Adventures in Vanuatu!

Life's been a bit busy lately and needless to say I'm a bit behind in my blog updates. This post is from a trip Andrew and I took back in April to the beautiful Island nation of Vanuatu. No idea where it is? I didn't either when Andrew first mentioned it... all I knew was that Survivor (love it!) was filmed there a few seasons back! Click here to see where it is on the map. It's not far from the East cost of Australia and Andrew came home one afternoon from work and told me he'd booked us tickets for a trip. Surprise! As far as surprises go, this is a pretty good one. :) We ended up going with a friend of Andrew's from work, Paul, and his wife Stella who were also looking for a bit of a break. Here's pictures of our place! We didn't have any AC which isn't normally a problem... however... the first few days were incredibly rainy and it is very hot in Vanuatu which meant that humidity was incredibly high... nothing dried even when we laid it out under the ceiling fan! The little guy in the last picture was a visitor outside our screen door the first night. I'm just glad the door was closed!

 

The first few days we actually had to stay mostly in doors because of torrential rain. We read a lot and dashed up to the main dining room for lots of toasted coconut. Yummy! This is what we were up against with the weather.

 There was a small break in the weather a few days into our trip so we ventured out for a beautiful short hike to a section of waterfalls. And by short hike I mean stroll through a dirt path and some steep stairs and across bits of river... I was in sandals and a dress so it can't really be classified as a hike. Ha. The falls were gorgeous and you can actually hike up and through them. I was a bit nervous as I had my camera but it made it out OK. On the way back we got stuck out in more torrential rain and the camera got soaked and was not happy about it and decided to shut down for a few days (which was made harder by the fact that it couldn't dry out properly due to the humidity!) The "hike" was worth it though. I've never climbed up a waterfall before. :) Pretty cool experience!

 

 

 

We finally got some sun the next day and decided to drive around the island. We stopped at Blue Lagoon which was gorgeous and jumped in for a swim. Stella and I stayed in the water but the boys jumped off the rope swing a few times. To put it nicely, they were only slightly less than stellar compared to the locals at the rope swing. They gave it a go though - good on ya Andrew and Paul!

We also stopped at a WWII museum where they had uncovered some cool WWII relics. Andrew and Paul went snorkelling at a submerged WWII fighter plane while Stella and I stayed and talked to one of the local girls who worked at the museum. 

 

The next day we went on the Coongoola Day Cruise boat tour around the islands on the boat that was used to "shipwreck" the survivors on Survivor. There was snorkelling and lounging on the beach and a delicious BBQ and we even stopped at a neighbouring island to see a turtle sanctuary. There was some really pretty skies on the way back, even a rainbow!

 

 

On our final day we lounged around a bit and the boys had a final snorkel at a neighbouring beach. They brought some bread with them to feed the fish (you can see how many fish must have been hungry, look how many are surrounding Andrew in the picture!) and then went back to the same beach later that night for a local dinner. There was some local entertainment (i.e. super cute kids who sang and danced for us) and we all got to try Kava and coconut milk and traditional Vanuatu food. It was a great way to end a lovely getaway.

 

 

 

I wish we could have stayed longer but at the same time, I was already counting down the days until my next trip which was USA and the arrival of my new nephew! Thanks Andrew for a wonderful vacation to somewhere new!