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. The Japanese pulled their submarines up to the reef and then surfaced, allowing soldiers to walk off over the reef.
There is great snorkelling; the coral bed is flat and almost horizontal until it drops down the 75m vertical wall. To get here, catch PMV 6 from the central PMV stop opposite Rabaul’s new market on Malaguna Rd.
