An Iconic Goroka Show - Short Stay
in Papua New Guinea's Eastern Highlands

The Iconic Goroka Show

includes the Asaro Mudmen

5 Days / 4 Nights Fully Escorted Tour

AUD4,990 p.p

TWIN SHARE

Single Supplement AUD690 P.P.

Tour Package includes All Meals, Accommodation, Guides, Sightseeing, Entry Fees to all activities, Porterage, Transfers, Land & water Transport & Experienced Australian Tour Leader

Air Flights within & to Papua New Guinea not included

Thursday 12th to Monday 30th September
Bookings open now for September 2025

Why not combine this Short Stay tour with other interesting destinations within Papua New Guinea including Lake Kutubu in the Southern Highlands, Rabaul on New Britain Island and the neighbouring idyllic Duke of York Islands along with the island of Bougainville - Check out the 19 day Melanesian Wonderland Adventure to experience.................

................. Lake Kutubu's Kundu Digaso Festival and Canoe Races - Agri-tourism - Skull Caves Birds of Paradise - Coffee Plantations - Bougainville's Political Intrigue - Siwai & Tamatama Festivals - Upe Initiation - Infamous Panguna Mine & The Idyllic Pokpok Island - Deliciously Exotic Foods & Fruits - New Britain's Military Relics & Colonial History Tambu Shell Money - Bainings Fire Dance & Tolai Tubuan Customs - Rabaul's Volcano Climb - Loloata Island Resort - Snorkel Exotic Duke of York Isles with Wild Dolphins, Turtles & Dugongs - Seafood Beach BBQs with the Friendliest of People !

Day By Day Itinerary for Short Stay Holiday

Depart from Brisbane Airport at 10.40 am arriving at Jacksons Airport, Port Moresby at 1.50 pm. Upon arrival we will visit the Port Moresby Nature Park. Spread over 30 acres the park is home to over 250 native animals and birds along with hundreds of plant species, many of which are rarely seen outside of PNG. The Nature Park has won a number of international awards for its works. We will spend the evening in comfortable accommodation in Port Moresby where you will be briefed onthe tour that you will enjoy with some of the rarest and authentic experiences a global traveller could wish for.

Day 1 – Port Moresby – Nature Park

Sanctuary Hotel Resort and Spa - Port Moresby or similar

Day 2 – Goroka – Iconic Asaro Mudmen

This morning we transit to Jacksons Airport, Port Moresby for an 9.15 am flight to Goroka arriving at 10.05 am to transit to our accommodation for check-in.

We visit the McCarthy Museum. The museum houses collections of artefacts and specimens from the Highlands region including wooden dishes, stone mortars, stone blades, magic stones and sandstones for making stone blades. There are also some WWII relics on display including a P-39 Airacobra.

We attend the agricultural show component of the Goroka Show that highlights the farming activities of the Highlanders. Displays include unique floral species produced by the vibrant local floriculture industry. The regions crops include broccoli, kau kau or sweet potato, carrots, ginger and peanuts are examples of produce that grow well here; nearby Bena Bena is known for its pineapples.

We visit the Komunive Village, a traditional highlands village of the iconic Asaro Mudmen. Legend has is that once, when the local tribe had been attacked, those not killed or captured fled into the Asaro River to hide from their attackers. Here they became covered in the white river mud. When dusk fell they decided to return to their village, still caked in mud – though not deliberately so. When the enemy tribe, still in village, saw the men now caked in mud they fled, believing them to be spirits or the avenging ghosts of the villagers they had earlier killed.

Red River Lodge - Goroka

Day 3 – Goroka Show - Eastern Highlands

GK 2 Goroka Show Men the eyes have it.jp

Today we attend the iconic Goroka Cultural Show including the pre-show costuming preparations. Papua New Guinea’s premier cultural event, the Goroka Show, is the longest running annual cultural festival in Papua New Guinea and is held during the nation's Independence Day celebrations. More than 100 tribes participate in the event performing extraordinary displays of 'sing-sings' - traditional songs, dances and ritual performances. The staging of the Goroka Show began in 1957 and was first introduced and organised by Australian patrol officers known locally as 'kiaps'. Kiaps from each district built round houses typical of their districts where they displayed the various and unique cultures of the people living there. The kiaps brought in 'sing-sing' groups from surrounding areas. It created an entertaining weekend for everyone, and still does 60 years later. The “Sing Sing” enables a limited number of Western tourists to experience up close, the colour, movement and music performed by the largest gathering of diverse tribes in the South Pacific. Your camera clicking finger will earn a rest, having recorded some of the most memorable days of your global travels.

Red River Lodge - Goroka

GK 3 tribal-group-dancing-at-the-goroka-festival-in-papua-new-guinea_edited.jpg

GK 1 Goroka-Show the skys the limitCROP _edited.jpg

Day 4 – Goroka Show - Eastern Highlands

We attend day two of the iconic Goroka Show and your guide will explain the customs of the great variety of tribal groups and where they source the many materials that are woven into their colourful and visually striking costumes and also the substances that they decorate their bodies with. We will pop back into the agricultural displays to see anything we couldn’t see on Friday and check out who the prize winners are.

We visit a coffee plantation to view a coffee processing mill and enjoy fruit wine tasting. You will be taken through the growing as well as the factory process from factory door to preparing the green bean ready for export. This enterprise is assisting in improving Papua New Guinea’s declining coffee production, including supplying seedlings by the thousands, as well as increasing the quality of its product. Coffee is Papua New Guinea's second largest agricultural export, employing tens of thousands of people. We will view a tea plantation and visit a local village where we observe horticultural activities and also eat sumptuously tasty foods prepared by traditional methods in a beautiful panoramic setting.

Red River Lodge - Goroka

Day 5 – Options Galore – Monday Choices

This morning you visit the Goroka Market and then transit to the Goroka Airport and prepare to depart on an Air Nuigini flight to Port Moresby.

OR YOU CONTINUE ON A FURTHER PORTION OF OR THE REMAINING 14 DAYS

OF THE MELANESIAN WONDERLAND ADVENTURE

OF AN EXOTIC PAPUA NEW GUINEA.

The Photos below are a taste of other amazing destinations across PNG

Did you know?

The densely populated Highlands region of mainland Papua New Guinea was “discovered” as recently as the 1930’s by Australian gold prospectors, Mick Leahy and Michael Dwyer. Melanesians have occupied the highland interior of New Guinea Island probably for more than 30,000 years, developing advanced plant cultivation and irrigation technologies at 1,500 metres above sea level, possibly 10,000 years ago, establishing themselves amongst the world’s earliest agriculturists. The oldest evidence for this is in the Kuk Swamp area, where planting, digging and staking of plants, and possibly drainage have been used to cultivate taro, banana, sago and yam.