We didn't get to do our skydive in Cairns. We got up and got ready to leave for 9am, only for the skydiving man to arrive and tell us the weather was still not good enough but maybe we'd be able to do it at 12:30. We needed to be at the airport to check-in for our Brisbane flight by 1:30 so we had to say no. We felt a bit gutted but we got a full refund and it meant we were able to hang out at the hostel for a few more hours and take advantage of their free Saturday morning pancakes! Yum. We ate two each, with maple syrup, and then felt a bit sick, but it was fully worth it as they were free.
After a short flight to Brisbane we found some sofas in the international departures terminal and spent a fairly comfortable night in the airport. We celebrated our departure from Australia with sausage rolls for breakfast. The flight to Nadi in Fiji was with Air Pacific and the only film they showed was Alvin & The Chipmunks 2: The Squeakquel. It was not great. But they did serve us more breakfast which is always nice.
When we arrived in Nadi we were told to get in a taxi to our resort and that the resort would pay for it when we arrived. We were slightly sceptical but another man came with us who was also staying there and we were a bit too tired to care. When we got into the taxi we were admiring his impressive stereo system and his massive sub woofer in the boot, when we noticed he had a small screen on the front dashboard showing the music video of the song he was playing. As we watched he reached across and made another, slightly larger screen appear from the glove box, in front of the other guy in our cab. Before we knew it he had reached behind, pressed a button on the ceiling and a massive flat screen came down in front of us in the back so that we could watch too. I think it's safe to say that his cab that looked pretty shabby from the outside had been well and truly pimped on the inside. And true to their word the resort payed for the taxi when we arrived.
We were staying in dorms but the whole place was quite a big resort with hotel rooms, two pools, 3 bars, 2 restaurants and a small cinema. We were dead impressed. The beds were comfy and the air-conditioning was lovely so that night, after dinner, we went to bed nice and early.
The following day was our only full day in Nadi. After the cancellation of our skydive in Cairns we had emailed the only skydiving company in Fiji, who happen to be based in Nadi, and tried to get a booking with them for that one day. But on that first night it had rained loads and the forecast was for more rain so we weren't feeling too hopeful. That morning we were awoken at around 8am by a woman from the hotel standing next to our beds saying "Are you Brennan?" - it turned out to be a phone call from the skydiving place asking if we could be there in half an hour. We could not. They said they would schedule us in for 3pm that afternoon, as long as the rain held off. So we got dressed and enjoyed a delicious free breakfast of toast and fruit, before sitting by the pool for a few hours. Then we decided we would walk into Nadi for some lunch as the woman at the hotel told us it was a 10-minute walk. She lied. It was about 2 miles and it was very hot. When we got to Nadi it was already about 2pm, and we needed to be at the skydiving place by 3pm - which was back near our hotel. So we quickly looked for somewhere to have lunch and all we could find was shops. There was a pizza place but when we went in he said they didn't have pizza, only cake. Helpful. Eventually we found a cafe and had some lunch - by the time we had eaten it was 3pm. We quickly jumped into a taxi, and even though he had no idea where the skydiving place was we found it together and got there by about 3:15pm. A woman greeted us, showed us inside and then started playing a DVD about skydiving and giving us forms to fill in. And suddenly it all felt a bit real.
Before we knew what was happening we had filled in the forms, had our briefing and we were in the minibus to the airfield with the two guys we were going to be jumping with. Thankfully they were very nice and funny and made us feel a lot better about the whole thing. Especially Chris who was cacking his pants. When we arrived at the airfield they strapped us into a load of gear and then a little plane drove up and the 4 of us got in. We were slightly concerned as it appeared that the interior of the plane was made of old carpet and gaffer tape, but we had taken off before we really had time to think about it. We quickly realised that whilst we had paid to jump from 14,000 feet we actually had no concept of how high that is, especially when we both thought it was nearly time to jump and then realised we were only at 4,000 feet. But we found that once you get to a certain height your brain can't really comprehend it so you almost don't feel scared because you actually have no idea what's going on.
hang gliding Jen went first and Chris was left alone and afraid. It's hard to write about just how awesome and terrifying it was, so we bought the DVDs and you can watch them when we get home. All you really need to know is that we absolutely loved it and nobody died.
That night we had dinner at the hotel again and watched Invictus in their little cinema. The we headed to bed early again as we had to leave the following day at 6am. We took a taxi back to the airport and checked in for our Air Vanuatu flight to Port Vila, Vanuatu. Then we had sausage rolls again and a little sleep in the airport before it was time to board. Air Vanuatu was very nice and they gave us croissants and muffins for breakfast. As we went through customs at Port Vila a band played traditional music and sang and we started to feel like Vanuatu was going to be awesome.
We took a taxi (this time with flashing coloured lights in the back but no flat screen TV) to City Lodge, where we had booked to stay for the next 2 weeks. It was a bit like the Vanuatu equivalent of a Travelodge so the room was basic, but clean, and we had an en suite bathroom and a TV. Although the TV only had one channel, which was the English-speaking Chinese news channel. There's only so many reports about the Shanghai World Expo, and adverts for Chinese resorts, that one can watch before it gets a bit old.
On our first day in Port Vila we decided to do a walking tour from the lonely planet book which eventually led us to the National Museum of Vanuatu which was a funny little museum but very interesting.
