Fatumaru Lodge Port Vila

... nearby, being prepped for their eventual release back to the sea. We didn&#8217;t stay long, but left with a hope that the efforts of the sanctuary would lead to a renewal in numbers and also in developing the centre to its full potential. <br><br>As quickly as our holiday began, we found ourselves back on a plane and heading home. Our holiday may have only lasted a week but the memories of Vanuatu and its people left ...

... trembled my teethes into pieces (Heidi bought me a tandem dive for Christmas present and guess who is afraid of heights!). After changing another pair of underwear we set to have another two pleasant days in Port Vila, now zipping Gin Tonic and gazing the stars above us. But if there is anything I will always remember and treasure about ...

... way to celebrate. Of course I got bitten under water for the first time, so had an unusual present from a red snapper. I dived the world's biggest intact wreck, the USS Cooldige. Well I am only paraphrasing the dive operator's brochure. It was pretty big though, at two or three hundred metres long, and there was no way you could see the whole thing without a few weeks there. I also dived million dlooar point, which was even more interesting. At the end of the war ...

... group chased their chickens for a workout) we gathered together and one of the trainers showed us different ways to kill a chicken. During the wait I decided to go back to my hut and put on my swimming short because I was all hot and sweaty from chasing the chicken. By the time I came back to the group the 3 chickens were already killed. I missed the cruel part of the exercise! I was told that one guy try to ...

... it's the same wherever you go ... all part of the local flavour! We also took a local taxi for a drive around the area which was interesting ... seing the homes and facilities. Unfortunately, the person I went with wasn't very adventurous and we didn't do any day trips around the island which would have been great. Better luck next time! Still, it was very relaxing and we got to know Vila, Iririki Island and surrounds very well.

... gees louise it's hot!!! Once inside the airport, you can't help but see four or five traditionally dressed Vanuatu men playing music. One guy is bent very awkwardly over what I presume is an old soap box turned one string instrument... no offence to the dudes but every song seemed the same, perhaps its because I couldn't understand what they were saying but it certainly sounded like one continual song. Go through customs which was so lax I seriously ...

... the place up so that we would have some where to go. So we got in and had some food in the café and of course I sampled the local produce. They had Tusker beer in stock and they were out of Vanuatu Bitter. So I tucked into a Tusker and have to admit it was quite nice. So we stocked up on munchies for the flight back to Fiji. As a final bit of cheek they actually started making boarding calls for us once they were ready to go. I ...

... Looking forward to it. I was at the school today..I'm not as popular with some of the teachers as I might have been. It seems they were expecting me to handover great wads of cash to them which they would claim will be spent on the school and instead would go into the pockets of the treasurer, teachers etc. I was invited to a handover ceremony last week where they wanted the money and when I told them I wouldn't be giving them cash but instead ...

... hit a couple of mines as they entered the harbour. The captain ran the ship onto the reef in the hope that it would stay there while everyone got off - in the end everyone jumped off the boat - well not literally, they slid down ropes down the side and an hour after being run into the reef, the ship slid backwards into the deep water where she now lies for divers to explore. Because ...

... about 10m she couldn't get enough oxygen. This was ratified reasonably early on but didn't make for much relaxtion on my part let alone hers. While the wreck was OK (I can't see me really getting into wreck diving), the highlight was the particularly unimaginatively named flashlight fish. As their title suggests, these light up in the dark and we were fortunate enough to see a huge shoal of them browsing around the Konanda.