Wednesday 29th March

Last night I had a better sleep thanks to the pillow.  Also there were no bugs that I noticed, however at about 4am we awoke to a clitter clatter and felt something funny on my leg.  Turned the light and and somehow there was a crab in the bed, probably 20cm wide including legs.  It tried to go under the covers but I lifted them up and it jumped off the bed.  Good enough for me, I tried to go back to sleep but the roosters started soon after.  I dozed for a bit, but we had a day trip planned today, so getting up early (about 6am) was probably a good idea.

Today’s activity was the blue lagoon.  Was it the one from the movie?  I really doubt it.  My main concern was the drive out there – it was apparently further than the airport, and I really didn’t want to deal with the pothole ridden roads.  But deal we did, and actually the dirt road portion (which is the problem part) seemed much quicker!  We stopped off at a corner store type shop and picked up some snacks and drinks, and then went to some special bakery to pick up pastries, and importantly forget to get a load of bread for lunch.  Rory wasn’t feeling well at this point, but after some water and a Panadol, she was back.

The road to the blue lagoon was tarred the rest of the way, so was no big deal.  The blue lagoon itself was actually quite blue, and importantly the water was cool – low to mid 20s I’d say.  There were some fun things to do there too – ropes to swing off and platforms built into the trees to jump off.  Rob got some footage of the high swings on his gopro, but we haven’t watched it yet.  Rory swam (with a little bit of help) from one side of the lagoon to the other – huge effort considering she really learnt to swim unaided a couple of weeks ago and has had about 3 practice sessions.

There was a little undercover area built into the trees where we setup camp, and made some sambos and had snacks.  How did we make sambos if we forgot to buy bread?  Well we asked the driver who was going to stay with us until we were ready to come home to pop back to the bakery to grab it for us.  An hour later he still hadn’t come back, and we eventually message Romina, who called him a few times.  When he finally came back, it was just rando bread from a shop, not the specific bakery bread we were recommended, or told him to get.  “Vanuatu time” is how this was explained.  Two nannies (Joycey and Lee) came with us to help look after the kids which made things much easier, although sometimes Cyclone Finn could not be stopped.  Phoenix fell asleep on the car trip there (somehow on the dirt road portion), and also just before we started back.  The dirt road section on the way back seemed longer than the way there, but possibly because I was holding Phoenix at this point, and he really wanted to escape.

Dinner was some spicy thing I couldn’t eat again, except for the sides.  They’re not just picking on me though – most dishes seem to have fish in it, and Lisa doesn’t eat fish.  Maybe I’ll actually trim down on this trip. 

Things of note:

• Vanuatu time seems to just be employed when it suits the person employing it.  Maybe I’m being cynical.  We have been told by Romina that we can’t overwork the staff – if we try and make them do more than 6 hours they’ll just run away and not turn up the next day (or again).  Right. 
• Not as many photos as I would like to be honest, but I often don't have my phone on me for one reason or another (probably mainly the patchy internet).  Still not comfortable taking my phone into water.