Hepi Easter 🙂
Over Easter, we travelled out past the LNG site to Sunset Lodge, it’s a fair old trip, and not too bad going until you get past the LNG site – then she is 4×4 country 🙂
We actually missed the SP SOLD HERE sign and went all the way to the footbridge at the end of the road, a quick turnaround and headed back.
Sunset Lodge is a fantastic place, and if it wasn’t for the very poor karaoke that was going on, would have been magical. I have a few photos – but it will have to wait until I can get them off my camera…
On arrival at Sunset – you need to follow your nose past the carpark and go around past the BBQ area to the bar. There is a honestly system in place, pay K10 per adult and K5 per child, then K5 for some wood for the wood fired BBQ’s and you are away. You do need to buy your beer over the bar, but it wasn’t that expensive until you buy an Apple Cider (K20+ a bottle!!)
Sunset Lodge is a magical place and I wish we could have stayed longer – but as is normal in the IT industry – something shits itself at work, and there goes the Easter weekend 😦 Jacinta had a much better weekend than me, and got to go out to Fishermans Island, and off to the Westpac Compound for a BBQ. You can read about her Easter here
And yes, even though I’m not posting as much as I could do – I still try and respond to all your emails and questions on my blog. 🙂
Aaron
A Kiwi Expat in PNG 
Hi Aaron,
I have been surfing across the web for weeks to find information on PNG and your blog is one of the very few that gives a very pleasant feel about the place :).
My company is planning to send me to POM for a secondment (for around 18 months) and I’ll be coming there shortly for a look and see visit. My family (wife and a 5yo boy) shall accompany me. I really hope you can advise me on some of the decisions that I’ll need to make in coming days. Here I go;
The residence: I heard from colleagues that Era Dorina is the best. What are the 2nd and 3rd best in case ED is not vacant?. Preferably with some recreational facilities like pools, kids place etc. and what would be approx monthly rend for a 2-3 bed house / apartment. My office will be in Deloitte tower.
Schooling: Ela Murray seems best but again what would be your 2nd preference?.
Health Services: Are there any reliable places for usual medical situations / emergencies esp where your kid gets sick?. I hear a lot of bad stuff about medical facilities there.
Cost of living: I see lot of information on itemised costs. But tell me what would be an average monthly cost to maintain a good standard of living in POM for a small expat family like mine?.(excluding rent, medical, school since these will be covered by the host company)
Any other advice that may be helpful.
Eagerly looking forward to your response.
Thanks
Asim
Hi Asim,
There are many different compounds here in Port Moresby. I wouldn’t say that Era Dorina is the best, it depends on if you like living in the back pocket of lots of other families. Personally, even though I initially wanted to live there, now I really wouldn’t. I can’t comment on other compounds, you have to go have a look.
My office is also in Deliotte Tower 🙂
I would only send my kids to Ela Murray, however there are other good schools such at St Joseph’s.
There are lots of Health providers and your company can sign up to International SOS. We use Ela Beach Medical and Ma Clinic, both of which are OK.
I have a large family, and we are pretty frugal as expenses here are high. Suggest you look at food as being your largest cost, followed by power, Internet and socializing. It is approximately double the cost of living in New Zealand, and NZ is pretty expensive.
Cheers
Aaron
Hi Aaron,
Thanks for your reply. And good know that you too are at Deloitte. Hoping to bump into you someday :). Quite encouraging that there are better places than Era Dorina. Besides security & home comfort, my preference would be such a place that is family friendly and offers a few recreational facilties. Lets see what they show me while we visit. I hope you wont mind me writing to you again once I have sufficient details on renumerations.
Cheers
Asim
I arrived in POM Easter this year. My Hubby is DHADS ( deputy head of Australian defence- ) I originally had reservations and had planned on not coming over (He had been here since Dec 2013) but now that i am, its amazing. We are going out to sunset lodge lodge tomorrow. I have 3 teenagers here. All are at POMIS (port moresby International High School) and I can tell you that its fantastic. It looks like 3rd world, but wow, they are totally committed to education. If I had younger I would not look anywhere else than Ella Murray. The Aust High comm only recommends those 2 schools. We live in Konedobu, commonly known as Legoland 🙂 I am enjoying my time here and shortly we are off to Kokopo for a week. I’ve met some great ppl. (some great kiwis too!) majority are defence. One thing I will say is that don’t believe all the hype about dangers. ALot of that stuff can happen anywhere and that was my first thought when my hubby got the job… Generally most of the ppl are happy and kind, you get the odd few but like I said happens anywhere. I would encourage anyone who comes over, to learn the basic tok pisin greeting and just be kind and say hello and wave to the guards, ppl etc. kindness goes a long way. Food is very expensive and sometimes certain things are hard, to find, eg Ricotta cheese and soda water at the moment have disappeared however philly cheese has made a comeback. Be prepared to buy in bulk when you see it. There is a new IGA at Waigani which is great. Reasonable prices too. And this year a taco bell and home depot will open there and next year a new cinema, or so I am told. As with anything its all in the prep. I think the experience outweighs everything else.
🙂 Thanks for the comments
Just beware, we got burglarized in our apartment even though we had security guards all over the place. The rascals got away with my card and was able to use it at Sunset Lodge. Crazy thing is that these people at Sunset Lodge never checked for the rascals ID. It would be pretty obvious that they are not the owner of the card they stole. The name on the card is obviously not a local name.