands. There are about two boats each week to Lavongai Island (passenger K40 to K50).

Rabaul Shipping (Star Ships; 984 2755; Tanga St; 8am-5pm Mon-Fri, to noon Sat) sails to Rabaul usually on Thursday or Friday (K120, from nine to 15 hours, once weekly) and travels onto Kimbe (K220).

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Air

If travelling to either Kokopo or Rabaul, Air Niugini (984 2135; Lavongai St; 8am-noon & 1-4pm Mon-Fri) has flights to Tokua airport (K335, 35 minutes, three weekly), where you can also connect to Hoskins (K373) and Port Moresby. It also offers flights to Manus (K410, twice weekly).

Airlink used to fly to Tokua but had gone bust at the time of writing. Another airline might have stepped in by the time you read this – check it out while in PNG.’

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