So I’m taking a break from exploring possible flights to the US for my annual FPS trip to finish off this blog. We’re on the flight home from Brisbane and the WiFi is working at the moment. We should be good until we cross the bight – we usually lose some of the satellite at that point. I’m in 4A and there’s nobody in 4B which is always nice. I do prefer aisle but 4A was what was available so I took what I could get. I have been lucky this trip with generally good leg room and space even flying economy for 3 of the legs.
The final instalment in my Vanuatu holiday. I woke up about 8 as check out time is 10 so I knew I might have to be out of the room by then. As always (as I’ve mentioned in previous blog posts) it always seems to take ages for me to pack when I’m leaving somewhere, but with a few breaks etc I was done by about 9.45. I went to the bar to pay my bill (all my cocktails, meals etc had just been charged to my room). I then asked about leaving my room but they said I could stay until I left for the airport at 11.30 which I was very grateful for. I went back to the room and had a short rest/nap til about 10.30. After much debating I decided I did want a final swim in the ocean so I went for a ten minute swim / ten minute sunbathe to finish my trip. I went back to my room, showered go organised and the same guy who took me on the tour drove me to the airport. From there you know what happened from the intro to one of my earlier posts today so with those intros you’re up to date.
It was a fun trip and it was relaxing so I did enjoy it. There was of course the tension I mentioned earlier of exploring vs relaxing, Overall it was also pretty reasonably priced, the points reward flights made a big difference. There was definitely more I could have done of Efate – I didn’t make it to hideaway island or do any snorkelling and I think I would have liked to do the hot springs and maybe visit a village. It sounds like the other islands of Espiritu Santo and Tanna are definitely worth doing but you have to go via Efate. So if I was to go again, which I hope to maybe I could have a few days in Port Vila to do that unfinished business and then some time on Tanna and Santo for new experiences. They’re my thoughts for now and dinner is being served so time to put this away for now.
P.S. That’s amazing. I actually blogged a whole trip and finished before I landed back in Perth. Maybe there’s hope for future trips.
My last full day. I had organised for zip lining in the morning. It included pickup which was convenient and it was out near Mele so it was only about a 15 minute ride. I got my own car for the pickup and had a very bumpy journey up the mountain. As an aside a lot of the roads in Vanuatu are terrible, there are so many potholes. They drive on the right but people mostly ending up swerving all over the road to try and avoid potholes.
This company offered 3 attractions, a skybridge, zip lining and a swing (effectively bungee jumping but not upside down). I wasn’t sure but in the end I decided on zip lining (with bridge included) but not to do the swing, it seemed a little bit too wild for me. The zip lining was great, lots of fun and probably slightly longer than New Zealand. There were also excellent views from up the top. I didn’t love the bridge, it was a bit too wild unsteady for me. Kind of fun, but hard to take good photos. I watched one person do the ‘swing’ and it looked pretty scary.
I didn’t realise we had to wait for everyone who wanted to do the swing to do that before we left, so I headed back and checked out the mountain top gardens but still had a bit of a wait before we returned. However, it did start to rain so I wasn’t too sad to be back at reception and undercover. The views really were amazing.
That little booth in the centre is where you jumped off for the ‘swing’
Everybody went back together, so that time I had a really bumpy ride as I was in the kind of open back area of one of the four wheel drives. Once I got back it was nap time. I actually slept for a while and missed lunch. It fined up a little bit and the sun came out so I decided I would go for another swim in the bay and the water was lovely once again. After that I had some bread and Vegemite to put something in my stomach because it was the last night and I felt like I had to try the Pacific Island Ice Tea as my last cocktail. It was nice, but I don’t think it topped the Pina Colada or Tequila Sunrise. I don’t think it’s as good as the original Long Island Ice Tea or the Singapore Sling. Thus concludes my cocktail tour.
For dinner I decided to have the steak and pepper pie again because it was so good last time. I took it back to my room and enjoyed it with some red wine and tv shows. I had a vague idea of getting a head start on packing but that didn’t happen. I went to sleep! And now I’ve almost caught up, less than 24 hours behind and not much more to say. Sometime, hopefully today I’ll detail the last little bit and maybe some overall thoughts. But for now, I need a break from typing.
I’m back in Australia, in the Brisbane Qantas Club. It was an uneventful flight, though it seems like internet didn’t appear until about 30mins before we landed (I didn’t bother to check at that point) but it would be nice if Qantas got its international wifi up and running soon. Lounges are nice so I’m thankful to God and FPS that give me a big head start towards doing enough travel to hold onto Qantas Gold.
I’m almost home but it’s over an hour til boarding and I should definitely have WiFi on the flight to Perth so let’s see if I can actually finish this trip blog before I get back to Perth – I make no promises though. Friday was the day I had organised the tour, luckily I was up early but as the driver was there 15 minutes early and ready to leave. Somewhat unintentionally (possible I was unclear and it was last minute) I think I had booked a more private tour which as it turned out was shorter, but more personalise service. The day, or the morning at least was mostly sunny which was nice weather for the tour. I ended up sharing with another family staying at the same resort. It turned out that they were from New Caledonia and didn’t speak English so there was limited communication between us. It seemed like I mainly go to call the shots on where we wanted to go though so I named the Blue Lagoon and the Waterfalls as well as an ATM (these places had entry fees).
Blue Lagoon was fun, I swam, used one of the rope swings and jumped off one of the higher places you could jump in. The colour is amazing and it is really pretty. We were probably there for about an hour and I enjoyed it.
If you zoom in the white platform is where you swing off the rope from.
After that it was off to the falls, but by comparison I would say they were a bit of a let down. They weren’t bad but especially compared to waterfalls I’ve seen from sailing families on YouTube I was expecting something a bit bigger and better. I didn’t swim here but we did have some quick easy lunch after I walked to the falls and back. Just bread and tinned beef but it was actually decent.
After that it was back to the resort (via the butcher for the other family). There was mention of visiting a village to but that didn’t happen and I didn’t request it after it was first mentioned. The tour was good, I was glad to see those sites and some more of Efate but I think had I been able to do the non-private full Island tour I might have seen more locations. The cost was very good though, as I split it with the other family it was only VT7500 (about $90) for an almost 5 hour trip.
After I got back it was rest time. I continued my cocktail tour with a Midori Splice which was fine, but not as good as the Pina Colada or Tequila Sunrise but better than the Blue Lagoon. I’ve been naming all these cocktails so at the end of the post I’ll put a copy of the cocktail list so you can see what’s in them all! I went with the fish curry for dinner. The fist and rice were nice, but the actual curry part was a bit too spicy for me.
After that I got organised and headed down to the beach bar (this is a restaurant & bar a few hundred metres down the beach from my accommodation). On Friday nights there is a free fire show that came highly recommended. It was excellent – I thoroughly enjoyed it, super impressive. The photos and videos don’t really do it justice but they give you an idea.
After the fire show I thought I would get a cocktail at the beach bar as I hadn’t got to try the Toblerone yet. I decided to get the Nambawan (Kahlua, Baileys, Malibu and fresh coconut cream) it sounded delicious but was thoroughly disappointing. I didn’t enjoy it at all. I can’t quite put my finger on it but I feel like it just didn’t seem to have a lot of flavour. After that it was back to bed.
it’s a fairly long post, but there’s a lot of media in there. I had to go and get a sparkling wine while I was waiting for it all to upload :p. I’ve still got over 30mins to board, so I mighty try and smash out the final day now or maybe on the flight home, we’ll see.
