Melanesian Marvels on the Oceania Riviera
2/16/2026 to 3/18/2026

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Page 1 – Bali Pre-Trip - Days 1-3
Page 2 – Bali Pre-Trip - Days 4-5; Embarkation, Ship; Ports of Call: Komodo, Indonesia
Page 3 – Ports of Call: Kupang, West Timor Indonesia; Darwin, Australia; Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea; Alotau, Papua New Guinea
Page 4 – Ports of Call: Honiara, Solomon Islands; Luganville, Vanuatu; Port Vila, Vanuatu; Lautoka, Fiji; Suva, Fiji
Page 5 – Ports of Call: Noumea, New Caledonia; Sydney Post-Trip - Day 1
Page 6 – Sydney Post-Trip - Day 2-4

Ports of Call (Continued)

Kupang West Timor, Indonesia

As we cruised into the port of Kupang, we were pleased that we would be docking rather than tendering as the original itinerary showed when we booked the cruise. It was interesting that rather than shooting the lines out to the dock, a boat came to pick them up and take them to those waiting on the dock.

There was a large building on the other side of the dock. It had the name Quantum One on it. I looked it up and it is cement making barge that was just docked there.

Kupang is the capital of West Timor, which is the Indonesian side of the island of Timor. Although the island looked sparsely populated from the dock, West Timor has a population of 2 million people with almost a half million in the town of Kupang. They don’t get many cruise ships stopping in Kupang. We were the only one in March. They even put out the red carpet for us along with a group of dancers welcoming us as we exited the ship.

Our ship excursion for the day was the Kupang City Tour. Our tour guide was Sanny. She was a real disappointment. She didn’t talk much and didn’t tell us what we were seeing as we were driving through the town. I must assume she hasn’t had much experience as a tour guide.

As our bus took off, two motorcycle police came with us. I asked Sanny why we had police with us. She didn’t understand what I was asking. I put the question in Google translate and showed it to her. She said they were for security. Our bus was quite uncomfortable with the seats very close together. Even the shorter people were complaining about it.

The first destination was to a market. Rather than telling us a time to be back on the bus she told us we would be there 15 minutes rather than giving us a time to be back on. After she told us that, we had to wait on the bus until we were told we could get off several minutes later when all the other busses were ready. As a result, we weren’t sure when to return to the bus. There were lots of locally made items for sale. Everyone eventually returned to the bus, but later than originally intended.

We then went to the provincial museum. On the way, the bus stopped running. The driver went outside to look under the hood. Each time he would come back on and try to restart the bus. It got very hot inside. He was finally able to restart it. He got a big cheer from everyone.

Once at the museum, we had to ask Sanny when we should be back on the bus. She didn’t make it clear when. She gave two different amounts of time to spend in the museum. We stayed for 45 minutes. The museum had lots of interesting artifacts.

I enjoyed looking around, but it was quite warm in the building. I would have spent more time looking at everything if the building had been air conditioned. When it was time to leave, everyone wasn’t on the bus. Sanny had to go back into the museum to find the lost sheep. During the port talk, we were told about a statue that was very important in Kupang. It represents the unity of the tribes in the area. It was in the middle of a roundabout. Sanny told us that we were passing by the monument as we were entering the circle. I was lucky I was able to get a photo of it.

Our last stop on the tour was supposed to cover several different activities. We went to an area called Lasiana Beach. With all the busses arriving at the same time, there were so many people trying to get to the first attraction. We were supposed to see someone climbing a palm tree to cut down some coconuts. We were also supposed to see how brown sugar is extracted from palms to sweeten cakes. We followed Sanny to where the palm tree climbing was happening. Everyone was trying to get through a narrow opening in the gate to see it, but there were way too many people already in the small area for everyone to get in.

I took some photos of the guy climbing the palm tree, but we gave up trying to see what else they were doing, since it was just too crowded. I don’t understand why they had all the busses arrive at the same time. They should have been spaced out.

With the tour running from 10:30 AM until 3:30 PM with no lunch break, people were getting hungry since it was 2:00 PM. We hadn’t been allowed to bring food from the ship. After leaving the palm tree climbing area, we saw a small market nearby on the grounds. People were walking over to find something to eat. We were able to find some pre-packaged chips which were most appreciated. We sat at some tables waiting to see where we were supposed to go next. We asked if anyone knew where to go next. No one was sure so we walked down a road toward a large building. When we got closer, we saw the sign telling us that we were at Lasiana Beach. There was a very nice resort there.

As we approached the resort, a band started playing and a group of dancers followed us in. We guessed we were in the right place. They gave a nice performance.

When it was over, we weren’t sure what we were supposed to do. We assumed that we should walk back to the busses, but we didn’t know if they were coming to the resort to get us. We hadn’t been told what to do. We walked back and the busses were there, thank goodness. There were a lot of unhappy people on the bus. The whole tour was very disorganized and there were way too many people trying to do the same thing at the same time.

