Vanuatu

Two days after Ben's Birthday we boarded a jet plane to Vanuatu. Vanuatu? If you're like me, you'd never heard of the place either. Or maybe you recall Survivor Vanuatu? Nope, me either. Probably after a year or more of living here I read about it in the local paper and was all, I don't know where this place is, but let's go! Located out in the South Pacific and north east of Sydney, it's a simple three hour direct flight (which made it even more appealing). We booked the trip three weeks before departure. We all wanted a holiday, but we were not sure where, if we should take AM out of school, Ben (traveling with him in general), yada yada, yada. We had some points to use up, which covered most of the airfare and you can typically get good prices outside of school holidays, so we went for it!

Here is where we stayed - Iririki. 

We pulled up by water taxi around 12:00am, so obvisously this picture was taken on another day. The water is no joke, it's gorgeous. 

We spent most of our seven night stay hanging out by the pool. We went on two little excursions, snorkelled, the kids enjoyed two short stays at the kids club, we rested, slept well, and overall had a wonderful holiday.  

Let's take a look at the 50 pictures I just uploaded. :)

Swimming at the pool the first day.

We stayed in two different rooms, I guess when you book three weeks before, you take what you can get. The first room, we all had to stay in the same room space, which I wasn't sure was going to work (sleep wise),  but look at the view!

And the sleep thing worked!

We had them take naps the next day, since they were working on about 6 hours of sleep. Amazing.
Annmarie woke up before Ben and went snorkeling with Jamie and I rested with Ben. We ate dinner at the resort that evening and called it a day

The following day we dropped the kids off at the kids club at the resort for about three hours. Insert happy dance. Jamie and I snorkelled at the snorkel cove at the resort. The snorkelling was incredible, heaps of fish, colourful coral and the water temperature was comfortable. After picking the kids up, Annmarie and I spent time at the pool and Jamie and Ben went back to the room for a nap. That evening we went over to port for pizza.

They look thrilled.

On day four we took a snorkel cruise. The Nemo boat. And yes, we saw lots of Nemos.

Waiting.

The cruise went around the island we were staying.

This yellow boat is a school boat.

Off in the distance is a Chinese floating hospital which provides medical care to the local islands. Interesting, yes. I just googled Chinese interest in Vanuatu, I'll read about it when I'm done with this post.

Getting ready.

So the cruise basically anchored right at our resort, which was fine, because it's such a awesome spot. We saw an Octopus! Jamie and Annmarie jumped in first and Ben and I spent some time feeding the fish a baguette. We later jumped in, but Ben wanted nothing to do with the mask. So he just floated around in a life vest and fed the fish some more. The fish would basically eat from your hand, so it was still exciting for him.

The boat then took us around the island.

Passing out Star Wars stickers to the driver's kids.

 The kids taking a bath outside.

That evening we went to a dinner show at the resort. Jamie trying the Kava. #gross

Annmarie tried it too. I warned her, but she wanted to try. She was not impressed.

The kids loved the show. They sat up front with most of the other kids and watched. At the end of the show they put Ben in the middle and made a circle around him and started marching and dancing and banging their sticks and generally making a lot of noise and I thought for sure Ben would loose it, but he loved it.  Then Annmarie got jealous because they didn't pick her.

On Day five, we switched rooms. We moved to a bigger room, where the kids had a room with two single beds, but we lost the view. The kids went back to kids club for a few hours that morning and Jamie and I kayaked around the island, literally. We had a little pool time and then we picked the kids up. Ben had a sleep, more pool time and we went out to Thai for dinner.

Local beer.

One day six we took a trip out to the Blue Lagoon and Eton beach.

The kids did really well and I don't think we scared the young couples in our van too much.

The blue lagoon as you can see is a really blue swimming hole. So swim we did.

And kayaked.

Jamie was the only one who did the rope swing.

Then we headed to Eton beach.
There were lots of hermit crabs.

Ben was way into them.

Cheese! It was a beautiful beach and you could walk out for days.

Chooks.

That evening Jamie and I went out dinner to a French restaurant - L'Houstalent over at Port Villa. We knew we had to try a French place considering Vanuatu's French influence and we heard this place has been around for 40 years. It was great! We wish we went back the following night with the kids.  So, yay, we hired a babysitter, a first for us when on vacation. There was a really kind woman that the kids had taken too at the kids club and we (more I) felt comfortable that she could look after them for a few hours. Three hours to be exact. We ordered them pizza via room service, they hung out at the kids club for bit, walked around the resort, watched some TV and we were back by 8:30. It was pretty great.

Day seven we spent at the resort, snorkelling, swimming and resting. We had a very disappointing Mexican meal that evening. We should have known better, but we always hope. The resort also celebrated it's 14th Birthday that evening, so we enjoyed some cocktails and cake that evening and kids had fun dancing.

Ben takes a nap like it's his job.

On our final morning we hit the swimming pool one last time and packed up and headed out.

Art the kids had done at kids club but left behind.

One last water taxi ride.

Some closing thoughts.
I was pleasantly surprised how well everyone slept. Annmarie and Ben had to share a bed the first four nights and I thought for sure Jamie and I would end up switching out, but they were fine.
The food at the resort was a bit disappointing and the kids meals didn't have any healthy options -chips, chips, chips (Ben was happy).  We had a buffet breakfast every morning, which was fine and we could get the kids eggs and fruit. With that said, we were not tied to the resort for food, it was easy to travel over to Port for other options. I liked that.
Very laid back, friendly people.
The kids had their fair share of moments and meltdowns and keeping Ben in his seat for meals without giving into devices, was (is) always a bit tricky. They loved all the swimming and attention from the locals.
Overall just a beautiful, colourful place. And the sea water was just incredible, the blues. We didn't drink the water. Most of the tourists appeared to be Aussie or Kiwi.

There you have it. It was a superb holiday. Would I go back? Totally!