Doini Island, Papua New Guinea

Doini Island is a tropical paradise that is privately-owned.  There are just a handful of locals, a small resort, and an airstrip.  The island is made up of 1,000 hectares of incredible landscape, most of it unchartered territory.  Beautiful white beaches line its shores. All of us were hesitant about visiting this island. After seeing the "contaminated island" the day before, we were afraid that Doini Island would be the same.   We were pleasantly surprised at what we saw.

Natives from many of the surrounding islands came in boats to Doini Island  as we anchored  off shore.  School and church groups came and performed.  They had a sign and a donation bucket  asking for kina to improve their schools and to provide assistance through their churches.  Others came to sell their handmade items.  Both men and women, along with children, had things to sell.  No one pressured you to buy and no one followed you to buy what they were selling. We thought that this way of assisting the people may have been better.  We did not invade their villages.  They came to see us and to show us their  customs and items they made.  We spent about 45 minutes walking through the paths of where they performed and sold their items.  The children smiled as we gave them crayons.  We were thanked for the donations we gave.  Since this was the last island for us to visit, most people  donated whatever kina they had left to the schools and churches. 

We spent the rest of our time enjoying the beautiful beaches and snorkeling in the clear blue waters.  There wasn't much current to pull us away from shore.  The water was warm with areas of coral.  Man-made rock barriers marked the area where the water became very deep.  For the next hour we snorkeled and saw an abundance of colorful fish in the coral.  Suzie was the daring expert for finding the best places to snorkel.  After an hour, Rose and John watched from the beach as Suzie and I snorkeled for another hour.  

What a wonderful way to finish our last port of call.  We enjoyed all of the unique places we visited.  We learned so much about the people and their history.  The beauty of these exotic places and the people we met will never be forgotten.  When we left home, we wanted to escape the winter cold. Never did we expect to have the experiences we encountered.   We thought Papua New Guinea was just a place to find some sun and warmth.  We definitely are returning home with a much different prospect of these tropical islands.