Argonauts of The Western Pacific - full - waiting list only

This trip is now full – if you would like to be on the waiting list please email to apply [email protected] TO APPLY

‘Argonauts of the Western Pacific’ An Expedition to Papua New Guinea’s Remote D’Entrecasteaux Islands & The Kula Ring

10^th – 21^st January 2027 – 11 nights £3300 – excluding fights – email Viktor Wynd – [email protected] for more details

Join Viktor Wynd on his 15^th New Guinea expedition to The D’Entrecasteaux Islands, one of the remotest least visited parts of Papua New Guinea. This will be a true voyage of exploration & adventure off the beaten track, far, far from the modern world. In 2019 we went to The Trobriand Islands (Malinowski’s Islands of Love) and learnt about The Kula Ring – made famous in Bronislaw Malinowksi’s 1921 book ‘Argonauts of The Western Pacific .’ The Kula ring spans 18 island communities of the Massim archipelago, and involves thousands of individuals. Participants travel at times hundreds of miles by canoe in order to exchange Kula valuables, which consist of red shell-disc necklaces (veigun or soulava) that are traded to the north (circling the ring in clockwise direction) and white shell armbands (mwali) that are traded in the southern direction (circling counterclockwise). If the opening gift was an armband, then the closing gift must be a necklace and vice versa. The exchange of Kula valuables is also accompanied by the trade in other items known as gimwali (barter).

We will travel by boat and visit remote island communities, staying in village houses or tents, eating delicious local seafood, meeting locals and exploring the islands on foot and by boat, researching local beliefs and practices.

The expedition ends at a wonderful dive resort offering the opportunity to extend the trip for some word class diving, snorkeling or just relaxing in comfort!

Highlights

Skull caves –
– Kula Exchange demonstrations
Garden tours, sago making, basket and mat weaving
– snorkelling on some of the worlds finest coral reefs
Dolphins, lobsters and turtles
Trekking through the rain forest

Canoe making

Traditional singing, dancing and feasting
– waterfalls & Hot springs
Birdwatching – we will have an expert bird guide with us and for those interested in seeing birds of paradise such as Goldies & the Curl Crested Manucode, Papuan Frogmouth, Hornbills, parrots, boobies, Bare Owlet-nightjars – please contact us for more details
Traditional mumu – pig feast
World Class Scuba diving at Tiwali Resort
Village life

Here is the tentative tour itinerary for the proposed D’Entrecasteaux Island trip.

10^{th – 21st} January 2027 –

Here is the tentative tour itinerary for the proposed D,Entrecasteaux Island trip.

please note prior to our arrival our guide will be spending a month visiting the islands and arranging the trip

– as they don’t get (m)any visitors i suspect there will be some modifications/changes/improvements

Day 1. Port Moresby/ Gurney Airport/ Alotau town/ boat to GoodEnough Island.

Day 2. Good Enough Island.

Activities:

# Welcome party with frangepany tached flowers, # Attend to Traditional Singsing groups .# visit villages, schools,Learn their way of life.

Day 3. Amphlets Island.

Activities: Traditional net fishing, Clayport making and cooking, Island village visitations.

Day 4. Tewala Island.

Activities: Snorkeling, fun fishing, cultural legendary site visits. Listen to the Legendary story regarding TewalaIsland.

Day 5. Ferguson Island.

Activities: Bird watching Goldies Bird Of Paradise and Nature walk, visit to Mt Lamwanai Crater/ Esa ala Cave base on Santiumn moviie.

Day 6. Ferguson Island

Activities: Attend to Catholic Choir group and dance performance, based of Sounds of music by the old students of Maria,s daughter von trap family., visit ancient church building on Dobu island, visit the famous Deidei hot sprringmeet and greet the Kula trading chief and his family.

Day 7. Ferguson Island.

Activities: Attend to Kula trading expedition performance by both parties. Learn its cultural significance of the voyage and its trading comodoties and try to understand both its advantages and disadvantages once the voyage tajes off.

Day 8. Normanby Island

Activities: Sewa Bay highlights includes, primary school visits.visit comunity health centers, stop over on one of the Islands in the center of sewa bay.

Day 9. Normanby Island

Activities: Cultural experiences includes, learn traditional gardening skills, participate harvesting local organic vegetables from the garden for dinner, participate planting crop, learn both women and man role in everyday life, learn the matrimonial culture of inheriting kingship/ chief and the wealth passed down through generations and many more.

Day.10. Normanby Island

Activities: Traditional herbal and nature study tour.This tour will take us through the rainforest. Learn from the localherbalists about the plants that for many centuries have impact the lives of the local people than subject to drugs and how they interrelate their lives with both the plants and animals in every day life. Survival with nature.