Rabaul is a small town in Papua New Guinea. It once was a thriving city on the edge of a volcanic caldera in the northern part of the country in an area called
New Britain. It is at the junction of three major tectonic plates, the Pacific Plate, Australia Plate, Caroline Plate and four smaller plates; Solomon Sea Plate, Woodlark Plate, and the north and south Bismarck Plates.
A volcanic eruption in 1994 buried the city, and airport under many meters of ash, and created a causeway to a neighboring island.
In the first picture, the mountain on the right is still hot. Plants have re-established themselves on the surrounding mountains. In the foreground is a hot spring of boiling water that the local people use to boil eggs they hunt from the warm ash. Birds dig a meter or more into the ash to lay their eggs where the earth will incubate them.
On the top of an adjacent mountain the government is collecting seismic readings from sensors in the ground surrounding the cauldera. The picture of the Pacific Princess was taken from the side of the recording office.
Since the small island has been joined to the main island, it has become a popular spot for swimming and picnics. This is were the young boy sitting in the tree greets the tourists to his new home. Since this area is still active the town has been built on the other side of the main island and only a small part has been built around the original bay where the ship is docked.
I selected four of my best pictures to enter into a photo contest on the ship. However, I could only enter one of them into the contest, so of the four here, I entered the last one of a sunset reflected off one of the ship windows, and managed to capture a man running on the track.
Rabaul is an interesting port in PNG.
Hey Congratulations Doug! A beautiful picture indeed.