Okay, so this journal isn't about travelling but it is about a quest and that's close enough, right? A quest.... to find the balloonman within. Every week, Kate's work has a Friday Challenge and every week, the staff take it in turns to organise it. This week, Kate drew the short straw and boy, will they be sorry :P *Kate laughs evilly* Taking inspiration from the "Pointless Bit Of Fun" segment on Friday Night Games (a tv show in Aus that was showing a couple of months ago), Kate's throwing down the gauntlet to her fellow workmates and challenging them to [View Full Entry]

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Considering that we want to start doing some overnight hikes, we thought it best that we do a couple of shorter hikes first so it won't be such a shock to the system when we eventually do an overnighter ;) We managed to rope our good friends Matt and Carly into coming along as well and it gave us a good opportunity to test out our new boots :D For our hike, we headed to the Sunshine Coast to check out the Great Walks that one of Kate's co-workers told her about. The Queensland Government has been working on a "Great [View Full Entry]

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With heavy hearts, we awoke early and made our way to the main jetty for our airport transfer. We stared glumly out of the window as the bus made its way to the airport - neither of us wanted to leave. It felt like we'd been here a lot longer than a week and this place had definitely touched our hearts. The people - so friendly and quick to smile, the surroundings - so lush and green, the waters - so clear and filled with beautiful creatures. This place really felt like home. Before we'd even landed back home in Brisbane, [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday was the day we were to go on the South Seas Adventure Cruise/Fun In The Sun/Coongoola Cruise - we were given 3 different names throughout the course of booking and confirming this tour, but hopefully they were all the same thing. Either way, we ended up on a boat called Coongoola. We were supposed to be picked up at 8:10am so we made sure we were there 10 minutes early and we waited... and we waited... and we waited... and then a bus rocked up but alas, we weren't allowed to go on this bus (why? I do not know! [View Full Entry]

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The first day of the cruise ship arrivals... our mission? ...to get as far away from them as possible!! After almost a week here in Vanuatu, we were both feeling quite an affinity for the people, culture, and the fishies. We were sure the arrival of over a thousand cruise ship patrons was going to ruin this peaceful, friendly township. We were of course, quite right, but more will be said later. Our task was to get ourselves away from the well-trodden main street, and its well paraded tourist area. We accomplished this by hiring a scooter, of the style anyone [View Full Entry]

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Today we headed to Hideaway Island :) It seems we picked the perfect days to do the majority of our tours, as it was just us on the bus to Hideaway Island. This suited us to a tee and meant that we got some one-on-one time with the driver and could get to know more about what life was really like in Vanuatu. Hudson (the driver) was from Ambrae and moved to Efate in search of work. Work is very scarce on the outer islands so most people have to move to Efate if they want a job. We had been [View Full Entry]

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On day three, we woke up around 5am (without the help of any alarms) and decided that rather than going back to sleep, it would be nice to sit out on the deck and watch the sun rise. The fare came with a complimentary mini bottle of Moet and Chandon and no sunrise is complete without champagne (of course) so we grabbed our dressing robes (just to complete the picture) and champagne glasses and headed out onto the deck. Such extravagance... and a beautiful start to yet another day in paradise - watching the sun rise and the fish slowly gather [View Full Entry]

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In the morning, we arose late then ambled into the restaurant for our daily buffet breakfast. We have to say that the breakfast at Iririki Island Resort is absolutely DIVINE! Every day they have a selection of cereals (including bircher muesli with yoghurt), both fresh and preserved fruit, a couple of different types of bread as well as a fruit loaf and pastries (mm... chocolate croissants and these yummy custardy type pastries with sultanas in them), and a variety of hot foods (they usually offered two of the following in the heated containers: bacon, spiced sausages, potatoes, quiche, scramb [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Vanuatu on a steamy grey day. Kate had never been to a 2nd world country before so it was interesting to see the differences in just the airport to begin with. The Port Vila International Airport looked more like what one (well, one from places such as Australia and America) would expect of a rural airport than an international airport in a capital city. Our plane was the only one in sight and it was hard at first to spot where we were supposed to enter the terminal. There are no air bridges here, everyone embarks onto the [View Full Entry]

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At an hour unacceptable to most, the Wondering Wanderers arose and underwent final preparations before the taxi arrived to whisk them away to the airport. Ahh... Vanuatu... we couldn't wait! We arrived at the airport uber early, as we had a few tax refunds we wished to lodge and we didn't know how long the queues would be. When we rocked up to the TRS/Customs Office on level 1 at Brisbane Int'l, the office was empty - so much for the crowds we were expecting! Getting our receipts stamped for items we wished to check-in was a breeze so we ended [View Full Entry]

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