Dive Review of Walindi Plantation Resort in
Papua New Guinea/New Britain Island

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Walindi Plantation Resort: "Walindi Plantation Resort - Still unspoiled", Mar, 2018, by David E Reubush, VA, US ( Top Contributor 68 reports with 35 Helpful votes). Report 10317 has 1 Helpful vote.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Walindi Plantation Resort on the shores of Kimbe Bay is another of those iconic dive destinations that had been on my bucket list for a long time. So, since we were going to be on the FeBrina, my buddy and I decided to extend the trip and visit Walindi. It was a good decision. Walindi consists of a centrally located complex consisting of the office, kitchen, air-conditioned dining room/TV room, open-air dining room, pool, and bar with cabins spread out along the shore on both sides of the complex. The cabins are not air-conditioned, but do have a ceiling fan. There was WiFi, but only at the central complex. The dive shop and boat mooring are down a small peninsula to the left of the complex. Breakfast was cooked to order. Lunch was served cold on the dive boat and included a choice of a variety of items including cheese sandwiches, fruit, and various left-overs from the previous evening’s meal. Dinners were sometimes a buffet and sometimes a choice of one of several plated meals. The food at the resort was all very good and plentiful. I was not a big fan of the cold food on the boat. I asked Max, the owner, why we didn’t have the choice of making a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch instead of just plain cheese. Max informed us that pork is very expensive in PNG and adding ham to the sandwich would drive his cost up to in excess of $10 for each sandwich. I understood. Malaria is endemic in PNG and we took malarone as a preventative. However, mosquitos were really not a problem at Walindi. I only got dive-bombed about twice the whole time we were there and sitting out at the bar in the evening either before or after dinner was without annoyance. A great feature is that they will do laundry for you so you do not have to travel with an extensive wardrobe. The laundry gets picked up in the morning when the room is cleaned while you are out diving and returned that afternoon. As we were there in March, which was the tail end of the rainy season, we found that the visibility at the relatively close-in sites was in the range of 20 to 30 feet. As a result, we were generally taken out to clear water which involved boat rides of at least 75 minutes and as many as 105. Once out there the visibility was typically over 100 feet and we had some great dives. At Joelle’s Reef and South Ema’s Reef we had schools of barracuda and jacks. At Bradford Shoals we had big schools of barracudas, jacks, and batfish all swimming around in a strong current like they were out for a Sunday stroll. At Kimbe Bommie we didn’t even have to leave the mooring line to watch, entranced, as absolutely huge schools of barracuda and jacks paraded in front of us. At Kimbe Island West we found a very delightful wall with lots of interesting topography. A number of other sites had a variety of nudibranchs, fields of garden eels, and a variety of tropical reef fish. Closer in to the resort, with reduced visibility, we did visit the wreck of a Japanese Zero, which was essentially intact just sitting there in the sand. They told us that the best time to visit is September, October, and November, just before the rainy season starts. I’d like to go back then to see what the closer-in sites were like in better visibility. James, Willie, and Mirium, the divemasters, were all great. Liz and her boss, whose name I can’t spell, ran the dive operation and were very accommodating. The 2 boats we used were both aluminum and were reasonably comfortable for the long rides out to the far dive sites. My main wish for the boats would be the addition of a head. I will note in conclusion that one of a group of 3 divers from California who were there overlapping with us wrote a less than positive review on TripAdvisor. From what I could tell his main complaint was related to the fact that they had a problem with diarrhea. This can happen for a variety of reasons while traveling in areas with differing food from what you are accustomed to. I learned a long time ago to travel with Cipro, which usually fixes any problem with a single dose. I personally did not have a problem at Walindi.
Websites	Walindi Plantation Resort
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Australia, Belize, Bimini, Bonaire, Caymans, Curacao, Fiji, Galapagos, Indonesia (Wakatobi, Raja Ampat, Komodo, Lembeh, Bali, Banda Sea), Philippines, Red Sea, Solomon Islands, Southern Bahamas, St. Thomas, Turks & Caicos
Closest Airport	Hoskins	Getting There	Getting to the best diving is, at times, not easy. My buddy and I got off the FeBrina in Rabaul and were scheduled to do a half an hour flight from Rabaul to Hoskins where we were to be picked up for the hour plus van ride to Walindi. When we got to the airport we were asked why we had not checked with the ticket office before we came and informed that Air Niugini had discontinued the flight. We had to fly back to Port Moresby, wait 6.5 hours and then fly to Hoskins.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, dry	Seas	calm, currents, no currents
Water Temp	84-84°F / 29-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	20-100 Ft/ 6-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Don't do anything dumb, don't empty your tank
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	1 or 2	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
UW Photo Comments	There was a small rinse tank on the boat and a larger one back at the dive shop. If I needed to work on my camera overnight it was a bit of a hike back to our room, however, if you didn't Liz was happy to lock the camera up in her office.

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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Dive Review of Walindi Plantation Resort in Papua New Guinea/New Britain Island

Walindi Plantation Resort: "Walindi Plantation Resort - Still unspoiled", Mar, 2018,

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 Plantation Resort in
Papua New Guinea/New Britain Island