Blogs from Efate, Vanuatu, Oceania

Blog 30 Part 1: Port Vila, Vanuatu, April 18 ,2018 – Weather forecast: partly cloudy; temperature 28°C, wind 28kts (7 Beaufort) – overnight gusting to 44kts – 2 to 3-meter swells Today’s port of call is Port Vila, the capital city of Vanuatu, which was a former French/British colony. They jointly ruled the island chain from 1906 until independence was achieved in 1980. Of the 82 islands that make up this island nation 62 are inhabited and are home to approximately 300,000 inhabitants, some of whom actually practiced cannibalism as late as the 1960’s. There are approximately 105 different indigenous dialects spoken by this population. Today the islands are a peaceful tourist destination with a rugged coastline and a rolling verdant rain forest. Our tour today took in the magical and mysterious world of ancient Melanesia ... read more

This will be a short post. I have been so busy doing many things over here that i have not had time to update my blog. Today i got into an off road buggy and went 4wding through the bush and jungle to turtle bay. Whilst in turtle bay i got to release a baby turtle into the ocean and swim with the biggest turtles i have ever seen. We got to hold onto them and swim under the water with them. There was also some black tipped reef sharks that we got to swim with as well. i have put a few photos up of the adventure but it truly was an epic amazing experience.... read more

So today marks the first day of full adventure in Vanuatu, to say that I am excited is the understatement of the year. We are headed to the Vanuatu History Museum where again Edgar will be doing some of the amazing sand drawings and telling us the stories of his land. He told us a story of teenagers and of love, it was amazing to be apart of that cultural experience. After the drawings we were allowed to walk around the Museum and have a look around, there was so much to see and take in in such a short amount of time. However I had to take some time out to have a look at the traditional fishing gear, it made we want to make all the anglers in the Vic Bream Classic, use this ... read more

As I get ready to head over to Vanuatu on the experience of a lifetime, the nerves have officially hit me today. Packing my life and resources all into 1 small suitcase makes it all seem very real. I am heading over to Vanuatu to teaching the local children in Mele Maat Primary School for 3 weeks. My goal whilst there is to enrich and educate these children's lives and hopefully strike a love and passion for learning and education. The nerves have taken over to a point that doubt has begun to set in, can I really do this? Can I educate children from another culture? Is this really what I want to do? I guess it is too late to back out now, I am going ahead with this. So tomorrow marks the day ... read more

In September 2012, Paul and I had one of the most amazing holidays in Vanuatu. We had the pleasure of staying four nights in Port Vila. We went to relax and chill out, yet we experienced so much more! Vanuatu has the friendliest people and beautiful, natural landscapes I've seen. In our time there we got to drive buggies through the jungle, spend time with local villagers, swim in the Cascades Waterfalls, visit the Secret Garden and eat at a Melanesian feast, plus much more! We stayed in the most beautiful and secluded resort in Port Vila called Paradise Cove. It was 25 minute drive from the centre of town and only had 10 bungalows.The resort is set in an established tropical garden and on a beautiful reef, which is great for snorkelling and swimming. We ... read more