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Scuba Diving in Tufi
A remote outpost on Cape Nelson in Papua New Guinea's Oro Province, set on a tropical fjord cut into a volcanic coast, offering offshore coral reefs, sheltered muck diving in the fjords and WWII PT-boat wrecks, all reached from a single clifftop resort.
Why here
Tufi is the only place in Papua New Guinea where you dive fjords. Ancient lava flows off Cape Nelson left deep, steep-walled inlets, misnamed fjords locally, that run inland between forested ridges, and their calm, tannin-tinged water is a muck diver's playground of seahorses, pipefish, mandarinfish and mud crabs. Out beyond the headland, offshore coral reefs and seamounts sit in clear blue water with the wide-angle scenery and pelagics the fjords lack, and off the old wharf lie the wartime PT-boat wrecks from Tufi's role as an American patrol-boat base in 1942. Because the fjords are always sheltered, Tufi is one of the few PNG resorts that dives right through the year. The setting is as much a draw as the diving, with outrigger-canoe villages, tattooed faces and clifftop views over the sea and the peaks of the Owen Stanley Range.
Best months
Tufi dives year-round because the fjords stay sheltered whatever the wind, so there is no true off-season; the offshore reefs are best on calmer days. The fjord muck sites are shallow, dark and silty, rewarding slow searching and good buoyancy, while the outer reefs sit deeper and can carry current. Water is warm all year and the fjord surface is often glassy.
Getting there & around
Tufi is reached by a fifty-minute light-aircraft flight from Port Moresby to the Tufi airstrip; there is no practical road in. The one resort sits on the clifftop above the fjord and runs all the diving, from the house fjord a few minutes away to the offshore reefs and the wreck dives off the old wharf. Everything is arranged through the resort, and flight schedules are limited, so book the resort and its flights as a package and allow buffer time.
Skill levels: beginner, intermediate, advanced
Schools & guides (1)
Tufi Resort
OutfitterTufi Resort stands on a clifftop above a fjord on Cape Nelson in Oro Province and has run diving in this remote part of Papua New Guinea for more than thirty years. Owners Linda, Tony and Jordan Honey have grown it from four cabins to a boutique resort of around twenty-six rooms. As a fully PADI operation it dives three distinct settings, offshore coral reefs, the sheltered muck of the fjords and the wartime PT-boat wrecks off the old wharf, and is one of few PNG resorts diving year-round.