Tari - Hela Province

Little is known about Tari. It is a remote town in Hela Province in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. This is where the LNG project, the largest foreign investment in the Pacific is taking place. There is so much gas here that the country is ensured of revenue for decades to come.

welcome to Tari! - the arrival area.

I took a morning flight to Tari. Unfortunately, the flight schedule went topsy-turvy and my flight was delayed for 3 hours. By the time I got to Tari, it was already 2pm and the place seemed empty. The first thing you notice when you get off the plane is the weather. It is pleasantly cool. There is no terminal here and you pick up your checked-in luggage right on the tarmac under a sign that says "Welcome to Tari!"

the check-in office.

the departure lounge.



inside the departure lounge.



a lot of small planes and helicopters fly in and out all day.



2 massive Hercules planes fly in and out every 30 minutes carrying cargo for the LNG project. a Hercules plane can easily fit in 2 20-foot containers! this is one busy airport! 




70 series land cruisers are everywhere!



When you get out of the airport, what you would notice is that this place is land cruiser country. The roads are not sealed and you would have to do a fair bit of off-roading. There is a lot of development though and hopefully, the roads will be paved by 2013. The main road snakes around the airport and so does the township. It is a small town with only 1 of everything. They have a small private bank, a petrol station, a hospital, a police station, a court house, a few government buildings, 1 lodge, 1 restuarant inside the lodge, and several small trade stores.

you can see that the roads are dirt & gravel tracks.

a lot of these large dump trucks go around the town as they clear large boulders.

the lone petrol station.

the lone bank which also acts as the agent for the post office.

the public market. food is cheap here. a guy bought a good-sized pineapple for less than $0.10! a bag of lettuce which had about 6 heads of lettuce was $1.50.

a typical shop selling dry goods. this is the only cash & carry type of store here.

Tari gets cold. The temperature was somewhere around 16C when I was there and it's almost summer! The temperature drops by 1700 and you'll start seeing steam coming from your mouth when you speak. Power is a problem up here. You only get electricity for about 12 hours a day in a broken schedule.

I stayed at Mo-Ha trading which is a business run by women. I have to say that I was really impressed that it was all run by women in such a remote and tough place. Lodging is decent and there is a small restaurant where you can have a hot meal. You have to order in advance though as they only prepare and cook the food when you mention it.

my bed.

the restaurant.

Now how are the people? They're friendly! I was surprised myself. The Tari people are fiercely proud of their culture and you would see people with painted faces and wearing traditional garments walking around the town . For fun, they wager with darts and the prizes are prepaid mobile phone cards or food. You would see the dart targets all over Tari. The people here also love their pigs. Pigs are a big part of their culture and is a sign of wealth. If you don't have a pig, then you do not have any money. They walk pigs around the town and carry small ones in their arms.

to play, a dart will cost you K0.50.

painted nose.

the woman is carrying a pig.

this guy was trying to trade his pig for some cigarettes.

woman with a painted face.

i thought she had a tree kangaroo on her head but it was a stuffed bear!

To augment their income, they recycle cans. These are apparently bought for K4/kg. They chop and sell firewood. They knit woolen hats and they sell local produce.

recycling aluminium cans.

selling firewood.

knitting and selling woolen caps.

this lady is selling her banana hat.

The flora here is amazing! I took so many photos of flowers here but I've already made this page picture heavy so I'll leave you with just a photo of a Hibiscus before I go. I certainly did not expect Tari to be the way it turned out to be. Surely, it encapsulates how people describe PNG as the land of the unexpected.

Hibiscus flower with pollen.