Vanuatu .... Aaaaaah.....

With Maddy settled in well on exchange in Canada we decided a short, relaxing break was in order - for just the two of us !! Despite Maddy's grumbles we decided to go somewhere new and we picked Vanuatu. It proved a great choice .....

And a delayed flight and a night in Sydney, a missed massage, a minor dose of the 'red-hots', and the attack of the killer fleas could not diminish the simple pleasures of being on holiday in such a laid-backed place full of the friendliest and happiest (apparently..) people on earth.

Here (left) is a miraculously good shot of both of us taken with Bernie's iPad at breakfast one day. We stayed at Poppy's On The Lagoon which was really nice, quiet and friendly, We were able to book all our tours easily from there and it is just a 10 minute walk over the hill to Port Vila town centre.

 The view from our room up the 42 steps from the main resort area.

 Looking south along the lagoon....

 Bernadette amongst the exhibits at the National Museum, Port Vila ....

 The Roman Catholic Cathedral overlooks Port Vila...

We bought lunch at the back of the main fruit&veg market in PV one day - two excellent, freshly prepared hot dishes and a drink of fresh lemon juice each for about $10, prepared by Esther. This is where the locals get real food.

The main market building is really stylish, built by the French for the people of Vanuatu.

Here is a view back towards the lagoon, with Port Vila beyond, from a high point on the road to Lololima Falls - note the enormous cruise sip in the main harbour .... Poppy's can be seen just below and to the right of the boat on the far shore of the nearest stretch of water.

On the plateau above Port Vila there is an old plane spotter's hut from WWII. Access to Lololima Falls is through private property run as a Catholic boys boarding school. They farm and run cattle and the boys only head home for one month per year.

Lololima Falls drop through a limestone escarpment and are fed by warm volcanic spring water.

Pascal from Vanuatu Ecotours leads you upstream through caves and clear pools flanked by lush tropical jungle - no bugs or bities of any kind.



After climbing, walking and wading upstream for perhaps a kilometre or so we looped back via a nearby access road to the base of the falls and swung out on a rope to drop into the swimming pool at the bottom.


Pascal is a local dynamo, a frenchman who has been in Vanuatu for many years and runs tours, is on the Tourism Board and ploughs resources back into the local economy, supporting many local causes to assist the Ni-Vanuatu.

 Our man in Port Vila ...

The view from the deckchairs on the lagoon at Poppy's - tough work but someone has to do it !!

Our new 'friend' at the Ekasup Village feast night we attended across the lagoon, kava was drunk, food was eaten and dancing took place ...no really !

We did a couple of tours with Vanuatu Ecotours and heartily recommend them.

 A nice tropical flower (Hibiscus ??) in the gardens at Poppy's...

 At the Blue Lagoon on our lap of the island tour with Melanesian Tours ...

 How do they weave all those things from plants ....? Bernadette attempts to make some sense of it.

 Jeffrey the bus driver and Frank our guide from Melanesian Tours, on the road to Eton Beach.

 At Eton Beach ...

 ...again...

 Frank wields the machete to demonstrate what happens to coconuts that fall from the trees ...

 ...we get fresh coconut juice to drink and flesh to eat, that's what !

We toured a local village on our tour. This one had about 500 residents, 7 churches and a system of chiefs who manage everything from cultural affairs, family disputes and schooling to water supply and rubbish removal. It all works very effectively.

It's OK, I didn't sing ...

 ... but these guys did ! Daniel and the kids from Ekonak Primary School, attached to the village.

Just a little further up the east coast we took a short river cruise and had a snack - OK so it's not QE2 ...

 ...but it;s not Titanic either - Jeffrey helps out on the paddle as we cruise on the dugout canoe ... thingy ...

And after that ...more food !! The locals have vast gardens around their villages and produce lots of traditionally prepared meals they cook on open fires or coals, with the food chopped, prepared and wrapped in banana leaves. The dishes are then served on fresh green leaves and simply eaten with the hands.

There is certainly an abundance of healthy fresh food available in the traditional village setup, with about 85% of the Ni-Vanuatu living this way.

This place on Havana Bay has hundreds of WWII bottles and bits and pieces of planes etc. Apparently the bay here held over 200 ships at the height of WWII and there was a US Airfield nearby where some of the 200,000 (!) troops of the US Pacific Force were stationed.

The main feature of this vast collection are the CocaCola bottles stamped with the name of the plant in the USA at which they were produced. just ashort stop but fascinating nonetheless.




At 'Survivor - Vanuatu' beach on the north coast of Efate .... no further comment required.

 We stopped for a kava on the way back into Port Vila after a great day on the bus around the island...

 'The Last Flight Kava Bar' was pretty busy when we dropped in.

Here's Pascal from Vanuatu Ecotours dishing up a snack after our kayaking tour... He owns this property on the river from where he leads very relaxing canoe tours.

Mike tries a 'selfie' in the gardens at Pascal's place.








Pascal again on the short bike tour I did with him on the second last day.

 We even tried the local Tusker beer at the Poppy's Island Feast Night .... it was... well, beer-y. Still prefer wine so ...

...we had a bottle of French on our balcony on the last evening before returning home.