Overall, "Islands in the clouds" is a very good addition to the travel literature of New Guinea. Tree roams around New Guinea, including a sojourn over the border to West Papua, and has in abundance the type of amusing and revealing interactions that good examples of travel writing have.

Tree doesn't spend much time in Port Moresby, instead heading for remote provincial capital Wabag and surrounds. There is much humour in her interactions with the locals (such as the time a local tells Tree's guide to watch out for her as she was no doubt very clumsy; trust me, it's funnier than my poor attempt at explaining it) and some eye-opening moments, as when she heads into Indonesian-controlled West Papua with a Melanesian Papua New Guinea friend to find the local West Papuans astonished that a fellow black man was treated as an equal to whites.

While of course "Islands in the clouds" is somewhat dated by now, Tree's writing still comes across as fresh and is certainly a tome worth searching for. ( )