Kimbe Bay's Zero Wreck

The Zero wreck sits serenely in its final resting place in Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea


Text & Photo by Don Silcock

As the story is told around the bar at Walindi, the day the wreck of the Zero fighter was found was soon after a small plane had crashed on take-off from Hoskins Airport at Kimbe Bay. So, when local villager, William Nui, saw the wreck lay- ing on the sandy sea floor,
he thought he had found the wreckage of the recent crash— not that of a WWII Japanese fighter plane that had remain undisturbed for nearly 60 years!

That the wreck was actually spotted in the first place is an interesting story in itself, because William was freediving for sea cucumbers at the time and noticed what seemed to be a large shadow on the sea bed.

Like many people in Papua New Guinea (PNG), William is very supersti- tious and thought that he was looking at a ghost lying face up with its arms out- stretched, soaking up the sun. Terrifiedhe shot to the surface and to the rela- tive safety of his canoe, eventually sum- moning up enough courage to go back down to take a closer look, realizing that it was actually the wreck of a plane rath- er than some demon of the deep.

Theo's flash-back of 2009 Karkar Awareness

Karkar Island awaits peacefully...

On the clear bright morning of Friday 8th May 2009 twelve of us, all 3rd year degree tourism and hospitality management students of Divine Word University, were on the ‘Elly 2' to Karkar Island.

Lynda, Ruby and Lissendra Wongoto with Elizabeth Goodyear at for  back. Girls on Elly 2 really  taking a pose with cool sunnies getting pumped up to visit Karkar Island.

The ‘Elly 2' is a 23 feet and 225 horse powered speed boat owned by the Goodyear family. 3rd year student Graham Paulus from the highlands and I stood at the boat's bow, thrilled with excitement as our boat soared over the waves aimed towards the island.