January 13, 2026 Alotau, Papua New Guinea

At 7 a.m. the temperature was 26°C, overcast, 87% humidity and wind NNW 6 kph.

At 7:30 a.m., we were floating in Milne Bay about 1 km from the pier. Our berth was occupied by a cargo ship which should have departed hours ago, and our pilot had not boarded as he was still on the cargo ship. Passengers with Shore Excursions expecting to leave at 8:15 a.m. were being told to wait 30 minutes, at least. By 8:45 a.m., the ship had been moored and shore excursions were sorting out rescheduling for the seven hour tours. All aboard was extended by one hour. That was no problem as it is just a few hours to get to the next Papua New Guinea port.

Ten person minibuses were the island’s transportation. There were several dozen lining the road to the cruise kiosk.

There was no rush this morning. Our meeting time for Clay Pot Cooking Class was 9:45 a.m. so we had plenty of time for a relaxing breakfast. We were paired with Ian and Rita from Norfolk, England.

As we returned to our stateroom, Robbie announced that there was an currancy exchange for people who wanted to change Australian money tor Kina, the currency of Papua New Guinea. There was a long line and we did not want to miss our tour so we didn’t change any money.

Alotau, which means Beautiful Bay in the local Suau language, lies within the forested foothills of an eastward extension of the Owen Stanley Range. It is the easternmost town in Papua New Guinea, close to the volcanic D'Entrecasteaux islands in the Solomon Sea. Its 20th century past is linked to fighting between the Australian and Japanese during the Second World War. It is the capital of Milne Bay Province, in the far south-east of Papua New Guinea, on the tip of the Papuan Peninsula in the Coral Sea. Prior to the Second World War the actual Milne Bay, named after a late 19^th Century British Admiral Sir Alexander Milne, was a sleepy little backwater town with the local people living a largely traditional life-style.

We walked out to Deck 3 to watch some of the passengers entering the minivans for their excursion or walking to the main road to stroll 800 meters to the start of the shopping or local kiosks. Exiting the building by the ship was a group of local cultural ambassadors, dressed in traditional costumes, proceeded to the dock and began some traditional dances. They were still dancing an hour later when we exited the ship.

We collected our shore excursion sticker at the World Stage theatre and sat to wait for our tour number to be called. We were sitting on the bed of a truck with 14 chairs arranged on two sides, no seat belts, open air to the light breeze for a ten minute ride to Masurina Lodge for the cooking class. The other twelve people in our group arrived in the minivans which were dispatched back to the ship to get another group of 30 to participate in the class.

We were ushered into a large hall with six long rectangular tables covered in large banana leaves. There were ceiling fans whirling to keep the air moving as we donned grey aprons and waited for the other group sipping coconut water from a straw poked in a coconut. In the hall centre on a banana leaf covered tables was an array of fresh fruit - watermelon, small bananas, pineapple, mango, papaya and oranges.

Nearby were three long stools set in a circle with a pile of coconuts beside them. Each stool had a very sharp blade at one end to use to scrape the white coconut flesh from the shell. The resulting coconut flakes were used in the clay pot. About half of the people tried the labour intense scraping of the coconut taking five to ten minutes to scrape out half of a coconut. One of the staff was cracking the coconuts in half with a meat cleaver, then draining the coconut water into a large stainless steel bowl, for later use in the cooking process.

On each of the rectangular tables were six paring knives, six peelers, a cauldron

strainer, a large clay pot on a hot plate, onion, shallots, ginger root, cherry tomatoes, yam, sweet potato, taro, asparagus, small corn cobs, and various local salad greens.

People were invited to peel and cut the ingredients for the clay pots under the supervision of a lodge cook. There was only one cutting board used by two people doing the finer cutting after the vegetable had been removed from its covering or skin.

People spent anywhere from five minutes to 30 minutes in the food preparation. The clay pot was lined with banana leaves to prevent burning, then all the ingredients were layered by the cook in the correct order. The second to last step was to put the cauldron strainer on the top. Then using the coconut flakes mixed with coconut water (or water) from a large stainless steel bowl squeezing , by hand, the water from the flakes into the strainer then returning the flakes back into the mixture and repeating the process until the liquid in the pot was about two centimetres from the top. Final step was to cover the top with a large banana leaf and tuck the ends around the edges. The cook took the pot to the lodge kitchen to cook for 45 to 50 minutes. It was then time to try the fresh fruit. One of the staff cut up the various fruits for the people to enjoy.

We had free time to wander the small resort which had a swimming pool, a bar, a coffee shop and a restaurant. There was a small room with memorabilia from the lodge owners collection of World War 2 artifacts that locals had unearthed over the years.

Samples of Cassava Cake (a traditional moist cake made from grated cassava, coconut milk, and condensed milk with a custard layer on top) were offered to the participants as we waited in the bar. They were arranged on small pieces of banana leaves as plates.

We chatted with Lisa from Ohio and enjoyed a SP Lager, a local beer and water before the call went out that the buffet and the clay pots were ready to sample. We paid for the beer and water with Australian dollars and received the change in Kina.

The dining room was air conditioned, although people had been sitting in the bar with its ceiling fans quite comfortably. It was a feast laid out. We started with pumpkin soup that was brought to the tables. Then people could help themselves at the buffet. There was chicken, pork, breaded shrimp, lobster tails, crab, fish, oysters and salads as well as the clay pots.

Once the meal was finished people drifted back to the parking lot for transport back to the ship in the truck bed bench seats or the air-conditioned minivans. The kiosks open air markets or supermarkets in the town did not call to us for visits.

We spent the the afternoon leisurely walking our six laps of the Promenade Deck in 30°C heat then sitting in the Library Café with iced frappés playing Five Crowns card games, best out of three.

The captain’s 5:30 p.m. announcement informed us that shortly the ship would be leaving for Kiriwina, Papua New Guinea which would be 181 nautical miles away at a speed of 14 knots to arrive in the morning. Some wind tomorrow and a high of 29°C with the possibility of light rain in the afternoon.

We followed our now routine dinner with Margaret, Ted, Sue and Sandy, followed by coffee at the Library Café, before finding seats for the 7:30 p.m. World Stage performance. Tonight featured vocalist Steve Larkins with his Freddie Mercury tribute show. We left during the third song.

Tomorrow we visit Kiriwina Island one of the Trobriand Islands. Besides Papua New Guinea the cruise will be visiting Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji which all are part of Melanesia. There are a few islands that are part of that geographical region which we will not be visiting.

Total steps 10.473