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Discovering The Coral Triangle
An MSC World Cruise will take you to Papua New Guinea, large parts of which are still unexplored, at the southern tip of the so-called Coral Triangle , the name given to all the land between Southeast Asia and Australia.
Most of Papua New Guinea is mountainous and still covered by forests. Its largest city and the capital, Port Moresby , has just less than half a million inhabitants and half of the country’s population, just eight million people, is under 20 years old. In the inland regions there are communities that have no contact with modern civilisation and they rarely come into contact with the rest of the world.
The Papuan Peninsula extends towards Australia, remaining within the equatorial region, and is home to an impressive number of plant and animal species. Papua New Guinea is one of the few regions in the world where new species are still being discovered, despite the fact that the land is only protected by a few local national parks and reserves.
The natural wonders of this country include Tavurvur , an active stratovolcano on the shores of the Bismarck sea, the Trobriand Islands , Normanby Island with its marine protected areas, and the area of Cape Nelson , which has a unique topography similar to that of the Norwegian fjords.