Last blog

We've had our last tropical breakfast outside and I'm almost packed... Our last breakfast wasn't quite a relaxed as normal due to one of the lovely women here telling us she'd phoned the airport and there were no flights to NZ today.... There is one though (whew). Last photos from balcony. Off to airport in an hour.

Blooper blog

#1: The sign at the Summit gardens for us said quite a lot! We (personally, as if our views count…) think that the shopping centres currently under development won’t add to the place and renewing what is already wonderful and already here is probably a start. And maybe doing something about the many half-built and deserted buildings would help (finish them or get rid of them).
#2: Being the childish people that we are, we couldn’t help but see the national symbol painted on boxes at every roundabout as the “stick and berries”.
#3: When we stopped at the seats in the waterfall during our second trip around the island it was the first time we weren’t approached by locals for money, even though we saw the sign as to how much it cost. Slightly curious, we had our lunch and then left the money on the way out – left it next to the man’s shorts and keys that he’d left behind (what he was doing in the bushes with no pants on we decided not to dwell on…)

Phil's boopers

#1: Driving on the right side of the road (quite literally) was occasionally forgotten… and we had a couple of near misses.
#2: A GIANT  (apparently…) bug flew in the car window while we were driving and Philip whacked off his sunglasses – OUT THE WINDOW – in a hissy fit while swatting the bug (he did find them – the sunglasses that is J ).
#3: Philip had a cigarette on the balcony in his underpants! I snapped him on the way back in!
#4: Philip got shat on by a lizard (was on the roof of the balcony – me and the lizard thought it was particularly funny!...).
#5: Philip looking sozzled at the café when we went out but it was actually just the flash  making him look like that (s’tru sofficer, s’ust the flash zin meyes…).

Sonya's bloopers

#1: “The scream” picture was me for the first 24 hours – and especially when we first hired a car, when I saw the blister on my foot (see below), when my glasses broke (again see below…) and when we lost access to the internet for 12 hours… J
#2: Didn’t bring walking sandals and walked 8kms in jandals… got 2 blood blisters and the world’s biggest blister under my toe!!! We couldn’t buy a needle to pop it and ended up buying a maths set (for the pointy compass) at a store down the road – needless to say the blister popped on the walk home… I couldn’t walk properly for 2 days and had to wrap up my toe and wear sneakers – hence some photos of me at the beach not in bare feet!
#3: I brought white shorts – what on earth was I thinking?! Not the place for white, you look like a dickey tourist and completely impractical.
#4: In the middle of having an angst ridden moment about not being able to access the internet – we lost access here and went out for dinner and it said “free access” only nothing really worked properly – the “lovely” man at the café plonked a lizard on my shoulder (fundraising for the local school). I said in my most demure and polite voice “I DON’T WANT A LIZARD ON MY SHOULDER” but was ignored, so managed to pull out the best winning smile I could manage… ahem….
#5: My glasses broke – I kid you not! Not my sunglasses, my “I’ve got to go to work on Monday and look normal” glasses (sigh). They’re currently being held together by, um, nothing. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep pushing the arm back in until we get home…  

university

We went for one last walk up the road to check out the university (well, that particular campus of the University of the South Pacific - the building in the photo below isn't the uni...). In the photo of me by the sign I was being forced to say "I'm so sorry I dragged you up the hill in the humidity"... :-) Is very humid and rainy today. We've been really lucky with the weather as this has definitely been the worst day. My hair has turned super wooly mammoth! (sigh).
We stopped off at a chicken shop on the way back - KFC no less. We thought it was a local joint pretending to be a KFC but it was the real deal (run by some local Asian lads).
The other photo is of a school gymnasium type place. There isn't a school just here but there are sports grounds and there were loads of school children outside and we could hear them all inside playing some game. One of the incredible things about this place is that buildings can be in the worst condition and still lived in/used.
And that's about it really. Tomorrow we're off. One more blog to go (tomorrow morning): The Blooper Blog.

Brief kayak adventure

We have free use of the "resorts" kayaks and finally got around to using them today. The lagoon is really wide although not that deep. The rain came so we abandoned the kayaking (that and I confirmed my suspicious about my pathetically weak arms...). We might go for a wander later and look at the university. Very unglamorous photo of me below but is an actual action shot (I got accused of posing would you believe... :-) ) and a shot of the resort from the other side of the lagoon.

Mellowing

Today we are relaxing and mellowing out. We drove into town about 8.30am this morning and went to the supermarket and the markets in town. Then we returned the car to the hire place and got a lift back here.
The photo of the Fiddle Faddles is there because it's funny... and because that's what the last day is often like... The yellow shop is there for Tania :-) We went inside yesterday and it's completely lost in the 1950s and Philip said he was pretty sure it was there when you guys lived here.
The other photos are of me being bamboozled at the tourist market, the food market, the view down the driveway here and Philip relaxing while our room was cleaned (room service, how I will miss you!)

Shopping

We officially SUCK at shopping. But I suspect we knew that already. The markets are great in town. Although it is sometimes hard to determine what is made here and what is made in China. Some items are definitely made here and I heard a sewing machine in use at the markets - it was unfortunately behind some curtains - I was very tempted to say "what are you sewing because I'll definitely buy that!". Some items we can also buy back home too, but then we thought maybe people come to places like this, buy loads of stuff, then have their market stall in Coromandel and sell it off (because we saw the exact same dress Georgia bought 2 years ago).
This time we also chose to go up some side streets to see where they took us - turned out that was nowhere in particular. Most shops here are like Coin Saver (and the $2 Shop). And although people here are amazing in that they'll always notice if you're trying to cross the road in a stupid spot (ahem) or trying to pull out on a busy road and be helpful, it also feels like there are loads of "no go zones" like anywhere tourists don't usually go. The town is right on the coast though, which is of course insanely beautiful :-)

Random

Here are two random pictures. Both taken while driving around Port Vila. One is of my favourite supermarket complex. There are shops at one end (fully in use) while the other end of the building is still being built! The other photo is of the truck that was in front of us on the way to the café yesterday evening.

