September 19th, 2023 Holiday in Vanuatu

Off to a (for Nienke) well deserved holiday. Just below the wing top Mount Taranaki waving goodbye.

On the Pacific islands everything goes a bit slower. They call that 'island time'. Even the big screens on Auckland airport seemed to  understand that.

While standing in line to drop of our suitcases, we saw the female Cook island cricket team who were going to Vanuatu too. Their team doctor was literally as round as a skippy ball. I told Nienke that the diet she proposed for the team was probably not based on science. Turned out I was right.

Ah, we're there. The view from the deck of our holiday home at Matevulu lodge on the island of Espiritu Santo. A hammock hanging above the waves, two steps and you could swim. Just perfect.

Next day we kayaked up the river to the Riri blue hole.

A fresh water source. Clear water  pushed up through the lime stone bottom. Good temp too. 

So quiet in the jungle.

We met a couple from New Caledonia (French) at the blue hole and they made a picture of us kayaking with their drone. I think we should be on some kind of calender.

Almost back. You can see our 'home' already.

We were the only visitors at champagne beach, one of Santo's most popular (?) beaches.

Well, apart from the person who sold us fresh coconuts.

Had a lovely lunch at Port Olry. The roads in Vanuatu are all made by the Chinese. The asphalt was about 1 cm thick. Holes everywhere therefore. The result: 4WD cars, swerving from left to right.

We inspected a coconut oil factory. Many villagers had one of these along side the road. The coconuts are split and then cooked over a fire.

Fresh papaya's and bananas, yum!!!!!!

The next day we kayaked to Matevulu blue hole. At low tide, so against the flow of the river.

If it wasn't for this small spider we would have rested our aching muscles a bit longer there. Poisonous? We didn't stay long enough to find out.

A day later we had dinner at Turtle bay lodge. Completely forgot it was Friday, but the lovely owners just added a table at the sold out restaurant.

And how lucky we are. A group of villagers put up a show. The local teacher organised this to collect money for the school. It was like a mini Cirque du Soleil. Started of with american line dancing (???) an then a fire show as a bonus.

Not sure what this was, a dance class? Gym session? Unfortunately I just got cramp in my leg from the kayaking that day, otherwise I would have joined Nienke. Of course.

The next day we moved to Luganville, as that was closer to the airport. We stayed there for two more nights. Just our luck, the resort had a pool, and it was full of kids...... Deafening. Lesson learned. So we took off and went snorkelling at Million dollar point.

During the second world war american troops were staying on the island. They managed to sink their own ship, the SS Coolidge (damaged by an american mine).  It was lying to deep for us to visit. But Million dollar point is called after a dumping site. 

At the end of the war the americans offered the French all their equipment for a small price. The French said 'why would we pay, you're going to leave it anyway'. So, the yanks just dumped everything on the coral reef. Here you see a digger on it's side. By now, it has turned into a natural reef again.

Rusty remains on the beach everywhere. A a few locals have set up a restaurant for visitors like us. Having the choice between chicken or fish, we opted for a vegetable curry. Better safe than sorry.

The beach is still littered with broken coca cola bottles.

First we flew with Chatham air from Kapiti to Auckland, then with Solomon air to Vanuatu. Over there we flew with Air Vanuatu. We read a lot of bad messages on FB about these smaller operators, but we had no issues.

The view from our deck on Tanna island. Whale spotting time. I thought I had booked a two room apartment. Turned out it was a two bedroom apartment. With 6 beds in it. We could hardly move around.

We had chosen to support the locals and stay in the resort owned by a local tribe; Rocky Ridge. Definitely a different standard then the nearby Australian resorts, but it had it's charm.

And then the moment arrived. We were going to Mount Yasur, the active volcano on Tanna. Since we saw the very lovely movie Tanna I always wanted to go there. It was like visiting White island in New Zealand, but then extra large.

I made this little videoclip of our experience that day. It was soooooooo worth it, 'utterly amazing' does not describe it.

