A colorful world, teeming below

Plunge into an exotic underwater adventure

Papua New Guinea is considered a world-class diving destination

In this story: Underwater variety Nudibranch encounter RELATED STORIES, SITES

From Stephanie Oswald

LOLOATA ISLAND, Papua New Guinea (CNN) -- One moment you're mesmerized by a miniature seahorse. Minutes later you're swimming alongside a 35-foot-long whale shark.

What's rare on other dive trips is commonplace off the coast of Papua New Guinea, one of the world's top diving destinations.

GALLERY Click for a photo gallery of underwater creatures    VIDEO Explore the underwater life of Papua New Guinea Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)     RESOURCE Read a guide to live-aboard diving boats from www.diversionoz.com     RELATED STORY Explore the lush, wild frontier of Papua New Guinea

You can see sharks, stingrays, turtles and immense schools of colorful fish, stranger creatures such as the mantis shrimp, or maybe an octopus hiding in rocks. And all of this underwater beauty is just outside your bedroom door when you vacation on a live-aboard dive boat.

"I think for me the main attraction of the live-aboard was to dive much more frequently than you can on land," diver Adam Bates said on a recent trip. "And on this boat it is fantastic."

There's no worry about packing up kits on this diving journey off PNG, a South Pacific nation north of Australia.

"You dive three, four, five times a day and everything is always done for you," he said.

Underwater variety

On a recent 12-day adventure, Capt. Craig de Wit of the MV Golden Dawn carried 10 experienced divers for an underwater tour of PNG, from the northern coast of Madang to the southern dive sites of Milne Bay.

"We like to try and provide the adventure side of things, and PNG is the perfect place to do it because there are so many diving opportunities, so many places that have never been explored," said de Wit, who also owns the Golden Dawn. "It really is the right place to do what I call adventure diving."

PNG is considered a world-class diving destination thanks to its wide variety of underwater life.

"The main thing here is the diversity," said Max Benjamin, president of the PNG Divers Association. "We have more species of coral than anywhere else in the world. We have more species of fish."

Passengers on the live-aboard boat may dive several times a day -- crew members keep their kits ready

Nudibranch encounter

On this trip, divers encounter hundreds of different nudibranchs, the brightly colored mollusks known also as sea slugs. Often greeting divers is the amazing cuttlefish, which wards off enemies by constantly changing color to match its surroundings.

Back on the boat, between dives, the Golden Dawn chef serves up home- cooked meals of fresh seafood, fruit and vegetables purchased from the coastal villages.

The Golden Dawn, one of several PNG diving operations, offers an array of tours throughout much of the year, with cabin rates that run from about $305 to $350 a night. If you're interested, plan ahead: Some tours already are booked into fall of 2002.

Accommodations on the boat are small but cozy and come with another live- aboard perk: the ocean rocks you to sleep as you lie in anticipation of tomorrow's discoveries.

Papua New Guinea: Untouched, untamed, untrammeled
April 20, 2001

Niugini Diving
Diving PNG on the MV Golden Dawn
Papua New Guinea Scuba Diving Adventure
PNG Divers Association

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