The Big Holiday

So, we came back a week ago and, now that we've caught up with the laundry, the fatigue of being back at work, and all the e-mails we received over the week, it's time to tell y'all about our trip.

For those of you who don't know, we had a week in Vanuatu, which is a "Y-shaped archipelago of 83 islands", about 3 hours' flight north of Auckland. We spent the first night and our last two nights on the main island, Efate, in the capital, Port Vila. The middle four nights of the trip were on Tanna Island, which is a half-hour flight south of Efate. We had planned the trip together with our friends Beth and Mat, who we know from when we lived in Cambridge and they were also working and living there, but they are now living back in their home city of Sydney. They flew in much later than us on the first day, so Nick and I had our first night alone in a rather smart resort, called Breaka's Beach, swimming in the infinity pool, lazing on the beach, enjoying the open-air shower in our room, playing pool, and having a lovely meal right by the aforementioned infinity pool.

On the Sunday, after a very entertaining taxi ride to the airport, we met up with Beth and Mat and jumped onto the smaller plane to fly to Tanna. The transfer to the hotel was in the back of a Land Rover (glam), and we were then welcomed to the White Grass Ocean Resort with a drink and the most spectacular view over the reef directly outside the hotel's restaurant. After our (green, but very tasty and refreshing) welcome drink, we were shown to our 'bure' (hut), which had flowers placed on every surface imaginable, and a view straight out across the reef and the ocean. We of course dashed straight out to snorkel, making the most of the low tide, and were amazed by the warm water temperature and the fantastic array of fish and coral we saw almost straight away. The reef was amazing; it was a long (and spiky) walk out across the rocks and coral to get to an appropriate entry point, but once in and through the V-shaped gap in the reef (later to become our nemesis, as the tide was coming in as we tried to get back to land and a few scrapes were sustained - some more spectacular than others - as we were washed through - or against - the coral), there was a huge wall of coral on one side, and then a 20-or-so metre drop off and the whole of the Pacific Ocean on the other. Amazing. The water was incredibly clear, and warm.

So much of the holiday was spent snorkelling at that reef or at various holes near the resort. We saw sea snakes, sea cucumbers (one at least 70cm long, and spiky), beautiful fish, a couple of lobster, and an amazing blue starfish.

We went for a walk one day up onto the White Grass Plains, where - we had been assured - lived many a wild white horse. Well, we walked for quite some time through (and this was not in the resort information booklet) very shrubby vegetation, with us all the while regretting the decision to opt for shorts and not some kind of reinforced, bullet-proof lower body apparel. Not a blade of grass did we see the entire time, which did lead us to question the appropriateness of the area's name. Neither did we see a single white horse: two brown ones right at the very end of the walk, but weren't quite sure if they were wild or in fact were next week's dinner for the village further down the road. The most entertaining thing about the whole walk was the fascinatingly lumpy appearance of my thighs after all that scratching from the plants along the way - looked a bit like a relief map of the Plains themselves. Nice.

We also did a boat trip with a local fisherman, called Sam. He took us right up the coast to the north of Tanna, which took about an hour, trawling for wahoo or tuna along the way (none were caught though, much to our dismay). Our destination was the Blue Cave: a cave that can only be accessed by diving down about a metre underwater. Once inside, the cave is much bigger than any of us had expected: it's about 50m in diameter, with a partially collapsed roof, which allows a stunning shaft of sunlight to shine down into the centre of the cave, illuminating the water and the marine life. It was truly stunning. The reef just outside the cave was also beautiful, so we spent an hour or two swimming around, in and out of the cave, seeing yet more amazing fish, sea snakes and the like. And to top it all off, on the journey back we saw heaps of flying fish (they really do fly, it's not just a little jump out of the water, they say above the surface for ages), and some dolphins. Not bad at all!

