Day 3 Thursday 9th July 2015 - Round Island Tour

Bear with me on this one, as this is a bit like a Pearl Penny Travelogue and slides.

Up early this morning for the Round Island Tour. Our neighbours had warned us that they waited outside the office to get their tour and had been picked up by an unscrupulous bus driver so no commentary, no free lunch etc just a drive around the island. (After our experience with a bus driver we were very wary) What a shame, as our tour guide Glen and driver Noah were excellent. We were joined by an Australian family of Paul and Bonnie with teenagers Breanna, Tuela and Liam. We passed the main Tribal meeting house woven in colours of red, green and yellow - same as their flag. This large traditional structure had been badly damaged in the cyclone and would take quite some effort to repair.

Then passed the Parliament which has frequently changing Prime Ministers. With 83 inhabited islands and 120 languages they all use a sort of Pigeon English now. Vanuatu is part of the Commonwealth and will host CHOGM in 2017 - they hope to get the roads fixed by then!!

They are also building a new sports stadium for part of the South Pacific Games

We drove on passed the University of the South Pacific. Vanuatu has the faculties of Law and Sports (Fiji has medicine, PNG has engineering etc).
The countryside is made up of area of flat land which rises steeply into Volcanic highlands which are virtually uninhabited. The appalling roads make way for the Round Island road built by Downer (NZ firm with funding from The Millenium Challenge and the New Zealand government) They also had to replace many bridges so while this looks like a bit of a wreck it is just a very out of date structure.

Our first stop is the Blue Lagoon and we pop in for a dip. Not much snorkelling joy as it is part freshwater, part salt, but it is very refreshing. Fresh fruit and kumara and taro chips are provided for morning tea.

Back on the bus then a stop to walk through the aerial roots of the Banyan Tree.

 Glen and Breanna come out of the root "Maze"

 We had a stop at a school at Epao where the children sang so lustily some of them had to block there ears.

 A lot of the resources of the school were damaged in the cyclone, but I think by the time all the cyclone aid has been distributed they may be in a better situation than before. Lets hope so.

Naturally we were invited to give them a donation - which we did.

Back down to the sea shore with its heaps of broken coral - they used this as a substrate to the road around the island.

We waited there for our visit to Taka custom village. This man put down the challenge...

and then we were rushed by a group of tribal warriors.....

and finally the chief can along with his cycad branches of peace and we were escorted into the village.

Round their feet they had seed pods which acted like a rattle. It emphasised their foot movements which would otherwise be lost on the sand

This little guy stole the show. He was SO earnest! probably only 3yrs, he knew all the moves and at any stage he wasn't sure he watched the men and launched into the next sequence.

The dances were short and not boring at all

Duncan and the others had a peaceful group shot....

Obviously they fancied me and I was taken hostage!!

Now the lunch was a typical meal and since much of the fruit had been wiped out by the cyclone so root vegetables were the main staple. The tapioca and coconut cream was my least favourite!

This incredible coloured lizard was on display.

Here is Duncan at the lunch - looking very like his father.

Next it was onto the hot springs and volcanic mud.

Interestingly Duncan had an irritated foot through running with sand in his sock. After this treatment the rash had gone.

Tuela had bad acne and the lady persuaded her to have it as a mud pack on her face. (applying in photo below) By the end of the end both Duncan and I noticed how greatly her complexion had improved.

Close up of Tuela's face mask

Round round the top of the island. Here are some shots of the countryside. The Americans had a field hospital up here during the second world war, but the order was to destroy all buildings and they dumped tanks and trucks and empty drums etc into the sea. They are NOT fondly remembered.

Many of the traditional fale look damaged after the cyclone, but the motivation - or perhaps the skills to repair them seemed to be missing. I kept saying - all they need is proper roofing lessons and a town planner and the island would not suffer such damage.

They are very proud of their organic beef - you can just see a bit in the shot below. It almost seems incongruous in the tropical landscape. We had mixed experiences with it on the dinner plate.

The last next two photos show the huge devastation caused by "Mile -a- minute" weed introduced by the Americans as a camouflage  for their activities during the war. In a tropical setting it just went wild and the only way to reduce it is by fire.

We stopped at a snorkelling point but Duncan said it wasn't all that good, so I sat in the rotunda and enjoyed a cup of tea. On to the last point where they process coffee grown on Tanna Island (where the volcano is)

Beans before roasting

The finished product

And finally, just before 5 o'clock we made it back to our accommodation. A quick freshen up and we went to the Stone grill Cafe to sample some of that Organic beef - a very good experience this time.