On the way back to the ship, I was able to get a photo of some street vendors. We would see them lining the streets on several of the islands.

When we got back to the dock, I was able to see the back side of the cement barge. It looked more like a barge from this angle.

After getting back on the ship, I went to destination services to let them know how disappointed we were with the tour. We didn’t get to do everything as described in the tour description and that our guide was very disorganized and didn’t communicate well. I told them that I wasn’t looking for a refund, but that I wanted Oceania to know about it for future visits. I did receive a 50% refund a few days later. I talked to others that also received one after complaining. We were glad that the next day was a sea day, we needed the rest after our busy time in Bali and the last two day’s tours. On the sea day, we had an interesting sunset.

Darwin, Australia

I always thought that Darwin would be an interesting place to visit. My assumption was that there would be things related to Charles Darwin. Wrong! He never even visited the town. It was just named after him. It is also a very small town with just 139,000 residents. However, it is a very nice modern town.

There isn’t a lot to do in Darwin, but one tour that caught our attention was the jumping crocodile cruise. That’s something you don’t see every day. With Darwin being our first port in Australia, we would have to do a face-to-face clearance with immigration. On the paperwork in our cabin the night before, it said that we would be called to go ashore at 7:30 AM for the inspection. We should wait for our group to be called. We were supposed to meet in the theater at 8:15 AM to obtain our tickets for the tour. We were told we should get the clearance and then come back on the ship to get our tickets. They didn’t announce for any groups to leave the ship, so we went to the lobby around 7:30 AM to find out what was going on. There were long lines of people waiting to get off the ship. No one was leaving the ship. Apparently, the ship hadn’t received clearance. Finally, around 7:45, people were allowed to leave. There was no announcement about what was going on. The whole process was very disorganized. The line was moving slowly, and I was worried about how we could get back on the ship to get our tour tickets in the theater. There was one staff member near the front of the line. People were asking her questions, so I went close to find out what we should do. She said we needed to get our tickets before the immigration screening. So, people were leaving the line and going to the theater, as we had to do. After getting our tickets, we had to wait in the line again. When we got off the ship, there was another long line waiting to meet with immigration. We were a bit late to the bus after finally getting through immigration, which moved pretty fast.

Once on the bus, we met our wonderful guide, Annie. With there being a one hour drive each way to get to the location on the Adelaide River, we were lucky we had a guide that was such a pleasure to listen to. She was entertaining, funny and very informative.

The area around Darwin is much flatter than where we had recently been, but it was beautiful also.

When we arrived at river, the large concrete crocodile was a popular photo op.

The group needed to be broken down into two boats. They were well designed for observing jumping crocodiles. There were two rows on each side, one higher than the other. The crew was a captain and a mate who would make the crocodiles jump. We were told that they would get the crocs to jump on one side of the boat at a time. The people on the opposite side would have to stay seated while the other side was observing. It worked out well.

The Adelaide was a pretty wide river, so the captain had plenty of room to maneuver. It wasn’t long before a croc was following the boat.

Then he approached and the mate hung out some meat to encourage the croc to jump. We were lucky that this croc was hungry. The mate doesn’t let the croc get the meat unless it is a decent jump, so there is a lot teasing with the treat. He finally got his reward.

A video shows the action much better than a photo.

Both sides got to see the crocs jump, but they didn’t seem as hungry on this day. The captain moved to the shallower waters to show us some of the crocs along the banks.

The crocs did look intimidating as they approached the boat.

The captain pointed out different birds. We saw a white-bellied sea eagle in a tree.

The mate threw some smaller pieces of bait up in the air to attract some other birds. They were enjoying it. One bird was enjoying the game. Unfortunately, he was so fast I couldn’t get a photo of it near the boat.

As we returned to the dock, I was able to take a photo of the building we waited in prior to boarding. I couldn’t believe that the boat ride lasted an hour. It seemed to fly by. The captain was entertaining and we enjoyed the experience.

We returned to the terminal around 12:30 PM and went to lunch on the ship.

Since we were in port until 6:00 PM, I originally thought I might go into town but decided against it. The main attraction was a crocodile park, that didn’t appeal to me after just seeing so many. That evening we added a half-hour to our clocks to synch with Papua New Guinea time, where we would arrive after two sea days.

Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

We docked at Port Moresby, Papúa New Guinea this morning, the second largest island in the world after Greenland. The original itinerary for the cruise said that this would be a tender port. We were thrilled to be docking. Forty years ago, when I began scuba diving, I previously saw videos about the gorgeous waters and sunken war planes around Papua New Guinea. I hoped to go there someday. Well, I was there but no longer diving. I was still looking forward to the visit. The place was much prettier and more developed than expected.

As we disembarked the ship, we were greeted by dancers and musicians. They were quite a sight. It was a great photo op for some.

We had a tour called the Highlights of Port Moresby. We had two guides, Willie and Hosea. Both were very pleasant and helpful.

