Dive Review of Lissenung Island Resort in
Papua New Guinea/New Ireland

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Lissenung Island Resort: "Fantastic diving at a uniquely personal dive resort", Jun, 2019, by KW, FL, US ( Sr. Reviewer 8 reports with 8 Helpful votes). Report 11174.
Photos Submitted with this Report Click on an image to see an enlarged version and captions
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	We spent a couple of days at Nusa Island resort just across the channel from Kavieng (great food and accommodation, kayaking and snorkeling, but rather noisy at night due to proximity to Kavieng), before being picked up and taken to Lissenung island. On arrival the first question as we waded ashore on the small sandy beach was what we wanted for lunch, and from then on we found ourselves guests at what seemed more like the house of extremely generous friends (Dietmar and Ange), rather than an efficiently managed dive resort (which it is also). The island is very small, about 330 m across at the widest point, and surrounded by reef flat, then sloping reef, except for the small beach at the SW end. The cabins are spaced beneath the trees around the island, providing privacy and peace and quiet, and are well-designed, with plenty of table space for assembling camera equipment within the rooms as well as a large balcony for relaxing. The main building has a drying/storage room with personally labeled areas for each diver's gear, making leaving for a dive and arrival back at the island a breeze. The restaurant is small and informal with a sandy floor and long tables conducive to lively discussions of the day's diving, and a comfy lounge area and great library of books on marine life. The food was plentiful, varied and tasty. We typically did two morning boat dives, the small, open speedboats departing from the beach right beside the restaurant around 9 am (very civilized) and heading for sites 30-40 mins away. We did several fantastic wall dives, with vertical drop-offs, caves, overhangs, abundant soft corals, sea fans and fish life, and pristine hard corals on the reef flats. Baudisson Bay and Albatross Passage particularly stand out. The sea was flat calm the first few days, but rather choppy later, with visibility around 20-30 m. The water was around 88 degrees Fahrenheit, very comfortable with a 3 mm full wetsuit. Large fish and sharks were few in number, but we saw a rich variety of smaller fish, nudibranchs, crustaceans and other small organisms. We especially enjoyed the Bottle Shop, a muck dive under the pier at Kavieng, with the pier columns covered with soft corals hiding numerous lionfish, juvenile fish and diverse invertebrates – we could easily have spent several hours there. Shore dives on the house reef were free after a day's boat diving, and involved signing a sheet with time and names of divers, picking up tanks at the back of the compressor room, and heading down the beach into the calm sea. Being able to dive when we wanted, where we wanted and at the pace we wanted was a wonderful experience. We dived the house reef east of the beach, which consisted of a shallow sloping reef ending at a sandy bottom, eventually reaching c. 6 m. Coral and fishlife were good, although visibility was sometimes a little limited depending on the tides. We also did several night dives on the house reef, as well as a night dive on the wreck of a small yacht purposely sunk 100 m off the west end of the island. The wreck had been there 30 years and had good coral growth, circumnavigating it several times we saw sleeping bumphead parrotfish and pufferfish, foraging crabs and shrimps, and several large tiger cowries prowling around the inside of the wreck. Our dive guide Angmai was great, pointing out small creatures we'd have missed and letting us go at our own pace. We also snorkelled in the sand and eel grass of the reef flat around the island, and over the shallow reef off the north side of the island, the latter having some of the most diverse and healthiest hard corals we have ever seen, often with 100% cover of undamaged coral. Other non-dive activities on the island included observing the scrub-fowl and other interesting island birds, sitting on the beaches and watching the spectacularly changing sky, and chatting with the owners and other divers. Dietmar and Ange were unfailingly attentive, kind and knowledgeable hosts, and they turned a great dive resort into a truly unique place - many of the other guests were repeat visitors, and we too very much hope to return.
Websites	Lissenung Island Resort
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	101-250 dives
Where else diving	Florida, Belize, Panama (Coiba, Pearl Is), UK, Red Sea (Sharm), Myanmar, Sulawesi (Wakatobi), Philippines (Mindoro, Palawan), Solomons (Guadalcanal), New Zealand (Poor Knights)
Closest Airport	Kavieng	Getting There	Air Niugini from Port Moresby-Kavieng, then 1 hr in small boat.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, cloudy	Seas	calm, choppy, no currents
Water Temp	89-89°F / 32-32°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	10-30 M / 33-98 Ft
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	?
Enforced diving restrictions	Dive with a guide from boat, unguided shore dives (house reef). We stayed shallower than 70 ft by choice with dives mostly limited by air.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Fresh water tub at resort dive center for soaking camera post-dive, plenty of desk space and charging outlets in rooms. Boat operators/dive guides were careful handing camera into the water and taking it back onto the dive boat.

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Dive Review of Lissenung Island Resort in Papua New Guinea/New Ireland

Lissenung Island Resort: "Fantastic diving at a uniquely personal dive resort", Jun, 2019,

Photos Submitted with this Report

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Lissenung Island Resort in
Papua New Guinea/New Ireland