Wahgi Valley Adventure Tours

The New Guinea Highlands, also known as the Central Range or Central Cordillera, are a chain of mountain ranges and intermountain river valleys, many of which support thriving agricultural communities, on the large island of New Guinea, which lies to the north of Australia. The highlands run generally east-west the length of the island, which is divided politically between Indonesia in the west and Papua New Guinea (PNG) in the east. Although some valleys such as the Wahgi Valley in the Western Highlands, Papua New Guinea are heavily cultivated and support urban settlements, most of the mountains have traditional tribal village communities in the grassy mountain valleys. The PNG Highland provinces are: Eastern Highlands Province, the most heavily-populated area of PNG; Simbu Province (or Chimbu), whose center is the small coffee-growing town of Kundiawa on the Waghi River near Mount Wilhelm; the Western Highlands; the rugged Enga Province, the home of the Enga people with its administration in the very small town of Wabag on the Lai River, and containing the large Porgera Gold Mine; and Southern Highlands Province, with its center in the small town and airport of Mendi, and containing the Huli wigmen area around the town of Tari. The Highlands Highway connects many of these towns. Larger urban areas in the PNG Highlands include the Western Highlands capital and PNG’s third largest city Mount Hagen (near the extinct Mount Hagen volcano), the Eastern Highlands capital and former colonial town of Goroka, and the mining town of Tabubil. The climate is humid as you would expect of the tropical rainforested island of New Guinea, but the higher mountain slopes are of course cooler than the lowlands.