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Papua New Guinea Papua New GuineaVolcanic island

Goodenough Island

707 km² rising to 2,536 m out of the Solomon Sea.

When to go

Goodenough Island seen from space, cut out from the sea (Sentinel-2)
N 5 km

Satellite: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX (CC BY 4.0). Outline and points © OpenStreetMap contributors / Natural Earth. North up.

In numbers

707km²

Area

136km

Coastline

2,536m

Highest point

Mount Vineuo

19,625

People

30°C

Warmest sea

January

796km

To the mainland

When to go to Goodenough Island

Best for the beach from January to March and from August to September.

The sea is warmest in January (30 °C) and coolest in August (27 °C). You can swim comfortably all year (21 °C or more).

Sea temperature (the water level) Air: night low to afternoon high Wet days Best months

Averages 1991–2020. Sea: NOAA OISST, the water within 35 km of the coast. Air, rain and sun: NASA POWER. Best months weigh warm afternoons (23–30 °C), sea of 24 °C or more and few wet days.

Island in Papua New Guinea

Goodenough Island is an volcanic island in Papua New Guinea. It covers 707 km², with 136 km of coastline. Its highest point, Mount Vineuo, rises to 2,536 m. About 19,625 people live on it. The nearest mainland is 796 km away.

Read more on Wikipedia

Getting there

  • Gurney Airport (GUR)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 105 km in a straight line
  • 796 km from the mainlanddistance to the nearest continental coast
  • From January to March and from August to Septemberbest months to go (from 30 years of averages)

Plan the trip

Ferries, stays and things to do

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

On the island

What you find on Goodenough Island.

  • 4named peaksMount Vineuo, Mount Oiava-Ai, Wakala Hill and 1 more

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, inside the island's outline. A low number may only mean nobody has mapped it yet.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Goodenough Island in our other atlases

Everything Coastya, Peakyas, Lakeyas and Cascadyas know about what lies inside Goodenough Island, each with its own numbers.

  • 1mountainPeakyas
  • Highest point

    2,536m

    Mount Vineuo

    prominence 2,536 m · according to Peakyas

1 mountains

on Peakyas, the mountain atlas

  1. Mount Vineuoprominence 2,536 m2,536m

Open Peakyas ↗

The shape of the land.

On average the island stands 494 m above the sea. 47 % of it is below 200 m.

  • 28 %0–50 m
  • 19 %50–200 m
  • 17 %200–500 m
  • 16 %500–1,000 m
  • 18 %1,000–2,000 m
  • 2 %> 2,000 m

Share of the island's area in each altitude band, from the Copernicus DEM (30 m, read at 30–240 m on large islands).

Size, for real

Next to islands you may know.

Goodenough Island707 km²
Madeira Island742 km²
Tenerife2,038 km²

20 km

All outlines drawn to the same scale (Natural Earth and OpenStreetMap).

Month by month

The weather on the island.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Afternoon high (°C)292828282828272728282930
Night low (°C)272727272626252425262627
Sea (°C)303030292928272727282929
Rain (mm)255221296180163172110106127116130129
Wet days262526222119161414161620
Sun h/day5.95.95.65.95.95.15.86.66.37.37.17.4
Wind (km/h)99910131517161513119

Averages 1991–2020 for the ~55 km NASA POWER cell over the island; the sea from NOAA OISST.

Recent years

Warmer and cooler years at sea.

Each month's sea temperature compared with its 1991–2020 average, in degrees.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
2020+0.1±0.0+0.4+0.1+0.7+0.5+0.6+0.9+0.6+0.6+0.5+0.6
2021+0.8+0.7+0.9+0.7+0.7+0.8+1.2+1.3+1.3+1.6+1.4+1.0
2022+0.2+0.2+0.7+0.9+1.7+2.1+2.4+2.4+2.7+2.4+2.0+1.3
2023+0.6+0.4+0.8+1.1+1.4+0.9+1.1+0.5+0.1−0.2−0.6−0.1
2024+0.8+0.4+0.6+0.9+0.4+0.5+0.7+0.8+0.9+0.8+0.7+0.8
2025+1.1+0.8+0.9+0.8+1.6+1.4+1.4+1.6+1.3+1.1+1.1+0.7

+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual

About these numbers

Names, area, populationWikidata (Q616107) · CC0
Outline© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
Sea temperatureNOAA OISST v2.1 · 1991–2020
ClimateNASA POWER · 1991–2020
Relief, 3D modelCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Beaches, ports, lighthouses, trails© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
TownsGeoNames · CC BY 4.0
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Beaches, mountains, lakes and waterfallsPeakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.

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riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.Visit canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Visit