Cityscape joins Heritage Expeditions on an unforgettable island-hopping expedition cruise through the South Pacific paradise of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

The tiny hawksbill turtle hatchlings clamber over each other in a flurry of sandy flippers towards the ocean, serenaded by Arnavon Community Marine Park project coordinator Henry Kaniki who is strumming his trusty ukulele and beaming like a proud father.

I’m grinning inanely, dumbfounded by the baby turtle effect. The turtles’ almost mechanical, stop-start movement makes them look like super-convincing wind-up toys.

It takes just minutes for the last of the 119 turtles to reach the water off Kerehikapa Island, one of the world’s most important rookeries in the Western Pacific for the critically endangered turtles, in the Arnavon Islands, Solomon Islands.

Henry’s strumming and smile hide a horrifying statistic: “Only one in 1000 is expected to reach adulthood,” he says. “Those that make it will return in around 30 years to breed in the waters off these islands and lay their own eggs on this same stretch of beach.”

The marine park, an initiative of surrounding villages, monitors and protects the nesting of around 2000 hawksbill turtles on the Arnavon Islands each year, with 12 rangers assisting some 200,000 hatchlings in making it safely to the water. The low survival rate emphasises the importance of the work and it is magical and humbling to see conservation in action, knowing that our visit is directly supporting the surrounding villages in securing safe nesting sites for the turtles.

It’s been 12 days since we boarded Heritage Expeditions’ 50-guest expedition ship Spirit of Enderby in the port town of Madang, Papua New Guinea. It’s one of the biggest collective adventures of our lives on the Christchurch-based pioneering expedition cruise company’s Melanesia Discoverer voyage.

It’s a total no-brainer why Papua New Guinea is tipped to be the next big thing in the travel world. Where else can you enjoy thrilling cultural exchanges with friendly villagers on tropical islands fringed with turquoise waters, coral gardens, white sand beaches, nodding palms and jungles filled with World War II history and incredible wildlife?

Our expedition has a birding option, which has attracted twitchers from around the globe keen to tick off endemic species like the superb pitta. Meanwhile, below the surface of crystalline waters, colourful corals are home to aquarium-level marine life and some of the world’s best snorkelling.

Our first destination, the Sepik River, is like being on the set of a thrilling nature documentary as our Zodiacs buzz single-file along one of the world’s greatest river systems, where whistling kites call from perches atop barren trees towering above the lush, tangled jungle, and great egrets pass overhead, their elegant long necks stowed like dining trays for takeoff.

At Kopar Village we pick up Gibson, our guide, who flashes a cheeky betel nut-stained smile as he leads us through one of the river’s many tributaries. As we wind our way up the serpentine passage under a latticed cathedral of spiked green fronds he regales us with tales about how big the river’s famed crocodiles can grow as we nervously scan the banks.

Returning to the village, we’re welcomed with elaborately costumed sing-sings and the colourful spectacle of the region’s dragon dance set to the jingle of cowrie shell leg adornments and the rhythmic beat of drums. This is followed by a hilarious theatre performance which elicits screams of laughter from the villagers and visitors, and the opportunity to experience a traditional way of life.

Dancing is also on the cards at Derimbat Village, where the welcoming committee comes out to greet us on anchor off Manus Island. The enthusiastic singing, dancing and drumming is all the more impressive because it is performed standing on a moving boat.

After being welcomed ashore by the village chief and island dignitaries, we follow flower-lined paths to the village centre and dance arena, elaborately decorated with flowers and curtains of palm fronds. The enthusiastic welcome continues at a frenetic pace set by drummers as parrots in the trees above join the booming chorus and whoops ring out through the jungle.

Having thrown down the gauntlet, it’s time to reciprocate in a fast and furious dance off. We rise to the challenge and join in the festivities, providing much entertainment as we attempt the elaborate and traditional dance moves. Manus Island is located just two degrees south of the equator, and I’m quickly drenched with sweat and become slightly delirious from the festivities. Afterwards, the chief rewards me for my efforts with the title of ‘Dancing Man’, which I gratefully accept along with the rehydrating qualities of coconut water sipped from the source.

At nearby Little Mussau Island we discover paradise as our Zodiac glides over impossibly blue water towards the pristine white sand beach complete with palm trees lining the shore. It’s the perfect spot to enjoy a sensational buffet lunch prepared by our talented chefs while hammocks strung between ancient trees provide the ultimate tropical island indulgence. For snorkelers, an expansive, colourful coral reef – teeming with neon-lit fish, Christmas tree worms, dugong, turtles, lionfish, flamboyant nudibranchs and giant clams – awaits just metres off shore, while harmless blacktip reef sharks lazily patrol in the cobalt-blue distance.

History awaits as we sail into the flooded caldera of Simpson Harbour at Rabaul. Surrounded by the jagged peaks of six volcanoes, we explore the rusting ruins inside the Japanese barge tunnels; the Rabaul Volcanological Observatory; the bunker and hideout of Pearl Harbour commander Yamamoto and its neighbouring museum; and the site of the former Rabaul Airport, still covered in volcanic ash and rock following the 1994 eruptions of Tavurvur and Vulcan volcanoes.

On Bougainville Island, the land and its people still bear the scars from the Bougainville Civil War brought on by disputes over indigenous control of land and inequality of profit distribution from Rio Tinto’s Panguna copper and gold mine, established in the 1960s and abandoned 1989.

Today, rivers still run muddy or stained blue by the copper leaching from the site. The plant has been destroyed, the metals sold for scrap or left to decay as the jungle reclaims the landscape. Reaching an elevation of 1000 metres, we perch on the edge of the old mine site, at its peak the largest open-cut copper mine in the world. The former mountain peak is now a gaping cavity almost as deep as it once was high.

The abandoned ruins of the former workers’ accommodation are now used as schools and housing for those displaced during the uprising. We visit and chat with the locals before leaving for Arawa Market, its aisles humming with the chatter of hundreds of people shopping under the thatched roof as stall owners lazily wave long sticks with plastic bags attached to the ends to keep the flies at bay.

The Solomon Islands equally impress, as axe- and spear-wielding Supizae warriors greet our Zodiacs as we approach Choiseul Island. Their spirited mock attack takes many by surprise, but it isn’t long before the fearsome faces are replaced by wide smiles and we’re invited ashore to experience a morning of hospitality and culture.

The island’s children steal the show as they re-enact traditional songs and dance, and the adults’ passionate performances invoke a deluge, with rain flying from flailing limbs and shaken from hair during the Beyoncé-worthy performances. These are followed by a taste of village life with delicious baked sweet potato and fish with fresh fruit, ngali nut slice, and cassava and coconut rolls enjoyed with new friends in the schoolhouse.

In the afternoon, a Zodiac safari on the Sui River sees a narrowing of the mangrove-lined banks of the salt water passage, making way for clear, fresh water and a rainforest of ginger, rosewood, palm and coconut trees where an otherworldly waterfall straight out of Jurassic Park awaits, and leaves spiral down from the canopy.

On a nearby private island in Kolombangara we’re chased by warrior women, before joining them in dancing to a PVC pipe band. We try our hand at paddling a war canoe, and snorkel around the wreck of a US Navy Grumman F4F Wildcat World War II plane. The ghostly remains rest on the sandy sea floor, its cockpit home to numerous fish species and its wings crusted in coral.

Back on Kerehikapa Island, as the last of our turtles fade into the big blue, we wish them well on their upcoming adventures as we prepare for our own next journeys.

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