We both read six books during the holiday. Enjoying the last pages from Bill Brysons 'The body' (I can recommend that), while having lunch. Amazing cheese-tuna sandwiches made by Estelle.

The next day we went to the Blue cave. Made a short video of that as well. Have to say, Nienke was pretty brave. She did fear the dive. On the way back we saw three sperm whales breaching, one of them vertically. Beautiful sight, but too far away for pictures.

Right in front of our resort was the Blue cave 1 or 2 (the maps contradict each other a bit).  At low tide you could just jump in and swim in this natural aquarium.

Stunning colours. Unfortunately a lot of fish were off to the annual reef fish convention in Australia, I think. Actualy, they were too fast for me and my Go-pro.

It was like an under water garden.

The sun goes down pretty quickly, so there was this thing of getting out in time.

This is the view from our 'more primitive' resort during the day,

and that froom the restaurant of it's luxury neighbour 'White sands'.

The next day Tom drove us to an inland village. His great aunty was related to the chief, so we were welcome (just bring your wallet as well).

After the decorations we were shown how cooking a meal was done without our western tools. The lovely daughters or our guide, the teacher of the village, happily accompanied us. They made 'laplap' for us, the national dish of Vanuatu.

Laplap is prepared by grating breadfruit, bananas, taro or yam roots into a vegetable paste, which is then rolled into banana leaves and cooked on warm stones, under a layer of sand. It was actually very good we have to say.

The next activity was 'cava'. We had to drink cava (even on Fiji this was not our favourite). Learned there that the cava roots are normally chewed by the tribesmen before they make cava liquid out of it. Luckily covid has made an end to that, at least that's what they told us. As we actually did take a few sips of their cava it was time for a celebration dance.

That night we had dinner again with our newly made friends from Waihi. While waiting in line for immigration my eye fell on another Dutch passport, and so we met. Lovely people.

Our last island was Port Vila, locally called Efate, the main island of Vanuatu. This time I had booked a more luxury resort, as Nienke deserved the rest the week before she started her new job.

I think I kind of got it right with my choice. Breakas beach resort was just what we needed. Everything was good, from the large bed and outside shower, to the infinity pool and the happy hour with amazing cocktails. An Italian chef brought us real carpaccio and the best char grilled beef sirloin I've ever had before. On top of that we met a real nice Canadian-Namibian couple we had a good time with.

We hired a car and drove around the island. Ended up in a lovely resort for coffees, owned by an Australian lady and her mum. The Banana bay resort. We decided to stay for BBQ lunch. This might be the spot for our next visit to Vanuatu! We only had a couple more hours for the rest of the island.

Ended up on the other side of this utterly green island at Top Rock, an initiative of a local village. The rocks next to their village were amazing for snorkelling, so they exploited it in a great way.

Very funny signs as well.

As we read in the reviews, snorkelling here was pretty good.

But we also saw quite some damage from the past cyclones they had here.

A real good spot. From the deck of their little restaurant they had a good view on Nguna and Pele island. Islands we'll visit a next time.

A day later we visited the town. A very colourful market. Here the little restaurants. One 'mama' (or 'papa') makes you a private dinner.

It's is literally a family business.

Not a lot of highlights in Port Vila, but Nienke managed to find one anyway. The island bounty chocolate was great.

They did promise us entertainment every evening, but the first two evenings the entertainment was 'us'. Not a problem though. I hooked up my phone to the sound system and played the role of DJ. The last two nights we did have good music.

Sigh! In two days we'll be home again.......... We'll miss this, Vanuatu stole our hearts. Relatively unspoiled, really nice people, a great holiday experience.

Now this is what happens if you enjoy 'happy hour' too much. And this is also why I don't dance. Men can't/should not dance.

Yep, we're back home. But we almost did not make it. We had already boarded and the pilots tried to start the motors. It took a long time and finally the pilot said over the intercom that the left motor did not want to start, 'probably an unwilling valve, we'll send someone over with some lube'. Very reassuring. In the end they got it going with the help of some jumper leads. Makes you think..........
That's it, a long one, and you had to wait for it, but that's what 'island time' is.