Successful visit to Wewak by P&O cruise ship ‘Pacific Aria’
25 February 2016
HUNDREDS of passengers came ashore from MS Pacific Aria when it anchored in Wewak Harbour on Monday, providing the town with a great boost.
And more than 500 passengers took the paid tour options - Wewak highlights, Maur Village and the ‘Japanese surrender’ tour – pumping even more money into the local economy.
And the response from our visitors? It was great, with the ship rating Wewak’s services and tours as excellent.
Among the passengers were former Wewak residents. including Mr Green, formerly a branch manager with the PNG Banking Corporation, and also the wife of former East Sepik district commissioner.
One group chartered an aircraft to fly over Wewak and along the Sepik River.
The P&O land tour operator, Tyler Woods, said he was very impressed with the services provided to passengers including the tours and the traditional performances.
Mr Woods said there will be another cruise soon.
Security in the town was excellent with the help of Wewak police personnel.
The people of Wewak and East Sepik showed their true colors and I did not hear of any harassment of tourists or petty thefts.
The provincial police commander, Wewak police station commander and the men and women of the police are to be thanked for a job well done.
I was there in the Sepik early 1995 for a medical school elective. Mainly at Wewak Boram Hospital, but also at briefly at Timbunke and up the Sepik to outlying villages. It is full of happy memories and life long lessons about both the region and tropical disease. I have done a lot of professional training since then and although it is so long ago, I keep a close eye on developments
I am sorry to hear violence has escalated. Wewak seemed quite safe, although I was in the PMV on the potholed and mud swept roads at the time; with bilums, chickens, bags of rice, kaukau, and coconuts as accompaniment.
A brief visit to Kainantu health centre and the Highlands was accompanied by stark warnings about the rascals on the road to Goroka, but the Wewak area just had a caution to be careful at night. I remember the peace of hearing the pacific music choir on the hospital beach on a Sunday morning; and giggling children paddling in the surf and waving Abinoon on an early evening walk.
I will write something on this soon. In the meantime, I was alarmed at the deteriorated state of the hospital a few years back when I looked online, and am pleased to see it got an overhaul. I had many other things I was interested in getting information / data on which had proved impossible from the current spot I myself am in.
Do you have any email contact for the town administration or the hospital? Or any other professional groups or networks active there at present? I only have a couple of Facebook contacts, and someone who was working on the countrywide internet access out of Port Moresby but didn't hear much further about the current situation
I also wonder if anyone can find a nurse called Lucy who ran the maternal and child health and vaccination patrols I accompanied from Timbunke. I lost touch with her and would love to find her.
Thanks very much for gathering this network of interested people.
Posted by: Kate Lawrence | 30 July 2020 at 09:55 AM
Congratulation to Mateos Alois and all the other Wewak people who helped to make it a wonderful day for the tourists on the Pacific Aria.
Wewak is a very beautiful place and they will gradually work out other ways to look after the tourists and give them an interesting time in Wewak.
Posted by: Barbara Short | 25 February 2016 at 06:19 AM
A great report on a beckoning future for tourism.
Posted by: `Robin Lillicrapp | 25 February 2016 at 06:12 AM