Vanuatu Day 8 (nearly time to go)

 We woke to a beautiful day. Took ourselves off to breakfast to fill up for the day before our trip “Around the island”. We had actually done this tour the last time we had been here some 7 years ago, but we felt it was worth doing again…we were not to be disappointed.

 

We went to the front of the hotel to wait for our transport to arrive. There were always more than a few of us tourist milling about at this time of the morning as we all wait for various tour companies to come and pick us up and take us on our adventures.

 

That morning there was a family of French people, Mum, Dad and 2 wee girls. We knew they were French having shared a bus ride the day before with them into town and they were chatting amongst themselves as the bus driver took us in completely the wrong direction to town to drop off a local at the end of a dead end street, I think they had been a bit nervous by the detour. DJD and I were fascinated by seeing a part of Port Vila we had never seen before.

 

So where was I, oh that’s right waiting for the tour bus. The bus arrives and as it turns out the French family are about to enjoy our company for the day. Already on the bus was a NZ girl who was on a break from living on Tonga where she had been working for a few months. Starting to do the OE in the pacific region. There was a local Vanuatu lad and a German lad as our tour guides. The German lad spoke really good English but not very good French so the Vanuatu lad would talk to the French family and the German lad to us Kiwis.

 

Off we go….getting a run down of the Vanuatu landscape and history of the land and the flag. Then a detour to our right and in the middle of know where, so to speak, there is another resort and here we picked up two German woman. Bit of a shuffle around in the van and the German lad sat closer to the German women and the Vanuatu lad sat near the French family and we sat in ear shot of the Vanuatu lad…who had his eye on the young Kiwi girl as they started to play the flirting game…but more on that one later!

 

Back on the main road which was soon to run out of tarmac and onto a dirt road. If it rains too much you wouldn’t want to and I some how think they probably don’t, take this trip, we are once again ducking and diving all over the road to avoid the pot holes. In heavy rain it would just be a mud bath!

 

Suddenly off to the right we go again…this is new to us….down a track….we did wonder how a road could get worse but here we were bumping along a worn track wondering what the heck we were up to…and then they stop the van…we all get bundled out and they hand out the mosquito sprays!!!!! We apparently are going bush!!! and greeted by the local spiders!

 

 

What a wonderful diversion it turned out to be, they walked us single file into the jungle, ducking to miss the low growing branches and vines, mud starting to cake our shoes, feeling closed in as the jungle got thicker and then light ahead, a clearing and then out of nowhere springs a local tribes man in all his regalia challenging us with his spear. Grunting to question why we were walking in his territory, threatening us if we proceeded, signaling that we were entering a taboo place and had not been invited. It was fantastic!!!

 

Finally the acceptance of us and the blowing of the Conk shell and the removal of the fronds to allow us to enter the taboo area. This introduction to their lives and the lessons we learned had djd and I entranced, we could have stayed there all day and learnt from the man who was giving us the tour around. He was a lecturer at the Pacific College in Port Vila and he explained the tradition of his peo

ple so well, he set up this part of the tour for his village and it gives them an income but the worse part was that he had done the same set up for a hotel in Vanuatu many years ago, the Meridian, and once it was up and running well and making profits and becoming popular the hotel told him he was no longer required as they would run it themselves!!! How damn rude….and a loss to them as this man was so knowledgeable, so entertaining that he would have been the best thing their attraction had.

 

He told us of their huts and of the plants.

 

He talked to us about coconuts and how they use them for young babies whose mothers were having trouble breast feeding.

 

He told us of the past when missionary’s were eaten by the locals.

 

They walked us around and through very large trees!

They performed a dance for us to farewell us and then escorted us back to our van where they all helped us scrap the mud from our shoes before we piled back into the van to carry on around the island.

 

To visit Vanuatu to only see this would have been worth it.

 

So that’s the first hour, only 6 to go!!

 

(Just as well I write these trip entries for my records many a reader will have wondered off by now)

 

Next stop was for morning tea in a local park area. Beautiful peaceful area with the sea pounding on the shore and the white breaking waves in the distance over the sea reef.

The tour leaders cut up fruit and put out juice and water while we wondered around this ideal retreat.

 

More flirting to be seen, but whats this?? Flirting on the van with the Vanuatu lad and now walking the beach with the French lad…..there be trouble brewing here!!!

 

Back on the van, another bumpy hour up the road and we pull into another village where we get a refreshing mango drink and a talk of the local area and of the fish that they feed.

 

The wee French sisters obviously have some rivalry going on as one sister takes the bracelet of the other and gives it to a local boy who isn’t so sure of even wanting this gift as the sister who has lost the bracelets takes her gripe to her mother…which just goes to show it doesn’t matter what culture you come from rivalry amongst siblings is world wide.

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They then bundled us onto two canoes and paddled us up the river to our drop off point to pick up our van again.

 

DJD stayed to take piccies of us leaving, nothing to do with the fact that they warned us before getting into the canoes that they couldn’t promise that the canoe wouldn’t tip over!!!

 

Oh and the flirting girl…well when we were paddled up the river the two lads, along with djd and the driver moved the van to the pick up point. DJD says he was too busy yakking to the driver about different vegetation etc to notice any discussion between the lads but I certainly noticed the sulking of the Vanuatu lad and the distance of the German lad over lunch and for the rest of the day and also how the kiwi girl was shut down from both of them. Later she tried really hard to get the Vanuatu lad back onto her side, dropping huge hints about finding out about Kava and Kava bars (illegal in Vanuatu but everywhere) to saying where she would be having dinner later that day….all too late girl….you played a silly game of trying to chat both of them up and lost out. I love people watching

 

Back on the van and a quick trip up the road to our lunch stop. Once again it’s all prepared for us and another village involved in feeding us. Really nice food too and even a local bank playing in the background as we eat.

 

Lunch….another idealic spot, islands off in the distance and a beautiful blue sky and blue sea and heron.

 

Back in the van….another hour and half up the road, lots of interest facts along the way…the one that I remember the most is the village people who walk up a very high and long climbing hill everyday to go some 5km to tend to their vegetable crops and then walk back at night carrying the harvest….The van struggled on this hill let alone walking it and in the rain it would be a running river of mud….what a life.

 

We pass many roadside stalls selling American glass coke bottles. The Americans used the islands of Vanuatu as a retreat for their ships during WW2 and over this time they had Coca Cola at the island and after the war there were some American companies that mined the area, all gone now except for the bottles which the locals sell at the side of the road.

 

Afternoon tea was at Havana Harbour where we had taken a day trip across to Lelepa Island a couple of days ago. We stopped at somebody’s house and they came out to greet us along with the ever welcoming dog who the little girls were none to happy to see, so poor old pouch was tied up immediately.

 

The couple were really interesting, he was an Australian who had married a local. They owned land and had it subdivided and sold it off, it apparently took them many years to sell the land and now they regret selling it as it has trebled in price in the last 2 years.

 

Beautiful setting…..we could easily buy land here.

 

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Back in the van and home ward bound. Its been a long and wonderful day, the memories we will treasure forever.

 

Tomorrow we go to see the sharks and turtles and pack to come home…our last snorkeling experience and mad rush to up a hill to catch the last sunset we will see over Vanuatu sadly for quite some time.

 

I so wish I had kept the diary going for the last few days instead of having to rely on my memory….which suffers far too many senior moments!!

Till next time….where it all ends