Day 3- August 8th

We arrived in Brisbane, Australia at 6:10 am and had a 2 hour and 40 min layover. We ate a quick breakfast and drank some coffee at Starbucks in the airport. We then headed over to our gate and excitedly talked about the upcoming activities we were going to do after landing in Port Moresby.

We boarded our final flight at 8:50 am. This flight was shorter, only 3 hours and 10 minutes long. Our group was unusually quiet throughout the whole flight. Jessie, Ayesha, and Sarah pulled out their phones, while Katelin and Sierra read books. Halfway through the flight, they switched books. Lunch was given to us on the airplane. It was a horrible meal since it lacked good taste and was quite small. 

At noon, we arrived in Port Moresby and went straight to baggage claim. After picking up our bags, we headed to the car rental place. We rented a truck at Hertz that we used to travel in and around Port Moresby for the next couple of days. Our truck had five seats and additional space for our suitcases, along with air conditioning. We drove to our hotel, Raintree Lodge. We chose this hotel because of the free parking, its great ratings, and the reasonable price that it provided for  five people staying for a couple days.

Our rental truck

Bomana War Cemetery (History): After dropping off our luggage, we drove to the Bomana War Cemetery, the largest war cemetery in the Pacific. The cemetery is part of the Kokoda Track, a trail of sites that mark the battles fought by the Australians during the second world war. This track also stretches across the entire country. Soldiers in Papua New Guinea helped to carry supplies for the allies and fought in most of the battles near and around Port Moresby. Each of us felt a somber atmosphere when we entered the cemetery with all the  rows of gravestones all lined up next to one another in a uniform pattern. It made the cemetery feel very official and important. We learned that the war cemetery holds 3,779 graves. These brave soldiers consisted of Australian and Papuan forces from WWII.  We learned about one of the men, Joseph Croud, who was buried there. He was an Australian air force pilot who was killed in a tragic airplane accident in Port Moresby when his plane's engine stalled upon take off. He was in the process of taking off to fight in one of the many battles between the Australians and the Japanese.

The Bomana War Cemetery

After paying our respects to the fallen soldiers, we realized how hungry we were, so we stopped by at a nearby cafe, the Duffy Cafe. We ate steak, chicken wraps, and drank the best coffee. After eating a filling dinner, we decided to wind down for the night and go back to the hotel. We were all looking forward to the next day's adventures.