Solomon Islands Secrets: cruise from Guadalcanal to the Sepik River

Honiara, located on the northern coast of the island of Guadalcanal, is the capital of the Solomon Islands, which lie between Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. Pijin is the principal language. The climate is tropical, and while the most pleasant time to visit is winter, July to September, the cooling sea breezes temper the humidity and heat along all coasts year-round. Read more about Honiara, Solomon Islands

Njari Island is in the Solomon Island archipelago, to the east of Papua New Guinea. It is a small uninhabited 400m long teardrop that extends along shallow shoals to adjacent small islands. Three kilometres to the SE is the larger Gizo Island with settlements. Read more about Njari Island, Solomon Islands

Buka Island is the second largest island in the Papua New Guinean province of Bougainville. It is separated from Bougainville by the Buka Passage, a narrow, deep and very fast-flowing tidal channel about 200m wide. The island was occupied by Japan in WWII as evidenced by Admiral Yamamoto's aircraft wreck at Buin. Read more about Buka Island, Papua New Guinea

Rabaul is a town on the Gazelle Peninsula in East New Britain province, Papua New Guinea. A busy commercial centre, it is situated on Simpson Harbour, a sheltered inlet of Blanche Bay. Almost the entire old town of Rabaul is buried under volcanic ash, the result of a volcanic eruption in 1994, and one is in awe of the scenery, which resembles an alien prehistoric landscape. Read more about Rabaul, Papua New Guinea

Tami Island is part of a small island group of the same name, in Morobe Province, northern Papua New Guinea. The island includes four atolls that form a circle around a lagoon. It is a seldom visited isle and delightfully peaceful. Read more about Tami Island, Papua New Guinea

In the Bismarck Sea is Crown Island, a small circular island 4 km in diameter, situated 75 km off the north coast of Madang Province in Papua New Guinea. The island is the highly eroded remnant of a dormant volcano, reaching an elevation of just 298 m above sea level. From the peak it falls through a series of valleys and ridges covered in rain forest, to the low-lying coastal regions where fringing reefs are found. Read more about Crown Island, Papua New Guinea

Madang is the capital of Madang Province and a port on the north coast of Papua New Guinea. It was settled by Germans in the 19th C, then under Australian administration from 1919, and occupied by Japanese 1942-1944 when the town was virtually wiped out. Today its population of 24,000 includes many expatriates, and the city is the base for many NGOs and business branches. Read more about Madang, Papua New Guinea

The Sepik is the longest river on the island of New Guinea, and is Papua New Guinea's equivalent to the Amazon and the Congo Rivers. The 1126 km river flows from the Victor Emanuel Range through an undeveloped catchment to the Bismarck Sea with no delta. Situated in the mystical East Sepik Province on the north coast of Papua New Guinea, the river is central to the everyday lives of the people who live along its banks. Read more about Sepik River, Papua New Guinea

Jayapura is the capital of the Indonesian-administered territory of Papua on the island of New Guinea. It is situated on a bay called Teluk Yos Sudarso, aka Humboldt Bay. The city lies just 32 km west of the border with Papua New Guinea. Read more about Jayapura, Indonesia

Sorong (population 200,000) is a coastal city in the eastern Indonesian province of West Papua, 100km south of the Equator, and bordering the Sorong Regency. It is the gateway to Indonesia's Raja Ampat Islands, rich in coral reefs in an area considered the heart of the world's coral reef biodiversity. It is also the logistics centre for Indonesia's thriving eastern oil and gas frontier, and a major container terminal. Read more about Sorong, Indonesia