Day 1- August 6th

The flag of Papua New Guinea

Today we began our journey to Papua New Guinea! We were all thrilled to go on this trip and couldn't wait to experience the many events and locations. Before this trip, we didn't know anything about Papua New Guinea mainly because it's not your typical travel destination. We were surprised to find out that the country is just as fun as France or Italy. We will be taking the following flights to get to Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea: Raleigh-Durham to Los Angeles to Brisbane to Port Moresby.

We planned to stay in Papua New Guinea from August 6th to August 19th. Our group was anxious to delve into the history, culture, sports, holidays, and foods that the country has to offer. 

Weather: The average weather in August in Papua New Guinea is 88 degrees Fahrenheit with clear skies and sunny weather. It was perfect for our trip. We chose August for our trip, because of the weather is beautiful in this month. Because of the location of Papua New Guinea, we didn’t have to worry about scheduling a flight and arriving in weather that wasn’t favorable. Also, we did some research and found out that many of their cultural events happen during August. 

You can see in this chart that August is a perfect month to travel to Papua New Guinea.

We all got ready to leave at approximately 5 pm. Our bags were packed, and we all headed over to Jessie's house. Once we reached Jessie's house we all drove together in an Uber and reached the Raleigh-Durham airport at 5:30 pm. We thanked the driver and anxiously entered the airport. Scrambling, we dropped our luggage off in the baggage drop-off. Fortunately, the security line wasn’t very long. However, we had a bit of a dilemma when Sierra tried to pass through. The rest of us had turned around towards the rapid beeping noises behind us to see her with a confused look on her face. The security guards soon found out Sierra had packed a large tube of toothpaste in her backpack. Since this was not allowed in carry-on items, we had to discard her toothpaste. She was very distressed over the loss of her bacon-flavored toothpaste, but soon she was happy again.

Meanwhile, Ayesha had frantically checked her phone and realized that we only had 15 minutes until we were scheduled to board. Thankfully, our gate was not far away, and we managed to get there with 10 minutes to spare. Boarding the plane at 7:25 pm, we had settled down into our seats and prepared ourselves for take-off. 

A view from Katelin's seat on the airplane.

The trip from RDU to LAX was a relatively reLAXing ride. Our group was lucky to have seats near each other, although Katelin was forced to sit two rows behind the rest of the group. She was extremely frustrated and voiced her opinion when we landed. We were all trying to go to sleep, but there was a crying baby in front of us. Its noises were keeping us awake, and Jessie was giving the infant one of her murderous looks. We arrived in Los Angeles at 9:45 pm and had an hour and 35 minute layover. During this time, we bought some snacks to keep our stomachs full, and Sarah bought a little Hollywood sign ornament. Our next flight was scheduled to board at 11:20 pm. 

Our itinerary for this trip is in the link below:
Papua New Guinea Itinerary