Dive Review of
Tawali in
Papua New Guinea/Milne Bay

GBR, Cozumel, Caymans, Turks and Caicos, St. John, St. Kitt

Dive Conditions

[Unspecified]  

[None]  

Overall Rating

By far the best diving I’ve ever done.  By the second dive I had crossed
off most of what I had on my wish list.  Tawali offers an incredible
combination of pristine Indo-Pacific diving with lots of variety – walls,
bommies, muck, drift, a great house reef. Sightings ran the gamut from
barracudas, hammerheads and Napoleon Wrasse, squadrons of devil fish to
incredible small critters – Ghost Pipefish, pygmy seahorses, myriad
nudibranchs, tiny crabs and shrimps – sometimes one on top of another.  I
booked 6 nights at Tawali as an add-on to a trip visiting relatives in
Melbourne.  Bettina at DiversionOz could not have been more helpful.  I
usually book independently, but the connections, and dealing with Air
Nuigini get complicated, so I used an agent and was very glad I did – every
connection went off without a hitch, and I felt much more confident with
the prep I received from DiversionOz.  

The dive routine was either 3 tanks with lunch on board, or 2 tanks, back
to the resort for lunch, and 2 more tanks.  The dive crews were very
flexible – a daily recommendation was made by Bob where to go, but really
whatever we asked for we could do – as many tanks daily as our computers
would allow.  Night dives were available as often as desired, and the house
reef offered interesting and almost unlimited bottom time, if not as scenic
and colorful as the other reefs.  Most of the trips were from 5 – 30
minutes from the resort, with the exception of a magical 3 tank trip across
the channel to dive near Normanby Island that took about 90 minutes to
reach. 

The resort itself is beautiful and nicely situated on a bluff overlooking
Milne bay.  Lots of native woods, carvings and crafts everywhere.  Rooms
are very spacious, with private balconies overlooking the lagoon.  There is
friendly, helpful staff everywhere.  The daily meal routine is breakfast at
7:00 (coffee and tea available at 6 and in-room), lunch at Noon, dinner at
7:00. The food was much better than most resorts I’ve been to, and the day
boat lunches were by far the best I’ve ever had. The chef started with a
different soup every night – all delicious.  Dinner and breakfast are
served buffet style, with lots of variety – dinner offered chicken, pork,
veggies, breads, potatoes, fantastic fresh fruit (surprisingly little fish)
and dessert.  Vegetarian dishes were also available – not just an offer to
eat more bread and potatoes.   Breakfast had fresh bread for toast, eggs,
bacon, sausage, cereals, fruit, and often French toast or pancakes.  

Negatives to report were that my rental regulator occasionally went into
free flow when testing the purge valve (fixed quickly), and the small dive
boats were not especially comfortable – a small seat with room for 2 in
front of the wheel house – other divers sit on the edge of the boat to and
from the sites.  If there were more divers, we would have spent more time
on the larger boats (we were on one for the trip to Normanby) which are
huge by comparison.  Spacious decks, lots of seating, on-board head, big
camera/gear table etc.

Tawali exceeded my already very high expectations.  I especially liked
diving as much as on a liveaboard, but able to tumble into your room for a
quick hot shower or nap whenever you felt the urge.  The diving was
incredible, varied, and unconstrained (except by your computer), the resort
beautiful, clean and comfortable and all the people exceptionally friendly,
knowledgeable and supportive.  Tawali is not inexpensive either to get to,
or to stay at, but in my opinion offers an outstanding value.   

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