As we would find on most of the islands we visited, we would be using vans rather than busses. We were most concerned that the van didn’t have air conditioning but with it being a cloudy day it was pleasant in the vans with the windows open.

We started at the Port Moresby Nature Center (https://portmoresbynaturepark.com.pg). We walked along the path through the lovely forest.

We saw so many unique beautiful birds.

This is bad photo of one of their Raggiana bird-of-paradise, Papua New Guinea's bird and is on its flag. I wish I could have gotten a better photo of it, since they are gorgeous birds.

We also saw something we’ve never even heard of, a tree kangaroo. Very different looking from the common kangaroo. I wish he had turned around to show us his face. But he did show us his very long tail.

They had a nice variety of critters to look at. I thought the little wallaby was kind of cute.

We came to a very long narrow boat along the path. When we got to the bow, we saw a most interesting sculpture on it.

We were so glad this park was on the itinerary. It had been most enjoyable. We next went to the Port Moresby Museum and Art Gallery. They had a modern designed building with a nice native artwork at the entry.

As we walked in, we could tell that this was going to be another enjoyable visit. They had so many unique beautiful pieces.

The richly adorned Milne Bay outrigger was a major attraction of the museum.

They had several unique large wooden drums.

We thoroughly enjoyed this collection of Papua New Guinea artifacts collected from their 600 islands. They were so fascinating and beautiful.

We next went to the Papua New Guinea Parliament House. A most interesting looking exterior.

We were told not to take photos inside. Since it wasn’t a holy place, I did take a photo of the main lobby area and the parliament chambers. Since so few tourists visit this place, I wanted to share what this impressive building looks like inside.

The docent that discussed the building and rooms pointed out the large book enclosed in a plastic case in front of the speaker’s chair. He said that it was a 400-year-old King James bible from the Mayflower that had been given to the country. Now that is special!

Our last stop was at the Bowmana War Cemetery. These visits are always a moving experience. This was a lovely cemetery.

Of the 3,826 graves of Allied soldiers, 699 are unknown soldiers.

I walked up the hill to the Commonwealth War Graves Memorial to the Missing. This memorial commemorates over 700 officers and men of the Australian Army, Merchant Navy, and Royal Australian Air Force who died during operations in Papua and have no known graves.

I was able to take photos of the whole cemetery from the higher elevation.

On the way back, I was surprised at how many people had tables set out along the roads selling goods. They were everywhere. With jobs being scarce, this is the only way to make money for many.

It was a very good touring day. The 4-hour tour ran 5-hours, which we were thrilled about. We saw so many places at this rarely visited port. Port Moresby is more than just a diving destination, it has many other attractions.

Alotau, Papua New Guinea

We docked in Alotau, Papua New Guinea this morning. It is at the southeast tip of the island. It was another beautiful mountainous landscape.

Once again, we were greeted by musicians and dancers. It is a nice way start a visit to a new port.

Alotau is the site of the first land defeat of the Japanese in the battle of Milne Bay. Our tour today focused on the battle that prevented Japan from getting a base to attack Australia. On the way to our first stop, we could look out to large Milne Bay that we cruised into. It was a big bay.

The tour for the day was Historical & Scenic Highlights. We had a great guide, Nelson or Nelo as what he preferred to be called. He was a very nice man.

It was the hottest day of trip, 87 degrees. We were very happy that the van had great air conditioning.

We stopped at the site where the Japanese first landed. We were impressed with the very clear water. Our guide told us several stories of what happened there.

We then drove up a narrow horrible mountain road to the Top Town Lookout to get a view looking down on the bay and town. We also had a view of our ship.

The area with all the beach umbrellas is actually street vendors set up along the road.

There were two groups dressed and made up to look like their ancestors. Some were scary looking.

Our guide told us that they come up there to show visitors what their ancestors looked like, as well as to collect money to maintain the area. There were lots of contributions for them. They also had some handicrafts and shells available for sale. I really took a shine to the large shell in the photo. It was a beauty!

When we arrived at the lookout, there were just a few vans parked along the road. I couldn’t believe how many there were when we were about to leave. I didn’t know how we would be able to go down the narrow road but somehow, we made it.

We next went to the site of Airstrip number 3 that the Japanese were trying to capture. There isn’t much left of it, just an open area. It was renamed Turnbull Field after the squadron leader who was killed during a strafing of the field. They also have several war memorials on the grounds.

Our last stop was at the Alotau War Memorial. It commemorates the sacrifice of those who lost their lives in the battles of Milne Bay.

We returned to the ship around 2:00 PM. With the buffet closing at 2:00 PM, we ate lunch at Waves Grill. With the tours not having lunch, we were glad there was a good option for tours that ran later. A heavy rain started around 3:30 PM. The timing was great for us since we had a rain free tour. The people at the pool weren’t as pleased with the weather. We were so lucky to not have had any rain yet while we were touring during the rainy season.