Day 2 in Vanuatu

We awoke mid morning, amazed at how quiet everything was and how dark our unit was. The wooden shutters cut every bit of light out and as we discovered, We were only 1 unit or apartment of 10. I loved the emphasis put on some things in our place.  The owners were French, and as such good quality ground coffee was an essential addition to our kitchen.  Soap, however, was not.

The kids bedroom was enormous and sported a  large TV and DVD player - which proved to be a real asset over the next few days.  Our kitchen was on the landing. We sat on the side of a hill overlooking the bay. Directly below us was a small swimming pool and a jetty stretching out into the water. The private beach was small, but secluded and the hammock was never busy.. Bliss.

We gathered our wits and walked into the town centre. It was all down hill -  about twenty mins. We had plans to take canoes next time - but I’ll let you know how that venture went when we get there!

Very glad we came the extra day before - as Christmas Eve was a public holiday and shops and Markets were not open now for another 5 days. We mooched round Port looking at fresh food markets and delighting in different sounds and smells. 

As it was close to lunch we decided to check out one of the recommended cafes from the Lonely Planet. Jills Cafe was a bubble of peace in the madness of tourists and daily bustle of locals. It was an interesting mix of an American/mexican diner infused with the local islander flavours. Very cool, comfy and attentive service ( a big thing in Vanuatu.. believe me). We found that it had excellent prices for its food. Salad plate was 450 v ($4.50) and substantial enough for lunch. We all agreed it had the best icecream ever - especailly as two scoops was 200 v.  I opted for a brilliant home made flour torteas made into chips for a bean nachos yum. 

After lunch,  Lilly and I  headed over to the clothes market on the port and got our hair braided. It might be a bit touristy - but I did it so we didn't need to worry about washing and styling stringy hot hair for the humidity and heat and for the numerous times we climbed in and out of salt water. 3500 v for both of us. Not super cheap but I think worth it for saving of hassle. 

Morgan was not well and was very lethargic with a fever and sore tummy. He hadn’t been particularly well the day before - so I suspected he was coming down with a cold, rather than food poisoning or some tropical thing. The kids were awesome yesterday with all travel probs and we did arrive close to 2 am in the morning. So they can be excused for grumpiness  and tiredness to day.

We went back to the Markets and bought a bunch of fruit and salad veges.  I couldn't get over the strings of crabs they had for sale.  not that they were being sold - but wondering how on earth they strung them so close to each other - still alive.  I took plenty of photos of the market place.

We conceded that we needed to get a taxi ‘home’ and then spent time in pool and on the small beach. 

 Age took one of the kayaks out and saw lots of fish and coral on his travels. I lay in the hammock and read a trashy book. I am so exhausted I just cant be arsed to look at tours or plan anything apart from a cocktail hammock and book.

Although I thought I might feel differently the next day, both Age and I were completely burnt out and desperately just needed to sleep and do great mounds of nothing.

It is a very different holiday start than what I am normally like.  I’d done some resreach, but nothing to the extent of arranging tours or planning how to see all the sights by bus and public transport.  I just felt uninspired and hollow.

Dinner was awesome - the best bananas we’d ever eaten - ever. on  whim I bought a large tray of a sort of tropical  raspberry - which Lilly scoffed most of,  I have grown to like the red pawpaw and of course we had a huge string of coconuts - so had fresh coconut to munch on. Age made fantastic green smoothie from fresh lettuce from market( got a dozen baby ones on a string) pineapple and banana. 

Over dinner, Lilly announced she wants to move here.

Morgan and Age went down at the jetty after dinner and fished by torchlight. Apparently, the best bait is pawpaw. They got a few nibbles but nothing big enough to haul in.

Incredibly, I was in bed and asleep by 10. Unheard of.

Our journey starts

Originally, when we looked at dates to go to Vanuatu, we had planned to turn up on Christmas Eve and spend a week only.  I was extremely busy and stressed, so we decided, instead of me doing the flights and the whole itinerary thing, that I would take that stress away and get a travel agent to arrange everything. I’d been to a few and found one whom I had thought listened to what I was after.  Anyway - cut a long boring story short, I am a fussy ferret who is anal on details and it would seem no-one provides the information the way I like it and in the amount of detail I like it.. much less this poor lass. Little details like transfers and flight times were incorrect or left out.. but hey - who needs all that sort of certainty?

I’d had a niggling doubt as she was unable to find out if shops or food stores were open on Christmas Eve - so we opted to arrive a few days earlier. Just as well… the entire country shuts down 24th of dec till 28th and then for the new years eve thing too….ANYWAY - We had an early morning flight - so kids were so excited, they hardly slept the night before.  We trundled off in the rain to the airport and breathed a sigh of relief as our bags shuffled off and we waded our way through security.  Age must have looked dodgy as he had a spot check going in. We were up in the air for about an hour and a bit when the captain announced that we needed to return to Brisbane as we were having engineering issues.  Nothing to panic about as it didn’t impede our safety...yeah right.

After sitting round for ages, we were given meal vouchers - a sure sign of a very long wait. We wandered off to sit in more comfortable seating, when an announcement for our family to return came over.  Along with a few other families, we were being shunted off to Sydney to catch a late night flight to Vanuatu.  lost of buses and planes later, we lay around the Sydney airport - having been through security… again…. delighted to be handed a sheet from the airline to tell us that they were not responsible in feeding us on the plane and that we needed to bring things from the cafeteria with us. nice.

I have to say the kids were awesome. They followed instructions and were responsible for their own bags the entire time.  They kept good humour, even when things got a bit fraught and stressful.

So instead of getting to Port Villa at 2 pm, excited and refreshed, eager to go shopping and stock up our self catering cupboards and explore our surrounds; we staggered into a hot steamy wet and dark place at nearly 2 am.

Thomas, the security guard was very kind and over the next few days, we struck up a friendship with him, gaining some great insights and information from him.

Our villa was on a hillside, had air conditioning and could be blacked out completely from the early morning sun… perfect for our exhausted family to collapse in till very late the next day.

Vanuatu - the Adventure

About 8 months ago, when I started to get regular work as a teacher, I decided to keep a bit of my earnings at put it towards a  great holiday for us all.  Christmas is always a bit of a weird one for Age as his family is all over the place and as my side were all doing other stuff and not going to Dalveen ( for the first time in 20 years) - we decided to go overseas for the holiday season.

We had been to Vanuatu on the cruise ship and liked the idea of introducing the kids to a third world country which was relatively safe for all of us to wander about.  Our plan was to self cater and spend enough time to get a feel for the place and people; allowing the kids to see another side of life and culture.

It was wonderful that Frazer and family came for Christmas in Oz, and we were sorry to have missed spending the day with them - but have been blessed to spend some quality time before and after it with them.

Anyway - I am about to post up a few photos and a daily run down of our time in Vanuatu.

Sorry if you are getting all the posts about our holiday in Vanuatu higgledy piggledy datewise. I wrote the posts every day - sketched out really on my iphone - and am fleshing them out as I add in photos.

I'll be 'retrofitting' the dates - which is why you will get a bunch of them at the same time..