The day starts with some snorkelling off Greater Pigeon Island. A calm sea and good visibility and a colourful reef, blue and purple being my favourites, not only in the coral but also the starfish and many lively fish- Also sadly some crown of thorn starfish and destroyed coral beds.

The afternoon we sail into the beautiful bay of Rabaul in East New Britain. This was once a bustling capital but it sits in a very volcanic area- surrounded by them in fact and in 1994 a massive eruption covered the city with metres of ash and the inhabitants were quickly evacuated to a new capital Kokopo. We land at the Matupit hot geysers which meet the ocean.

The temperature is boiling and people cook in these waters.

Every local wants their picture taken with Dame Carol – the only woman MP for years in PNG who is one of our guest lecturers on our trip. She is PNG royalty.

Off to the highest point the Volcano Observatory with beautiful views of the bay before exploring some of the tunnels built by the Japanese to hide their barges. There are 360 miles of tunnel in the Rabaul. Off to Kokopo Museum full of decaying war armaments and a small room with the traditional dance masks.

The markets are colourful and fun and I acquired a couple of PNG dresses!

The standout story is when we got to the jetty and were waiting to get back onto the boat we sat to have a drink. A group of women were sitting next to us and as I walked past their table I stop to admire a bag which looked very different from the many billums we had seen in the market. This one was made of possum fur and was decorated with feathers and bones and rings of bark. The next thing I knew is the young girl comes over and hands me the bag. I politely said no but she insisted. Said she didn’t want any money but it was a gift because I had expressed interest in the bag – well I was so touched. We bought them a round of drinks and sat with them for a while. Here it is – chances are Australian Border Force might not let me take it back into Australia but it is worth a go as it is such a lovely gift made with lots of care.