WEDNESDAY 4th MARCH
Hello everyone,
We’ve had a great day today. The night before last we had some bad news, that the weather was going to be too bad on Tuesday to exit the ship in Port Vila. In December 2024 there was a really destructive earthquake in Vanuatu. This destroyed the dock that the ships used to utilise, so now to access the town from a ship you have to go by tender, the small life boats on the ship. This means if the ocean is rough they can’t cope very well and it’s dangerous.
I’ll be honest - I actually struggled quite a bit on Tuesday. The weather was grey and thoroughly miserable. I had geared myself up for the first three at sea days because they were on the itinerary. We booked things and picked things to do and made the best of the time. But expecting to get off the ship and see somewhere new to then be told you’re in for a fourth day straight on board - I struggled. I probably drove Rob mad talking about being disappointed. We walked around a lot with Eliza to wear her out. We ate lunch. I read a heap of my book by the indoor pool while Eliza napped, and then Gab and Mike looked after Eliza in the afternoon so Rob and I could go to the 18+ pools and spas and have a drink. That was good as we chatted away to some other adults and passed some time. They shared stories of multiple South Pacific cruises they’d been on where ports got cancelled for various reasons (engine issues, weather, covid etc) which made me feel a bit better hearing it was common. Then we had dinner and braced ourselves for the announcement that Mystery Island, Vanuatu was cancelled on Wednesday as well as it was also visited by tender and the weather looked shite again.
But…. our captain is really considerate! He came over the speaker and said he knew how disappointing it was to miss a port, and that he had good news and bad news. The bad news was Mystery Island was cancelled. The good news was the weather would be clearer in Port Vila on Wednesday so he was going to take us back there and have the day there instead. He could very easily have just said we had another day on board, but he didn’t. And THANK GOD. I needed to scratch my itchy feet!!! (And so did Eliza!).
So we got up early to get organised and head ashore. Our shore excursion had been cancelled two days prior as the garden and suspension bridge we were supposed to visit had sustained damage in the recent bad weather, so we had decided to do our own thing as a result. We had breakfast and while we ate the captain came over the PA and said the harbourmaster was holding us up for 2-3 hours. Fine if it was just us, but with a toddler you’ve woken up an hour earlier than usual…..nooooo!
Once we could, we got our tender tickets and continued to wait. Eventually at 10am we got on a tender boat. When we were finally ashore the area was full of men shouting and trying to sell you taxis or tours. It was quite overwhelming to be honest, especially with Eliza with us, as it was also very hot. We asked for prices from a few and they wanted to charge us crazy money for a 50 minute round trip drive to a waterfall we had picked. Finally we found Donald who charged us $80 Australian (half what others wanted to charge us) and who immediately put us at ease with his lovely personality.
Eliza was a star. Having her up so early and setting off so late, I was worried she would be tired and cranky. She’s a bit of a FOMO girl these days and doesn’t sleep as easily on the go. No one has car seats in the South Pacific, just like Samoa last year, so I cuddled her like a koala in the back seat and despite being hot she fell asleep in 5 minutes. After 25 minutes we reached the waterfall, but it was closed due to the heavy rains in previous days. Donald asked if we wanted to drive 15 minutes further to the Blue Lagoon. I remembered old neighbours from Mum and Dad’s posting about visiting it once and it looked great, so we agreed to pay a little more and drive further. Eliza ended up sleeping 45 minutes and woke up just in time. Superstar! The drive was fairly nice. We passed similar looking buildings to Samoa (concrete and painted mainly), lots of palm trees and lush greenery and caught glimpses of the ocean (and blue sky! Yay!). Some of the roads were unmade and quite bumpy, but Eliza stayed asleep. We joked as a Victorian she’s used to crap roads so they didn’t bother her!!
Once we arrived at the Blue Lagoon we were so glad the shore excursion had been cancelled and the waterfall closed. The water was a stunning aqua colour, surrounded by lovely greenery and nice facilities with friendly staff, and we paid $20 each and Eliza was free. Our excursion was $120 Australian each so we were still way up!
We enjoyed a swim for an hour or so. Eliza came in for most of the time and we enjoyed the cool water and watched lots of people swinging in via Tarzan rope or jumping in via platforms. Once upon a time in previous travel days I would’ve felt compelled to have a go. But since having hip surgery and a baby I’m a bit more careful. If I get hurt it impacts Eliza, I’m happy to watch these days if something seems a bit dangerous! I did enjoy wading right out to the middle a few times though. Oddly, one of the girls that bullied me at high school is on this cruise which is a weird coincidence. We watched her jump in from a high platform and do a huge, painful belly whack. Delayed karma??
We got changed and drove back to Port Vila. A few minutes out of town, poor Eliza got motion sick and vomited. Luckily Rob and I heard it coming and sprung into action with hands and towels, catching 98% of it. Donald, the nicest taxi driver ever, pulled over and handed us more towels. He wasn’t annoyed or angry, only concerned for Eliza’s health asking if we needed water or a pharmacy. He didn’t care that a bit of vomit had gone on the back seat. We cleaned it up and gave him a tip to say sorry and thank you, but he assured us he didn’t mind and gave us his phone number in case we had any friends or family visiting Vanuatu in need of a driver. So if you’re coming, hit me up, he was wonderful and so kind.
Back in the city we went to the fruit market and bought ourselves and Eliza a banana. They were delicious. The town was pretty sad and run down to be honest. I feel for the locals that the earthquake has damaged their livelihoods so much. We then visited the souvenir market where we bought Eliza a small purse/handbag with ‘Vanuatu’ written on it and I of course bought my obligatory magnet. We had a nice view of the ship from here.
We then caught the little boat back and Eliza had some food, a shower and a late second nap. We enjoyed dinner and then went to a music show which involved live instruments and some of the singers from ‘We Will Rock You’ which we enjoyed. Eliza lasted 15 minutes and then just wanted to run around like a maniac though, so after letting her wear herself out for a while I headed back and let Rob stay with his parents.
All in all a great day, I feel so much better having been out and seen somewhere new. The Blue Lagoon was probably better than the beach would have been anyway as it was difference and unique. I will say I do find it hard visiting somewhere and not finding out any information about the place though, so I did some research for myself. Here you go:
- The islands of Vanuatu were called the New Hebrides by James Cook when he stopped there in 1774
- The islands were unusually jointly ruled by France and the UK between 1906-1980 meaning there were two police forces, legal systems and governments
- Vanuatu became independent on July 30, 1980
See you in New Caledonia,
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