Vanuatu

We were last in Vanuatu in September 10 years ago - the year I turned 40. Gibbo was 35, Meg was 14 and Drew was 9!! We stayed at Le Lagon in a garden bungalow; Drew spent most of his time at Kids Club (sometimes reluctantly); Meg and Gibbo went scuba-diving for the first time. It was on one of their dives that Meg thought that she had lost her father and would be coming back to tell me that "he just disappeared Momma"! As it turned out, he had had trouble with his respirator and had surfaced, only to nearly drown because he forgot to inflate his vest - the diving weights kept dragging him under water. One day we hired a taxi and driver and spent the day touring a local village, the Botanical Gardens, Cascade Waterfall and took a short ferry ride across to Hideaway Island - where we all proceeded to snorkel for the first time. It was an absolute revelation to me - an entire hidden world under the surface!! I remember being like a kid in a candy store; I couldn't stop giggling with the wonder and marvel of it all. I only left the water when I got too cold and couldn't stop shivering - and I haven't snorkelled since so I was looking forward to going again.

We booked tickets for the Pango Cove Snorkel Adventure and the spiel stipulated that we had to enter and leave the water directly from the shore tour boat. That wasn't a problem.

We were surprised that there was only 4 of us on our tour; once we saw the size of the vessel that was taking us we understood why! That's our boat, the little blue one on the right with Roy at the wheel and Brian ready to introduce us to the wonders of Pango Cove.

After some rudimentary safety directions we donned our gear and jumped into the water - and I took up where I left off 10 years ago - still awed by the underwater and still giggling! It was awesome. We saw a water snake and a lion fish and I learned to duck dive, holding my breath and swimming down as far as I could go until my ears screamed then blowing water out of my snorkel when I broke the surface. Brian had taken some bread so we fed the fish. We swam in water several metres deep and in water less than a metre deep where we were so close to the coral my stomach nearly dragged across it. Too soon it was over and we sped back to the dock so that Roy and Brian could pick up their next lot of passengers.

Cold and Happy.

A fish trap.

This is Brian - he liked Gibbo's board shorts - they have big roosters all over them.

Hideaway Island, shrouded in the mist.

 Irririki Island, where M&N used to go all those years ago.

Helicopter flights were $99 for not very long.

Trying to get the iPad to work from the free wi-fi at Nambawan Cafe (Number One Cafe, recommended by Brian). The phone worked ok; the iPad did not.

Colourful bags at the marketplace.

Pizza and Beer.

One of the local taxis - we were bombarded by drivers wanting our custom. I wouldn't liked to have been on my own.

The markets at the dock - there were more in town but each one is nearly exactly the same.

It's a damn big ship...