New Britain

New Britain is stunning. PNG’s largest island, it has a bit of everything you’ve come to this country for – think colonial history, remarkable traditional cultures and pristine wilderness (despite areas where there are logging and mining). The pièce de résistance? Volcanoes. The whole region is a rumbling, billowing string of cones and craters cloaked with virgin tropical rainforest. Some are dormant and harmless while others are scrappy villains that periodically flex their muscles. In September 1994 Mt Tavurvur and Mt Vulcan erupted and destroyed most of Rabaul, one of PNG’s biggest and most alluring cities, in a furious rain of ash and rock.