Back around the island

We decided to drive around the island again (seeing as we had the ute for an extra day). We went the opposite way round this time and it was great seeing the views we missed last time and seeing all the amazing things again. It usually feels like you're driving through the jungle and when the sun is shining the water is the most amazing turquoise colour. It's incredible. We stopped at a waterfall for lunch. The seats were in the water. I'm not sure whether that's a local custom or something designed with the intention of pleasing the "crazy white people". But it was very cool (it worked if it was the latter!).

Another beautiful spot

Yet another beautiful spot. Oh no, please stop, they're hurting my eyes... :-)  We stopped at one place to check out the beach. There was a van full of other people there too and they basically moved from their spot to right where we were and didn't particularly seem to want us around. Anyhoo, so we headed off and found some random stairs leading down to the beach. Totally amazing.

Back to the beautiful beach

We have the car for one more day! Woohoo! We went back to the beautiful beach this morning. In fact we went there again last night for dinner... There is an amazing café right on the beach which has deck chairs out the front. I thought it was a bit too touristy but apparently I was being boring... :-) The café is right next to a school. (Photo below of beach and school).

Cafe

We went to the Tanna coffee café yesterday afternoon (after the Summit gardens). World's best coffee! Tanna coffee is made on Tanna Island and it's superb. One photo is as we were heading away from the Summit (ultra step drive!) and the other is of plants as we were heading out (ok, so that seemed interesting at the time...).
This morning there was an earthquake. It felt big to us but nobody here was worried. Off to see if we can have the car for one more day...

Summit2

The internet is back! Woohoo! Here are the photos from the Summit from yesterday. Sorry about the sideways photos again... :-) And OMG I'm actually smiling!

Summit gardens

After the beautiful beach we went to the Summit Gardens. Seriously amazing tropical gardens/plants. Owned by Australians and managed by locals. They also run their own natural cosmetics, oils and soaps, all made onsite and most of the ingredients grown there (like Sandalwood). Was really cool, what more can I say :-) Internet down! Taking forever to load anything. Will add the rest later.

Beautiful beach

We discovered the most amazing beach this morning! And we didn't have to pay anyone and it was safe to park (on account of there being loads of "taxi" vans there too). We usually just park wherever, but the ute does usually get circled by at least one person which usually means we don't like to go too far from it. The beach was absolutely gorgeous. Lots of Aussies there - clearly the place where the tourists from the ship go. Hideaway Island is just off the coast here and we could have walked across the water to it (as it were...) as the tide was out. We're thinking of going back tomorrow morning, so might do that then. Sorry about photo beng sideways...

Port Vila in morning

This morning we headed off into town. We checked out the markets. Really warm and sunny. When the sun comes out, the amazing tropical colours come out too! Incredible! Then we drove around some parts of Port Vila we hadn't been to (amazing that there were some! :-) ). First photo is in Port Vila looking across the water and the second shot is over the other side looking back towards town. A cruise ship is here again, so lots of white people in town today.

Movie night and view

Movie night again last night :-) The other photos are an attempt to capture the view from bed in the mornings. I'm soaking it up while I can :-) We're thinking about what to go and do today - this is the last full day we'll have the ute. We might see if the tropical gardens still exist and if we can sneak back to one of the glorious beaches we found yesterday.

Home again home again jiggedy jig

"Jiggedy jig" is pretty much a literal thing given all the pot holes (if that can be literal, it somehow feels literal...). Travelling around the island was great because the roads are really smooth (due to the lack of traffic probably). Pedestrians in the middle nowhere are the main road hazard. The other odd thing we've noticed is that nobody uses electricity inside here - no-one turns the light on. To be fair, life seems to mostly take place outside (markets are of course outside and so are cafes and restaurants - which are few and far between, but still, just saying...). The only time we saw a light on inside was looking through the falling down old school house where Philip used to live (a long forgotten florescent light was still on).
These are photos as we were coming back into Port Villa. One is from close to the look out where we went the other day (we didn't go to it again, but pulled over to the side of the road as we were driving down a seriously steep hill) and then back in town.

Paradise out of reach

We kept travelling around the island. Avoiding running down groups of locals sitting in the middle of the road that we would suddenly come across. We also drove past the official "traditional village" and yes it was! We saw lots of men carrying large bamboo polls on their shoulders, and women carrying bundles on their heads. The village was cute too! (I didn't get any photos though and I have this thing about feeling awkward about taking photos of local people as if they are "objects of fascination" because to them we are the weird white people!). Everyone was friendly though and waved out to us. Philip also said to say lots of the men wander around carrying machetes - but it's all for farming purposes of course! THEN we came across the world's most spectacular beach but we couldn't find a way down to it. We thought we found a road leading to it, but it turned out to be a road of private properties (with absolutely NO public beach access). We could see the masts of gin palaces (yachts) moored at the beach. Just so we could get down to the beach for a second, we drove onto "lot no.15" (it's for sale) and ran down to have a look :-) It would have been great to go for a walk, but we weren't sure that we would sound convincing if we said we were there because we were considering buying the property....