Tari Basin

Tari Basin is a region in the Southern Highlands. The only city located here is Tari where there is an airstrip, trade stores, and a few lodgings.

This is the best place for birdwatching and for experiencing the culture of the Huli Wigmen.

Get in

There are frequent PMVs between Mendi and Tari. Warili Lodge and Ambua Lodge sit on the edge of the valley. You will drive by them just as you enter the valley.

To get from the lodges to Tari, you can either wait for a PMV or walk along the road to Tari for about an hour to where the local haul PMVs from Tari frequently run.

Do

• Birdwatching at Warili Lodge or Ambua Lodge.

• Visit the Huli Wigmen villages in the valley.

• Lumaria Guesthouse

About an hours walk into the hills surrounding Tari. Ask for Peter Hariwa at the Women's Guesthouse in Tari or contact Peter directly. He will meet you in at the Women's Guesthouse or Tari airstrip and walk you to his village.

Telephone: 00675 6382502

Address:

P.O. Box 63 Tari/Southern Highlands Province Papua New Guinea

Sleep

Budget

• Women's Guesthouse, Tari (Tari is tiny so just ask the locals to point you the right way). Contains perhaps 20 beds in 4 bedroom rooms. Water and electricity are off and on. Has a small stove. Surrounded by fence and protected by guard. Good place to get info on visiting local villages and experiencing the Wigmen culture. 
• Warili Lodge. A stones throw down the road from Ambua Lodge is the more rustic Warili Lodge that is run by locals, is only $20/night, and offers birdwatching as good as, or better, than what is offered at Ambua Lodge. 

Splurge

• 1 Ambua Lodge. There is a very expensive lodge ($200/night!) that sits on the edge of Tari basin called Ambua Lodge that is run by Australians. This lodge is "an inspired mixture of local architecture, spectacular views and modest luxury off the beaten track." It is in the Tari Gap 2100 metres in the PNG Southern Highlands, which is the homeland of the Huli clan with their human hair wigs adorned with colourful flowers. It borders on the mid-montane rain forest and grasslands which gives a spring feeling all year round. This lodge won the 1991 Pacific Asia Travel Association's Pacific Heritage Award which cited due to its "superb example of culturally sensitive and ecological responsible tourism."