But the highlight of the whole holiday would have to be the trip to the volcano: Mount Yasur, the world's most accessible active volcano, and apparently the second most consistently active volcano in the world. The whole trip took nearly six hours, partly due to the several stops made along the way, but mainly due to the fact that most of the roads probably wouldn't really meet any dictionary definition of a road. Not a trip for those with a sore back - or sore anything really. Four or so hours bouncing around in the back of Land Rover (especially when sitting on the bench seats, facing sideways) tests the hardiest of bums - as well as the mettle of any travel sickness tablets (thankfully for us, Beth and Mat - the most easily travel-sick pair in the world - had partaken of some fantastically effective pills, and there were so disasters in the back).

Before reaching the volcano, we stopped at a coffee plantation. Tanna coffee is apparently recognised as some of the best coffee in the world, due to the excellent growing conditions from the volcanic soil. A pair of lovely ladies from the village gave us a tour, each clutching a small, sweet, snotty-nosed child. We learnt all about coffee, how it grows, how it's harvested, how it's dried, and then we were on our way again. Next stop was a village school, where a choir of children and teachers sang to us ("welcome to our visiting friends"), then presented us with flowers. Best birthday present I've ever had - I felt like royalty! Very sweet.

Then we drove a bit further along some even worse 'roads', steam coming out of vents in the banks, and then we arrived in the 'car park' area. Obviously we had to experience the volcano lavatory (small hut, no door, rather whiffy), and the world's only volcano postbox (photo of me posting the obligatory postcard to work duly taken), and then we walked the last 15 minutes to the top of the main crater.

The volcano was amazing! It's continuously bubbling away, spitting up bits of lava, and spurting out flames. Then every so often, there would be a huge explosion, the ground would shake under our feet, we would feel the pressure change in our ears, and lava would fly right up into the air way above our heads. It was amazing - little bit scary the first time but thereafter it was just fantastic. The sun set as we were up there, making the explosions more and more striking. Eventually, the clouds moved in and we were no longer able to see anything, so it was time to struggle back down the slopes and back to the Lannie. Back to the resort we went, all feeling rather exhausted but excited, and after a supper of delicious lobster curry, we crawled to bed and dreamed of big explosions and cute singing children.

The last two nights, but one day only, of our trip were in the capital, Port Vila, which was a bit of a come-down in contrast to the beauty and peace of Tanna. Still, it was interesting, and we really had just the right amount of time there. We explored the markets, bought a fantastic wooden mask and a few more little trinkets, had a great meal, tried a nakatambol (small fruit, hard, citrus-fruit-like skin, doesn't taste of much, wouldn't recommend it), had cocktails at a nice resort on Iririki Island in the Port Vila harbour, played a bit of Travel Scrabble, and then that was pretty much our hoiday all done. Back to reality, and less than 28-degree heat, and work, and laundry... We had a fantastic time away though, it was great to see the Aussies, I have a lovely tan, and we felt really relaxed after we got back. Would definitely recommend it as a holiday destination!

Oh, almost forgot, one of the other major highlights was seeing a turtle on the reef on our last day on Tanna. We had been told that there was one particular coral outcrop a bit further out from the main drop-off in front of the resort where the turtles tended to hang out, so we had tried a couple of times to see one, but only suceeded in getting cold, and seeing more of the same fish. So on our last morning there, we got up at 6am to catch the low tide, swam out to the turtle hangout, and were only there for a few minutes before a saw exactly what we were looking for - a huge great green turtle, which swam below us for about five minutes, not bothered by us at all. It was amazing - having missed out on seeing any turtles on our reef trip in Cairns, we were really pleased. And we then heard afterward that not many guests at the resort actually manage to see one, so we were even more pleased to have had such an exclusive experience.

Other than all our holiday news, there's not much else to report really. Weather's getting pretty chilly, especially in the mornings, so getting out of bed and on the bike every morning just before 6.30 is trickier by the day, but we are trying to focus on the fact that cold weather only means skiing is getting closer, so that's good news!

So, hope all is well for you all, and probably next time I update this will be with some photos of snow and skiing. Hooray!