Sunday, April 18, 2010

NCD Botanical Garden's sorry state

6 years ago, it was the jewel of Port Moresby where city residents could enjoy nature at its door step. Under the former management it lured thousands of city residents including tourists. During one weekend of late April, I managed to take the family for a stroll and to my surprise it has gone down. I was obviously sadden at the state of which the animals were kept and wandered weather or not they would be better off in the wild or locked up in a confined area where less attention was given to them. The surrounding vegetations of flowers and grasses have overgrown and most of the wonderful flora and fauna had either died or where ignored. You obviously need professionals to manage this wonderful garden. The fish pond where fishes and waterlily once had the most attraction is nothing but a bare dry concrete slab in the middle of the garden. The green house that arched a portion of the garden is now a bush of overgrown plants growing in all direction.

This once magnificent garden where weddings, picnics, corporate functions where conducted has lost its shine and obviously it comes down to management of NCDC to do something about it or we’ll loose it again. There’s talk in town about something similar happening on the fringe of the city along the Hubert Murray Highway to Sogeri and it would sure be an attraction to many city folks.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Beautiful Alotau, Milne Bay Province

On a recent trip to Alotau in March 2010 for a scope work on an upcoming OLLIPAC Conference, I was amazed at how fast the town had developed. There are many noticeable development taking place within this once quiet town. Just at the end of 2009, the new jetty for small boats was completed at Sanderson Bay. In town a new bus stop has just been erected for commuters travelling up towards west towards Gurney and east towards East Cape as well as to the north coast . Major lodges and hotels have also expanded such as Alotau International Hotel completing a new state of the art air conditioned conference equipped with modern technology such as PA system for and a flat screen tv mounted onto the wall. Also eye catching is the improved waterfront build with a stone wall and filled with white sands. Masurina is also expanding by building a new modern conference which should be completed by July 2010. Having been around town for a couple of minutes and you would notice a lot of informal sector stalls setup. Though there are so many of them, one would realize that there is hardly any buai spit or stains painting this beautiful town. Goes to show how people respect authority and town laws. For Alotau.. A big thumbs up to the town authority and people of Alotau. Kaioni..