Thursday 11 July 2013 Mystery Island Vanuatu
Happy birthday Desi, our youngest niece is 7 🙂
We got the day started with what has become our usual Island hopping day routine, breakfast at 7:45, up to Deck 9 at 8:45 to get our Tender number, back to our room to get our stuff and then down to Deck 1 to get the tender over to the island. Somehow Ben and Sarah and their 3 children can get all that done quicker than Deb and I, go figure huh!!
Anyway, it was a short run in the tender over to Mystery Island, and once off the tender we walked around the eastern end of the island and set up for the morning on a beach in a beautiful bay which was protected from the slight easterly wind that was blowing.
It wasn’t long before I was in the water and snorkling. This place is Sea Slug central. I don’t think I have ever seen so many in one place. There wasn’t much coral here, well close to shore anyway, but there were lots of fish and many colours and types. There is a very strong current running west to east just out from shore, which meant you could just swim out to it and float along watching the marine life doing their thing, and then swim into shore again and walk back up the beach and do it all again, tough huh!.Carly, Kieran and the kids arrived around 10:45. It was a very relaxing morning and everyone had lots of fun in the water. Once we had finished swimming we all headed up to the markets set up by the locals of a neighbouring island (no one lives on Mystery Island, as the locals believe it is haunted at night). All the children bought themselves souvenir trinkets ( I am amused by this, hundreds of years ago it was white men giving the natives trinkets, now they are selling them back to us!!), Ella and Tessa had a braid put into their hair and Ben and Dante posed in a huge cooking pot for photos with a couple of local “Headhunters”. Lots of fun and many laughs. We saw a couple of planes land and take off on the island. The island runway was used in bygone times as a refueling station for pacific flights.
Around 1pm we headed back to the ship. Deb grabbed some lunch up on the Lido Deck with Ben, Sarah, Dante, Tessa and Sophia, and I headed to the gym for a run. When I got back to our cabin, I filled the bath, put lots of shower gel into the water and turned on the spa jets, Bubbles everywhere! LOL 🙂 Deb wanted to take photos, but I declined. LOL
We had a quiet afternoon relaxing, and we are all looking forward to dinner tonight. We are having dinner at “The Chef’s Table”. This gives us cocktails and hors d’overs, the a guided tour of the galley followed by a specially prepared Degustation with matching wines. The little ones have a special night at the kids club. :-).
Chef’s Table was excellent. There were 14 of us on this treat. We started with a short intro from the head chef, Daniel Arulraj, and then headed into the kitchen for a brief rundown on the workings of the ships kitchens and behind the scenes secrets. (apparently, all the food is cooked and served to order, so it can be customised to your liking.) Then we had Champagne and 3 hors d’overs in the kitchen and then we were shown how they make and cook one of the dessert delights on board, Warm Chocolate Melting Cake. YUMMM Then were taken to the “Nightclub” where a sign outside said ‘Reserved for Private Function’, Ours 🙂 , we walked in and found an impressively set table down on the dance floor. The menu was a 6 course degustation, starting with “Tomatoes Our Way, Southern Bluefin Tuna Banh Mi, Spatchcock, Barramundi, Wagyu and finished off with Chocolate 32C. It was delicous, but maybe a bit too much. The meal was accompanied by a D’Arenburg White (the name escapes us) and Barossa Benchmark Shiraz. The others at the table were an apprentice chef from Newcastle, who was doing this cruise as a “study tour”, a channel Nine cameraman and his wife from Sydney (who got the cruise as a gift for his work in promoting the cruise line) and a Surgeon from north Queensland, his wife and 3 children. Towards the end of the meal we were entertained by the ‘Ships Magician’. He was amazing, he did a few very clever card tricks for us (we still have no idea how he did what he did!). Dinner finished at about 9:45 and we headed back to our room to wollow, we were so full.
Once back in our room I put the cricket on via the ABC iPhone app, and heard the amazing innnings save by the newest Australian Test Cricketer, Ashton Agar.
Tomorrow we sail into Port Vila for the day, our last port of call before we head home.
Friday 12 July 2013
We woke this morning to find ourselves sailing into Port Vila, a very lush tropical City. We had arranged, well Deb had, a day tour with a local company. We had got a couple of emails from them over the last few days just doing the last bit of organisation for it, and we were arranged to meet them at 9am at the back gate on the wharf (to get away from the crowds).
