There’s always a burst of sunshine when Paradise magazine arrives in the post. I have written for the magazine for many years – there was a little hiatus during COVID, but it was one of the few magazines that bounced back with a print edition, which goes into seatbacks on its flights around Asia Pacific four times a year. Paradise is, actually, PNG’s most widely read magazine.

In this edition of Air Nuigini’s inflight magazine, I interviewed curator Dr Gregory Bablis about finding, retrieving and restoring WWI and WWII aircraft from PNG’s jungles. With care and dedication, the aircraft are now displayed in their forever home, the new Aviation Heritage Centre in the capital, Port Moresby.

Take a look at this photo of Dr Bablis, standing beside the shell of this Ford Trimotor, dubbed the Tin Goose. Just this one aircraft has a story that spans continents, from luxury flights across Europe to flying along PNG’s Kokoda Track in wartime.  

The Aviation Heritage Centre’s other great drawcard is a Douglas A-20 Havoc bomber nicknamed the Hell’n Pelican II. It crashed in the jungles of Madang Province in PNG, and lay undisturbed for three decades before it was retrieved and sent to Australia to be restored by the Royal Australian Defence Force. 

Initially built by the Douglas Aircraft Company in Long Beach, California, it entered service on the Pacific Front during WWII.

Also, popular PNG chef Julz Henao teamed up with TSI actor Aaron Fa’Aoso for a celebration of the food, language and culture that ties PNG with Australia in the miniseries Kin & Kai, supported by the Australian High Commission Papua New Guinea.

Two things that never fail to surprise me about PNG’s relationship with Australia:

1. PNG was an Australian colony – imagine! We were always the colonised, not the coloniser. We were the underdog. Not in this show.

2. Only 4 kilometres of sea separate Australia and PNG at their closest point, in the Torres Strait. Incredible.

That second point is why the Australian High Commission in PNG commissioned a new miniseries called Kin & Kai, using a PNG chef and an Australian actor from the Torres Strait.

Together, PNG celebrity chef Julz Henao and Aaron Fa’Aoso, a Torres Strait Islander actor, filmed Kin and Kai. The miniseries was produced by Aaron’s production company, Lonestar Entertainment Company, for the Australian High Commission’s Yumi Stap Wantaim (We Stand Together) campaign, which celebrates the cultural bonds that tie PNG and Australia after 50 years of PNG’s independence, which the country celebrated in 2025.

Through the five episodes of Kin and Kai, the two men find they have a lot in common, including cooking in earth ovens – mumus here in this part of PNG, amai or kupmari in the Torres Strait, even further afield, hangi in New Zealand and lovo in Fiji.

“Because Aaron is from Thursday Island, it was an easy match,” says Julz. “TI and PNG share lots of similarities and culture, and even some words in the local dialect. And geographically, it’s just across the water. There’s a lot of trade going back and forth, the people look the same, so I think, holistically, it’s just worked.”

Click here to read the current edition of Paradise magazine.

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To watch the miniseries, visit yumistapwantaim.com/kin-and-kai/

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