However, in general during our first few days we felt a little bit bewildered. We weren't really sure about City Lodge, but it was the cheapest place we could find. However, the fact that it didn't have a kitchen meant that we couldn't make any of our own food and had to eat out all the time - so it became a bit of a false economy. The flights between Port Vila and Nadi only go once a week on a Tuesday so we were committed to staying two weeks here. We knew we wanted to do diving and go to some of the outer islands, but Australia had stolen lots of our money and we weren't really sure if we could afford it. So we spent a few days fact-finding (luckily City Lodge had free internet), going to the tourism information office, and doing some sums. In the end we agreed that we couldn't really afford to go the outer islands but we did find a diving centre in Port Vila called Nautilus. We went down there to speak to them and the lady who ran it, Leanne, was really nice and kind of saved us a little bit. She told us that they had accommodation there and showed us their dorm room and their private room which were both really nice. She said that if we wanted to stay in their dorm she would match the price we were paying at City Lodge and that she would do a cheaper rate for the diving if we stayed with them.
We decided we would leave City Lodge and move up the road to Nautilus. This meant telling City Lodge a few white lies to get our money back but Chris is very good at all that. We had to stay with them 2 more nights so we booked a tour with one of the local companies to the Mele-Maat Cascades waterfalls. Our tour guide, Robert, picked us up from our hotel and we went with him and a load of Australian tourists to the waterfalls which were beautiful. We went on a walk through some jungle to get there and when we arrived the water was crystal clear and we were able to go swimming. It kicked the arse of any waterfalls we've seen before on this trip. After the swimming they gave us some tasty beef sandwiches and drinks and then they took us to Mele bay where we did some sea-kayaking across to a reef to go snorkeling. I'm happy to report we were a much better kayaking team this time around. The snorkeling at Mele bay was fantastic and we couldn't believe all of the sea life we saw in such shallow waters. After the unsettled feeling of our first few days in Vanuatu this day really helped to remind us why we were here and we felt really happy.
When we arrived at Nautilus the following day, Leanne told us that as they had nobody currently staying with them that we could stay in the private room, for the same price! This meant we had our own double room, with en suite and kitchen and a balcony with sea views. We felt really really pleased - our stay in Vanuatu had started off not great but was getting better and better all the time.
We booked a package of 10 dives with Nautilus which we were able to share between us meaning we could do 5 dives together. On that first day their boat was booked out for a private trip so we booked ourselves onto a dive for the following day and spent a day over at nearby Iririki island. The whole island has been turned into a luxury resort but the snorkeling there is great and day visitors are welcomed. The boat trip over there is free and when you arrive you pay the equivalent of around £10 to spend the day there, but that £10 can be redeemed against food and drinks so we spent the afternoon snorkeling and then went to their pool bar for some delicious late lunch and some happy hour beers whilst the sun went down. It was quite a blissful afternoon. That evening we cooked dinner in our new kitchen and felt really glad that we weren't spending money in restaurants.
The next day we did our first dive a reef dive - which was very nice with lots of cool fish to see. It was in the afternoon so we had a nice lazy morning in our room and cooked dinner there afterwards. We watched some shows on the laptop and then went to sleep.
The day after we did our second dive which was a wreck dive, and Jen's first ever wreck dive. It was a small boat called the Konanda but we were able to swim through parts of it and Chris sat on the toilet which was very funny.
The following day there was no diving so we went to another nearby island resort called Hideaway Island to do some snorkeling. The reef came right up to the beach so there was loads to see and it was fairly quiet there with not many people on the beach. There was also an "Underwater Post Office" - which was basically a hut and a post box, under the sea, about 50 metres from the shore. They sell waterproof postcards at the reception but we thought the whole thing was a little bit gimmicky. We ate some lunch on the beach and stayed there until the sun went down, before heading back to Nautilus.
Yesterday we went out on the morning dive boat which meant that we did two dives. They were both reef dives and really good. Chris got some great photos on his underwater camera and the people who we were diving with were really nice and interesting. In the evening we went to a cafe in Port Vila town where they show films outside on a big screen and you can watch for free as long as you buy a drink. They show films on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays so this was our third time there! We watched a film called Adam which we really liked and we went with a guy called Harry who is one of the diving instructors from Nautilus. He's only 18 and he hasn't really got any friends to play with as there isn't much of a young party scene here, so we think he's quite pleased to have us to hang out with...!
Today we did our last dive with Nautilus which was another reef dive to a place called Honeybone reef where we had been told we might see hawksbill turtles. On every dive we have done so far we have hoped to see turtles and seen none - and today was no exception. Boo. But there was only the two of us and another instructor, Emma so it was a nice leisurely dive and we really enjoyed it. Also we saw two lion fish and Emma said they very rarely see them around here so we were pleased.
Tonight we went over to Iririki island again, where we met up with Harry and a few people he had met, and had a few beers during happy hour. Then we came back over to our room, cooked some dinner and are going to spend the evening watching some films on the laptop. Tomorrow we are going on a round the island tour which we booked with the same company who took us to the waterfalls. The same guide, Robert, is taking us so we're really looking forward to it as he was really interesting on the trip to the waterfalls and told us loads of cool stories about how people live here and the islands where his family are from. In the evening there is going to be a free barbecue at Nautilus which we're almost looking forward to more as we always seem to miss the free stuff wherever we're staying!
We've got a few more days here in Vanuatu before we head back to Fiji, where we have booked onto the Fiji Experience bus. It will be weird to go back to travelling around as staying here for two weeks has really felt like a holiday from all that!
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