For a picnic spot, nothing can beat the Submarine Base at Tavui Point. The Japanese used to provision submarines here during the war. There are tunnel and rail track remnants below and guns and relics in the hills above, but it was a ‘base’ in so far as the Japanese pulled their submarines up to the vertical wall and then surfaced, allowing soldiers to walk off over the reef. This site also makes for a wonderful snorkelling spot; the coral bed is flat and almost horizontal until it drops down a 75m vertical reef wall. To get there, catch PMV 6 from the central PMV stop opposite Rabaul’s new market on Malaguna Rd.
