Welcome to Vanuatu!

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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 tarmac and makes their own way to the terminal (which is only a short distance away). The first thing you notice is the humidity!! We may be from Brisbane, but this was as if we were stepping off a plane in Darwin or Weipa in the middle of the wet season. Immigration consisted of two guys at a desk who resoundly stamped your passport as you filed through - no long queues with rope partitions with visitors separated from residents, just two lines for everyone. Once through immigration, everyone proceeded to the single baggage carousel (which looked like it was at least 15 years old!) and waited for their luggage to appear. Once luggage was retrieved, we found the Adventures in Paradise tour desk and picked up our tickets for the tours we had prebooked. Adventures in Paradise were also providing our airport transfer so we piled onto the bus and peered out the windows to get our first glimpses of Vanuatu. Unfortunately, we don't have any photos of the taxis but some of them are absolutely classic!! There were a couple of dinky little hatchbacks with brightly coloured (and mismatching) seatcovers and assorted decorations, a couple of utes, and lots of vans/minibuses. Some people even got picked up in what looked like an ambulance.
Once the bus dropped us off at the ferry stop for Iririki Island, we jumped aboard the ferry to go check in. The ferry runs 24 hrs, which is pretty cool. After checking in, we headed back to the "mainland" and wandered around town for a while before booking some more of our tours. We then settled in at the Bali Hai cafe back at the resort for dinner and cocktails. We decided to go casual on our first night and ate on the deck surrounding the pool overlooking the harbour. We had lobster bruschetta and seafood pizza accompanied by Coconut Coladas (Pina Coladas served in a coconut) - mmm.... delicious! The seafood pizza was definitely the best seafood pizza we've ever had and set the bar by which we judged all of our other meals.

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Photos

Vintage Baggage Carousel
Check out the baggage carousel! Such old technology but obviously works well enough

First Glimpses of Port Vila
Port Vila as we came in from the airport

Water taxi
One of the many water taxis that ferry people to and from the other islands

The ferry to Iririki
How cool is that? A ferry on call 24hrs a day to take you to and from the island.

Welcome to Iririki
Kate sipping on her welcome drink at the bar at Iririki Island Resort

The Waterfront Fares
That's ours on the end...

Our friend Frank
We kept running into Frank and his (very extensive) family throughout the trip. There's hermit crabs absolutely everywhere so watch your step! Frank greeted us outside our Fare when we arrived

The deck...
Kate's favourite place to be in the morning. Many a morning began with watching the fish swimming below until we made our way up to the restaurant for breakfast.

Relaxing with a tusker...
Bliss!