Dive Review of Walindi Plantation Resort in
Papua New Guinea/Kimbe Bay

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Walindi Plantation Resort: "Walindi Resport on New Britain Island, Papua New Guinea, has it down", May, 2023, by Rick Morgan, OH, US ( Sr. Reviewer 11 reports with 7 Helpful votes). Report 12481.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Walindi is one of a handful of SCUBA-focused resorts in PNG (others include Tufi, on the “mainland” of PNG, and Tawali in Milne Bay, on the eastern cost of the mainland. Walindi was started by Max and Cecelie Benjamin in the early 1980s. The resort has 10 comfortable bungalows, each with a queen and twin bed. The bungalows have nice porches and good sea views. Additional accommodations are in long houses. The only air conditioning is in the breakfast room/library, and the main resort facility, where lunch and dinner are served, doesn’t have screens. That room and the rest of the central resort facility have WiFi; the bungalows and houses do not, but we were able to use our phones as 3G hotspots, which worked surprisingly well. Walindi's staff is excellent--friendly and experienced. Zero complaints. The bungalows and long houses have good screens, and are well-shaded; each has two powerful ceiling fans which keep things comfortable. The resort’s electricity is turned off from late evening to early morning, but one of the fans and a couple of bright lights run off storage cells. The bungalow we were assigned was well-detailed, with wall coverings woven onsite, a bit of PNG art, and French press coffee and a small refrigerator. Water throughout the resort is potable, and plentiful, and bathrooms are modern. A lovely pool was built during the pandemic, and has unobstructed views over Kimbe Bay, and a well-stocked bar is adjacent. Breakfasts are cold or hot, as you prefer. Lunches are ordered from a menu (the fries are exceptional), and dinners are a substantial buffet. The local ice cream, by the way, is terrific. The resort has three solid dive boats, each with big twin outboards. One is a meter or so longer than the other two. Don’t expect diving on the Walindi house reef. Second, the checkout reef, “Hanging Gardens,” was disappointing; we did it late in the afternoon and without lights, but others who did it under better conditions also were not impressed. But the sites to which the Walindi boats travel are otherwise glorious. For example, Joelle’s, a sea mount 45 minutes or so from the resort, was laugh-out-loud fishy, with schools of trevally, barracuda, and tuna competing for space with fairly large groups of batfish and untold numbers of everything else. We did two dives at Restorf Island, a thumbprint of land with a rich reef on one side and a wall and slope which start within feet of the island on the other. Peacock mantis shrimp, at least two species of shrimpgoby, octopus, hawkfish, a bumphead parrot hanging around the stern in hopes of scraps, a decent assortment of nudis, and lots of tiny things–as well as the largest sea fan I’ve ever seen, maybe four meters across. Both two- and three-tank dives are offered on the day boats. Nitrox is available, but not free. Great lunch is provided on the three-tank trips, and snacks on the two-tank. The dive staff was uniformly good at briefing and finding.
Websites	Walindi Plantation Resort
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Australia; Bonaire; Costa Rica; Fiji; Florida keys; Grand/Little Cayman; Saba; St. Croix; Galapagos; Tuscany
Closest Airport	Hoskins via Port Moresby	Getting There	It's a long trip. Allow extra time. We flew Delta to Sydney, then to Brisbane, then to Port Moresby and on to Hoskins.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, rainy, cloudy, dry	Seas	calm, choppy, currents, no currents
Water Temp	83-87°F / 28-31°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	20-80 Ft/ 6-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	60-65 minute dives
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	None
Dolphins	Schools	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	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
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	There is a black tub at the stern, and a larger rinse tank onshore.

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Dive Review of Walindi Plantation Resort in Papua New Guinea/Kimbe Bay

Walindi Plantation Resort: "Walindi Resport on New Britain Island, Papua New Guinea, has it down", May, 2023,

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 Walindi Plantation Resort in
Papua New Guinea/Kimbe Bay