So after breakfast we headed down and easily found our driver and guide for the day, Alfred. He was a very personable sort of guy. He normally drives his own taxi, but had been asked to take care of us today by a business associate. We headed out along the terminal access road and there were hundreds of taxi and mini buses queued up waiting to get a fare. The road was also lined with stalls selling all the usual pacific island trinkets. Once clear of the terminal Alfred drove us into town and dropped us off for an hours walk around, duty free shopping and photo taking, while he went back to his place to get morning tea for us. The Port Vila township isn’t flash on any scale. Very basic typically “asian” style shopping centres and shops. The locals were all very friendly and very colourful. The highlight of the town for me was a very impressive and colourful fruit market. The produce all look delicious and the market had a real hum to it, crowded with locals doing their everyday shopping.
Alfred pick up us again, he was abit late due to the chaotic traffic in town, and then took us off for what ended up a drive right around the island. After about 30 minutes , once we were into the countryside, he pulled over onto the side of the road and gave us morning tea. He had an assortment of delicious local fruits (pawpaw, coconuts (for drinking), a local citrus fruit(looked like agrapefruit inside but was sweet), dried bananas, local papadam things and drinks. All the finished fruit remains were thrown into the bush on the side of the road, much to the shock of the children, but when he exclaimed compost, as he did it, they all laughed.
From there we drove to Eton Beach. A beautiful little reserve, that had afreshwater creek flowing into a small lagoon. It was beautiful. On the far side of the lagoon was a small pool of azure coloured water. It couldn’t have been much more than 10m across. The creek flowed into it from one side and there was a steady cascade of water coming into it from the seaward side rock platform. The creek water was fresh and cool, while the water from the rock platform was salty and warm. The pool went from about 30cm deep at the sides to meters deep in the centre, with a very sharp drop-off at the edge, with a steep shell grit sandy bottom. We all had so much fun diving and jumping and snorkling in it. It was great just to back up to the warm cascade from the rock shelf and watch the fun.
After about an hour we left and went for lunch at a “Resort”. Well, that was stretching the truth a bit, it was more like an open air hut with aspirations to some day becoming a Resort. They were in the process of building a pool and more substaintial buildings, but it looked like the building program was running on “IslandTime”. Lunch was fairly basic fare, and depending on what you ordered, a snack or lunch. 🙂 While we waited for lunch to be cooked (about 40 mins, which was a bit longer than promised, but again, that’s Island Time) there was a local band playing a selection of “praise the lord” popular music.
Then we hit the road again. The road around the island is a joint sponsored project by the NZ and Chinese governments, for which the locals are very grateful. All around the island there are always numerous people of all ages walking along or sitting on the road. Sometimes they even move for cars!!!It is usual to see a local out walking without a machette in their hands, I guess they use them for so many things that they would be at a loss without them. We saw lots of people trimming the jungle from the side of the road using machettes, cutting down fruits of different types and of course how could you ever get into a coconut without one.
The road rules are flexible here, and from what Alfred told us, only ever really apply if you have an accident. It’s fine to ride in the back of utes, it seems to be almost compulsary. We even saw a Police Ute with 2 policemen riding in the back. Their school buses are school trucks, with the children riding in the back of a covered in truck tray! The roads are generally pretty good away from the main town. In the heart of Port Vila the roads are basically the bits between the potholes, and there were lots of potholes.
It was now getting on a bit and we had to be back on the Ship by 4:30. Alfred gave us a good commentary as he drove and gave us an insight into the way they live, which was really interesting and Ethan seemed to take it all in, and when he got to sit in the front he asked all sorts of questions which Alfred gladly aswered for him. On the way back we called into a Coffee Plantation and saw them roasting coffee. (this was a quick stop) and then Alfred took us on a very slow drive through a local village. He explained that it is normal for 3 generations to live in the same small house, and for 3 or 4 houses to share a toilet. There were pigs and chickens roaming free around the village and lots of kids everywhere, just being kids.
Finally, on the way back to the ship Alfred drove us past his house, a small single level apartment he shared with his parents and brother.His mum was at the door and waved to us before we drove off.
We got dropped off about 200m before the shipping terminal gate, so we could do some last minute shopping and use up all our Vatu. Deb and I got our passports stamped and the others bought some clothes and trinkets. We got on by 4:25, while Carly and Kieran were near the last to board at around 4:45. The ship left right on time at 5pm.
At dinner tonight Ben organised for the magician we had at the Chefs Table to come over and do a bit for the children. He had Dante think of a card and after some swift hand work and illusion had Dante’s card sitting in his hand. Everyone was very impressed.
After dinner we took in a Jazz based song and dance show in the Pharohs Room. Sarah and Tessa really enjoyed it. 🙂
Tomorrow is the first of 3 days at sea before we arrive back in Sydney on Tuesday 16th.
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What a wonderful time you have all had, thanks for sharing Greg we have thoroughly enjoyed your blog, safe travels home hope it’s not too lumpy xo
Excellent!