Friday 31st March

Had a decent sleep, although Lizl’s sleep has been broken unfortunately.  Today we were going on a boat trip to see a turtle sanctuary and do some snorkelling.  This trip had really been talked up by Romina – apparently we would be seeing a “real” turtle sanctuary, whatever that meant, and at the snorkelling spot we would be treated to an 80s BBQ, “but in the good way”.  OK.

The car was supposed to leave at 8am, but I guess Vanuatu time worked in our favour today – we left at 9am with bags packed.  Rory and Lizl sat in the ute tray with the nannies and the rest of us piled into the twin cab with Bill driving.  He dropped us off at the end of Devil’s Point Road (the crappy dirt road) where a bus was ready (with other civilians) to pick us up.  To our horror none of the nannies got on the bus – we were expected to look after our own children the whole day?!?!

The bus trip was easy – all tarred.  We arrived at Port Havannah where the boat was embarking to take us to the turtle sanctuary.  The boat was from WWII apparently - had definitely seen better days – but it did the job and we were served tea, coffee, and bread with jam.  Upon arrival we were given a turtle spiel which I missed entirely due to putting sunscreen on Rory.  We then walked down a track and arrived at some concrete containers, maybe a couple of metres wide and long each.  Each one contained turtles at different stages of life, I believe they took in baby turtles and released them when they were 1 year old – old enough to breed without getting eaten.  We were allowed to pick up the older turtles, so Rory and I had a hold, and we sort of forced Phoenix to touch one for some reason, I’m sure it will mould him in important ways come adulthood.  Rory, Elle, and I spoke at length about the different things that turtles eat, and I was comfortable that Rory now had a  “fact of the day” for later in the evening.  She started feeling a bit unenergetic at his point, so we forced some water into her and made our way back to the boat with the rest of the group.

The next leg was quick – we were at the snorkelling beach within 15 minutes.  Fortunately there was lots of shade here, so we setup camp and the kids quickly got into their swimmers.  On top of the “off-beach” snorkelling, they offered two sessions to hop in the boat (before and after lunch) and take us to some well known spots.  My interest in snorkelling was fairly low, but I had found what appeared to be a mask that didn’t hurt, so I went to the first session.  The boat trip was all of 5 minutes and the snorkelling was OK – bland coral again, but quite a lot of fish if you were in the right spot.  I also spotted some scuba divers, and followed them for a few mins. 

Back at the beach we had lunch, the “80s BBQ” lived up to the “80s” part, but I’m not so sure about the “in a good way” part.  Rory had a sanga sandwich because there was nothing else, as expected I had to force it down and deal with some tears along the way, but was mostly successful.  As Lizl went off to do the after-lunch snorkel, I thought I would try and put Phoenix down for a nap.  But where?  Well, I’ll tell you.  I dug out some sand into a shallow cradle and draped a towel in there, then tried to just put him in there awake, but he said “nice try”.  So then I held him until asleep and slowly lowered him in, which was successful!  I then went for a dip in the water (nearby), and managed about 10 minutes before he woke up.  I came out of the water, picked him up, cuddled him back to sleep, and then put him down again.  Again, 10 mins later he woke up.  This time I just lay down with him on my chest and he was happy, despite it being quite sweaty and me constantly swatting at ants and flies.  When Lizl got back we all hopped on the boat back to Havannah, then back on the bus back to the top of Devil’s Point Road, and then back in Bill’s ute to trek back to the property.  This time Rory, Elle, and Rob were in the tray.  The nannies were there again, and took Phoenix, but Finn would not be taken and sat on Lisa’s lap.  I think he opened the car door while we were driving 3 times.

 

Things of note

• Havannah is where we’ll be staying for the last 2 days
• Took Phoenix for another rock pool bath, with similar results
• Dinner: fajitas.  Jalapenos and hot sauce present, but avoidable.
• First day with no pina coladas.  Hope to correct course tomorrow.
• Rory did another fact of the day session in the kitchen, this time it was that unicorns aren’t real (nothing about turtles – I think her little mind races when it’s fact time and she just comes up with something/anything).  It was a full house for this one, about 5 ladies and 2 guys listened in.  The ladies smiled politely but the guys looked pretty unimpressed.  Romina mentioned later that none of them would know what a unicorn is.
• At dinner time Rob had a direct chat to Romina about the lack of nannies on the day trip, and she was apologetic and claimed she didn’t even think about it like that.  It may all sound a bit dramatic, but Finn is a handful, neither Rob or Lisa could do the snorkelling because he’s always causing trouble in one way or another.