LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Papua New Guinea: Port Moresby
built 647 days ago
Papua New Guinea's rugged terrain makes the construction of surface transportation extremely difficult. There are very few roads and no railroads. Of the roads that do exist, only 4 percent are paved. Air service provides important links with many areas. Air Niugini, the government-owned national airline, offers domestic and international connections. Port Moresby is the major airport and seaport.
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The first Europeans to sight New Guinea were probably the Portuguese and Spanish navigators sailing in the South Pacific in the early part of the 16th century. In 1526-27, Don Jorge de Meneses accidentally came upon the principal island and is credited with naming it "Papua," a Malay word for the frizzled quality of Melanesian hair. The term "New Guinea" was applied to the island in 1545 by a Spaniard, Íñigo Ortiz de Retes, because of a fancied resemblance between the islands' inhabitants and those found on the African Guinea coast. Although European navigators visited the islands and explored their coastlines for the next 170 years, little was known of the inhabitants until the late 19th century.
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A PAPUA New Guinean trekking porter has broken the record for crossing the Kokoda Track on foot, beating the record time he set last year. Brendan Buka, 23, ran the gruelling 96km track from Kokoda to Owers' Corner in 17 hours 20 minutes at the weekend. Last year he set a record of 17 hours 49 minutes, going in the opposite direction, on the track made famous by Australian diggers pitted against invading Japanese in World War II. Buka beat the previous Kokoda Challenge Race record of 22 hours 1 minute for the Kokoda to Owers' Corner crossing, set by trekker John Hunt Hiviki in 2005. Trekkers usually take six to nine days to complete the track, which crosses numerous steep ridges.
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The U.S. Embassy in Papua New Guinea is located on Douglas Street, Port Moresby (tel. 675-321-1455; fax 675-321-3423). The mailing address is 4240 Port Moresby Pl., U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC 20521-4240.
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Europeans had known about New Guinea since first sightings by Portuguese and Spanish navigators in 1512. But it was only in 1828 that the Dutch claimed sovereignty over the western part of the island. In 1884, Germany annexed northeastern New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago as ‘Kaiser Wilhemsland’. Four years later, the remaining eastern areas became a British colony. In 1914, Australia occupied German New Guinea, and from 1921 administered what had been the British and German sectors under a League of Nations mandate. In 1941 Japan occupied the north.
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New Guinea art is among the most prized of melanesian artifacts. PNG Arts has an enviable working knowledge of these products and offers a hassle-free service of shipping items back home inexpensively and safely. Don't pass through Port Moresby without stopping here for several hours.
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