Hello New PNG Friends

Hello to some new and interesting friends.

As many of you know, even though I now live in Australia, my heart belongs to PNG. Especially my childhood home Rabaul. I try to ‘go home’ as often as I can, to feed my soul and quell my longing of all things PNG. I can honestly say, as soon as the Air Niugini flight lands in (Port) Moresby, I am home. The smell, the sky, the people, the food, the fat green grass and my first love the magnificent Pacific. My love of PNG will never leave me. And nor I suspect, will my longing.

When I revamped my web site, I made promise that I would introduce and show case some Rabaul local businesses. Here are two of my favourites.

Madapai Tours – Rabaul madapai.tours@gmail

I asked owner Bradley Woo to pen a few words for me. This is his story.

 I am 33 years of Age and I was born in Rabaul at Nonga General Hospital in 1987. My Mother is from the Matupit Island in Rabaul District and my Father is mixed race Chinese and Rabaul. My Great Grandparents on my Father's side came in to Rabaul before World War 2 as Labour's when Rabaul was colonised by Great Britain. Mr Seeto married a woman from New Ireland and Mr Woo married a woman from Navunaram Village in Rabaul hence my Grandmother is a Seeto and my Grandfather is a Woo by surname. 

I am very fortunate and blessed to have grown up in the beautiful town. As a child we used to play in the Japanese Tunnels in the jungle behind our house, have weekend drives to the pristine rivers of North Baining and take boat rides to the outer Island and have picnics and go fishing with my parents. After completing higher Secondary Schooling in Rabaul I was forced to find a job in Lae, Morobe Province at the Age of 19 years old due to my parents getting divorced. I dearly missed my family and my hometown. Lae was so different compared to Rabaul and I could only return annually when I had leave from work. I guess this grew my passion to share the experience of growing up in Rabaul not only to International Tourists but Local Tourists from other parts of Papua New Guinea. 

2 years ago, I finally decided to return home and start a business for myself a a year later in 2019 I established Madapai Tours and commenced Marketing Local Tours on Facebook. I had the adequate skills available which was Marketing, Local Knowledge and Public Relations. On our very first Local Tour Special the turnout was unbelievable when we catered for a Total of 45 Pax on an Island Day Trip. It was amazing to know that a lot of locals, a majority from Rabaul itself had never been on a Sea Tour Dolphin Watching, Snorkelling and Fishing. As a Marketing Strategy since I had just established the company, I requested during our Tour Briefing that a lot of pictures be taken and shared along their days experience of the trip. The news spread like fire on social media, and I had a popular demand to host a local tour special every month from then on. 

Come November and December 2019 we had more and more International Tourist bookings and things were looking really promising until the Covid Pandemic hit. For a small business like mine where I started with zero capital it was a tragedy. Now that things are slowly getting back to normal, we are slowly picking up with business again mostly local expatriate who can't travel out of the country. 

On all our Tours we engage local Busses for Land Tours, Boats for Sea Tours, pay site Fees to all the sites we visit to landowners and provide fresh produce from our local market on tour for our Tourists. We give back to the community and the people of Rabaul hence all parties benefit from Tourism.

Check out their web site for more information on what they have to offer.

Rabaul- Kokopo Dive admin@Rabaul-kokopodive.com

My friends at Rabaul-Kokopo Dive as are busy as ever. They are still training new divers, offering dive and snorkelling trips and tours. Lucky you, I wish I was there to share the joy.

Given an opportunity to establish a dive operation in East New Britain, Gavin and Kathleen Cathcart relocated to Kokopo from Australia with their young children and opened the doors of their local business in April 2016 onsite Rapopo Plantation Resort. Gavin has an extensive career background history in the Royal Australian Navy, Dive/Tourism and LNG industries. Kathleen is a fourth generation PNG Chinese born in Rabaul and moved to Australia for her high school education and further studies, followed by a career in the corporate sector with hobbies in sailing and diving.

Rabaul-Kokopo Dive expanded from diving to other water and land activities/tours including boat charters and commercial diving.

Check them out on facebook

Till next time