Day 6 in Vanuatu

Once again, outside of our little home of calm and airconditioning, Port Villa was stinking hot - in both senses of the term.  The kids had done well at Christmas with their snorkelling - though had kept hold of our hands as we swum along. Lilly had given up with her mask at one point and opted just to use goggles - which sort of defeated the purpose - but had been happy to keep dipping her head in and out. Adrian was keen to do a longer snorkel adventure and wanted both kids to be more proficient with their skills - so off to our pool to practice some thing they went. 

After a little while, they all got sick of seeing nothing at the bottom of the pool and as it was so hot and yuck, we got a taxi down to the docks to head on over to Iriki again.  We started our snorkel at the beach, getting both kids used to fins and deeper swimming. Our nemo fish were still there guarding their babies, but as we saw a big fish lurking around, we didn’t want to be responsible for distracting them while it ate the babies.. so swum off to look at other things. 

We wandered up to a more casual cafe on the island for lunch. A point needs to be made here about food outlets.. “whats one thing you never take with you when eating out at Port Villa?”…. answer - “ your appetite”…. basically because things can take hours.. and I mean hours to get served. Once again our search for fish and chips was dashed, as was a hope for a simple salad.  Just as well the local beer was cold and quickly served. 

We walked around to Snorkelers cove to test out the kids with deeper water and fins.  The tide was going out - so we had limited time. Lilly and I got lost in the gardens of coral and the beauty of all the tiny blue fish which floated around like flowers.  Both kids did really well with their gear and we sadly had to admit things were getting a bit hairy over the sharp coral before we headed in. 

That night, instead of doing our normal self catering, we took up a tip from the lonely planet and went to the Chinese place that overlooked the harbour - a very easy 4 min walk from our place. The first thing I’d have to say is that it took Adrian and I back 20 years - it was like the Chinese places we used to go to in the Valley - before things got all posh. The smells and steam from the kitchen, the alters and decorations - all delightfully unashamedly Chinese. 

One thing Adrian was keen to try was the famous coconut crab - which they had on the menu. I love crab - but its so fiddly, I often end up not bothering. However, this was a huge crab, full of the juiciest, most succulent meat ever.  I am not sure if I would go as far as saying it was better than lobster - but its a close second. 

We got home pretty late, but went down to the jetty again to enjoy the bay fireworks.  A real mix - with the calmness of being on the dark water, silent stars glittering overhead, and then be disrupted by a plum of colour as fireworks explode beside you.