Fiji
Solomon Islands
Vanuatu

Samoa
New Zealand

We were picked up at 11:00am by GTS and driven about 70km to the east of Honiara. We arrived at a small beach where we met by a small boat which ferried us across to the small island of Vulelua. The island is about 5 acres in size, can be walked around in about 10 minutes and is 3 metres about sea level at its highest point.

We were to spend two nights on the island and intended to spend our time swimming and snorkelling. Unfortunately events were to conspire against us, and although the first afternoon was beautiful weather the visibilty in the water was only about 2 meters and so the snorkelling was not very good. There had been quite a bit of rain in the few days prior to our arrival and alot of fresh water had flowed down through the local rivers. This had brought a lot of sediment and particulate matter down, which explained the cloudiness.

The second day started with rain and the sea was very rough. Another two visitors, an Australian couple who had already spent a week in Vanuatu, were meant to turn up at 10:00am to spend a day on the island. They did not arrive until 11:30am and reported that their journey from Honiara had taken over 3 hours. One of the bridges they had crossed had been partly washed out and they had had to shore it up with bits of wood they had found lying around.At one point their driver had had to make four attempts before he was able to get up a hill of mud. Instead of spending the rest of the day on the island they left after just 2 hours, because they were so concerned about the state of the roads.

They provided us with some useful tips about Vanuatu: the cheapest place to eat is the Olympic Cafe, the best place to change money is Goodies, next to the Cafe and the best place to eat is Vila Chaumiere, which should cost about 800 Vatu by taxi from Le Lagon, the hotel we will be staying at. More about this later.

Later in the day the owner of Vulelua, Brendon, turned up, he reported that the roads were still open, but only just, and he thought they wouldn’t be holding up much longer. Brendon is an Australian who has been living on Vulelua for 13 years. He and his staff of about 5 local Solomon Islanders run it as a hotel, but it is used most by people in the Solomon Islands as a place to go and eat at on Sundays, when they provide a seafood buffet. All through our stay we ate exceedingly well. All the food provided is locally caught or produced and cooked after the local fashion. We had, kingfish, huge prawns cooked in bush lime, saltwater crayfish cooked in coconut milk and bush lime, excellent soups and plenty of tropical fruit. In fact it seemed that all we did whilst on the island was eat, probably because there was nothing else to do.

We had been given the largest of their Melanisian style bugalows, which contained two beds, one being a water bed, as well as two sofas, two chairs and two tables. On our first night we tried sleeping on the water bed, but within a few minutes I had been bitten several times, and I was starting to itch. After stripping down the bed we found there were was a flourishing ecosystem consisting mainly of mites and ants in the woodwork of the bed. So we spent the night sleeping on the sofas which were fairly comfortable. We mentioned the insects to the staff who sprayed the bed but this failed to remove the bugs, so we spent our remaining time sleeping on the sofas. The presence of the insects was probably a direct result of the bamboo and coconut leaf style of roofing used in the construction of the bungalows.

On the third day, the day of our stay, it stopped raining, but two of the employees went across by boat and reported that a bridge was out and the road was badly flooded. So we were going to be stranded on the island for another day. We were unable to go swimming because the water was too rough so we spent our time wandering around the reef at low tide and reading.