On Thursday, June 19, we had an early flight out of Cairns for Port Moresby – leaving at 6:45 AM, so we needed to be at the airport by 5 AM. Cindy had called the taxi company (Black and White) the night before, asking for a 4:30 pickup. Cindy and I were up before 4 AM after a fitful night of sleep, probably worrying about oversleeping, even though I had set the alarm. We got everything packed up, and at 4:30 started down the hill from our room to the Tree Tops office, and saw the taxi waiting for us. I had peeked around the corner a few minutes before and he wasn’t there, so I was duly impressed with the promptness of the taxi at that time of day. A quick ride with a very nice taxi driver to the airport, and we arrived at the international departures terminal by 4:40. The fare was about 21AUD, I gave him 25, nearly exhausting our Australian money supply.
Check-in didn’t start until 5 AM, so we sat and waited in the lovely terminal with a lady who had been 5 days from her home in Germany, and a PNG 
national with her child. The German lady was on her way to Goroka; I don’t recall the purpose of her trip. At 5 we checked in without problem; with the weight-shifting in our bags we were still under the 35-kilo limit. Interestingly, the exit through Australian customs was more difficult than our entry through customs into Australia. They couldn’t recognize Cindy’s asthma breath-measuring device, so she needed to unpack her carryon so they could examine it, and although my bags went through without needing to be unpacked, they called me aside and swabbed me and my computer bag for explosives, and frisked me. They were quite polite, so it wasn’t an unpleasant experience, just interesting, and we had plenty of time so there was no pressure.
national with her child. The German lady was on her way to Goroka; I don’t recall the purpose of her trip. At 5 we checked in without problem; with the weight-shifting in our bags we were still under the 35-kilo limit. Interestingly, the exit through Australian customs was more difficult than our entry through customs into Australia. They couldn’t recognize Cindy’s asthma breath-measuring device, so she needed to unpack her carryon so they could examine it, and although my bags went through without needing to be unpacked, they called me aside and swabbed me and my computer bag for explosives, and frisked me. They were quite polite, so it wasn’t an unpleasant experience, just interesting, and we had plenty of time so there was no pressure.We waited in the “International Passenger Lounge,” which had a number of shops and a snack bar. We got a bottle of water and ate a muffin I’d purchased the day before while we waited. As the time for the flight approached, the Australian lady who had checked us in at the counter showed up to announce boarding of our flight, to check our ID’s (again), and to direct us through a door onto the tarmac to walk the 100 yards or so to our small F100 Airlines PNG prop plane for the flight to POM.
The steward was a very nice young man, who welcomed us on board and gave us the standard safety briefing, and then we launched for a beautiful climb out of Cairns and over 
the Pacific Ocean. We read the Airlines PNG magazine, watch the reef-strewn waters below, and snacked on biscuits (cookies) and orange juice for the 2-hour flight over to Port Moresby, where a magnificent view of the city greeted us as we circled around for the west-to-east approach to the airport.
We entered the terminal and headed to the line through
Immigration. There were two lines here – one for folks like us who already had our visas, and another for folks who were applying for their entry visas upon arrival. I was surprised at how many people were in the line to apply for tourist visas upon entry, and also surprised that while our line was faster, the other line seemed to move fairly quickly as well. The wall of the airport in this area was beautifully decorated with PNG faces to enjoy while we waited the few minutes for our turn. I also noticed that there were no restrooms in this area. Through immigration and on to pick up our luggage to go thru customs. A couple of very nice young ladies asked us about our customs declarations and quickly cleared us through. Still no restrooms. As we entered the main terminal, I saw a national with a sign that said “Summer Institute of Linguistics.” I walked up to him and said “Luke?” He responded affirmatively, and we shook hands while I introduced Luke to Cindy. I then headed for what was apparently the only men’s bathroom in the International terminal. (Note: On the return trip, we discovered that there are additional restrooms upstairs in the very nice area outside the departure lounge.)
Immigration. There were two lines here – one for folks like us who already had our visas, and another for folks who were applying for their entry visas upon arrival. I was surprised at how many people were in the line to apply for tourist visas upon entry, and also surprised that while our line was faster, the other line seemed to move fairly quickly as well. The wall of the airport in this area was beautifully decorated with PNG faces to enjoy while we waited the few minutes for our turn. I also noticed that there were no restrooms in this area. Through immigration and on to pick up our luggage to go thru customs. A couple of very nice young ladies asked us about our customs declarations and quickly cleared us through. Still no restrooms. As we entered the main terminal, I saw a national with a sign that said “Summer Institute of Linguistics.” I walked up to him and said “Luke?” He responded affirmatively, and we shook hands while I introduced Luke to Cindy. I then headed for what was apparently the only men’s bathroom in the International terminal. (Note: On the return trip, we discovered that there are additional restrooms upstairs in the very nice area outside the departure lounge.)Luke led us out of the terminal to a waiting SIL bus, and we loaded our luggage and got inside. We drove over to another building on the airport, probably the SIL hangar/office, which I believe SIL shares with MAF. There we loaded more luggage and people who had arrived on an SIL flight from Ukarumpa, and then Luke took us on to the Mapang Missionary House, where we visited, had lunch, and waited for the time to return to the airport to catch our flight to Lae.
