Travel deep dive
Rabaul and Kokopo: A Harbour Inside a Volcano and a Town Half Under Ash
Rabaul lies at the north-eastern tip of New Britain, on the shore of Simpson Harbour, and the harbour is a volcanic caldera that the sea has flooded. In 1994 Mount Tavurvur and Mount Vulcan erupted together and buried much of the town in ash; the provincial capital moved to Kokopo, south-east along the coast, and Rabaul was never rebuilt to its old size. Visitors now sleep in Kokopo and spend their days around the caldera, where an active volcano, an ash-covered shore and the old town lie within sight of one another. New Britain is reached by a domestic flight to Tokua, the airport near Kokopo.
Updated 2026-10-05
Simpson Harbour and its volcanoes
Simpson Harbour is the sheltered inner part of Blanche Bay, and the cones around it belong to the same volcanic system. Tavurvur rises from the harbour's eastern shore, bare and grey, with Vulcan across the water to the west; behind the town stand the older, forested peaks known as the Mother and the North and South Daughters. Tavurvur is the active one, and it is watched by the volcano observatory. Near it, the instructions of the local authorities are followed, as for every natural hazard in Papua New Guinea.
The observatory lookout and the hot springs
The volcano observatory stands on the ridge above the town, and the lookout beside it takes in the whole caldera at once: the harbour, the town, Tavurvur and Vulcan. Below Tavurvur, on the black-sand shore, hot water wells up at the water's edge and steams in the shallows. Both are reached by road from the town.
Tunnels, wrecks and the war cemetery
The hillsides around Rabaul and Kokopo are cut with tunnels dug during the Second World War, and one of them, by the shore, still holds the rusting hulls of the barges once kept inside it. Wrecks of ships and aircraft lie in Simpson Harbour and along the nearby coast, dived from Rabaul and Kokopo; the reefs of Kimbe Bay, further west on New Britain, are a trip of their own. Inland of Kokopo, Bita Paka War Cemetery lies in quiet, well-kept gardens.
Kokopo and its market
Kokopo is the provincial capital of East New Britain and now the larger of the two towns, spread along the coast, with cocoa and coconut plantations lining the roads out of it. Its market sells what the volcanic soil of the Gazelle Peninsula grows — fruit, vegetables and greens — alongside fish and betel nut. The stalls take cash, best carried as kina in small notes.
The National Mask Festival and the Baining fire dance
Kokopo hosts the National Mask Festival, usually in July, when dance groups from several provinces bring their masks and dances to the town. The Tolai of the Gazelle coast show the tall, cone-shaped masks of their dukduk and tubuan figures. The Baining people of the peninsula's inland hills perform their fire dance at night, in large masks of bark cloth, the dancers stepping through the embers of a bonfire. Rooms in Kokopo are booked well ahead for the festival.