In 2005 we spent 4 weeks travelling PNG as backpackers, flew to Port Moresby, on to Madang and did some great diving before riding a series of trucks up the highland’s highway. We had a great time (despite travel warnings and expats who told us we’d get killed if we attempted that trip) and vowed to come back soon. Well, it took us a while, but now we’re back 
PNG is a big country with many islands, vibrant and very diverse cultures and a multitude of languages: more than 800 languages are still spoken, but fortunately for us PNG has one common language for everybody and that’s Tok Pisin, a pidgin language based on English with lots of Melanesian words, some French, Spanish and even German loanwords and it’s quite easy to learn! Many people also speak good English, which makes conversations even easier (we’re still working on our Tok Pisin).
Like most islands here in the South Pacific, PNG also got “discovered” and “colonised” by various European nations (even though the local inhabitants had discovered it about 40.000 years earlier): in the 19th century the Dutch controlled the western half of PNG’s main island while the Germans and the Brits divided the eastern half into two adminstrations. In 1906 the British transferred the administration to Australia, which took the Southern part from the Germans during WW1. After the war the Australians remained in control of Papua (formerly German) New Guinea (formerly British), while the western part of the island remained Dutch (and would be granted to Indonesia in 1962 resulting in ruthless exploitation of its resources and suppression of its peoples, but that’s another story).
Papua New Guinea became independent in 1972 and the people are proud of their country, flags everywhere and children singing the hymn proudly at school events, even though PNG is struggling with corruption, lack of infrastructure, pollution (like most developing countries–and the developed ones that really should know better sadly as well) and numerous companies (mostly foreign) are exploiting the forest (logging) and the earth (mining). Of course there are still travel warnings in many places due to tribal fighting, but nowadays also because gangs of youth (out of control and on drugs and alcohol according to the villagers we talked to) add to the crime statistics with violent attacks both on locals and tourists.
For now we have only encountered friendly people, the vibes on the outer island and in Kavieng (the main town of New Ireland) are really good and we feel as happy and welcome here as we did 20 years ago! The islands still look lush and beautiful, at least some of the reefs seem to resist the crazy high temperatures (over 31 °C already in December) and all kinds of squawking and chirping birds are flying over Pitufa. We’ll take our time exploring the outer islands this summer
