South Pacific Adventure Part II (Blu Ray version)

We'll post another couple of Vanuatu blogs to give you a bit more of an idea of the fun things we got up to, and how amazing Vanuatu is.

You remember on the previous post how we mentioned that Vanuatu's history as a massive base for US troops during WWII? Of course you do - you were paying attention.

Anyway - a legacy of this is that there are absolutely LOADS of things that that the americans left behind when they left (intentional and unintentional). These range from the world's best dive site (USS President Coolridge) to crash-landed Corsair planes, to dumps full of 1940's bottles of Coke and hand grenades. It's really fascinating. Many of the villages have collected a lot of the items and have created their own 'museums' of the artifacts they've found. They're really proud of them (understandably so) and WWII means a lot to them as it really changed their lives, and allowed them to meet outsiders for the first time in lots of cases.

Anyway - we decided that it would be fun to visit one of these sites to look at a museum and more excitingly snorkel at a crash site of a WWII era corsair plane which crash landed in a lagoon. The guidebook said that a fella named Erik would row you out there. Easy. Or so we thought....

This was Erik's museum at the end of a track which made us glad we'd hired a 4WD Jeep.

But the fun was only just beginning......out we went with Erik on his boat. First of all he paddled us out through the amazing mangrove

Anna was getting a bit worried by this stage as we'd be going for a while and it wasn't apparent how we'd get back in the boat...

And then out into the lagoon. There was a bit of a wind getting up, and Ben being not the thinnest of men, the paddling was a bit of a struggle for Erik as we were getting further out to sea

At last we stopped in the middle of the lagoon and right below us in about 2 meters of water was an amazing Corsair plane which had crashed on it's approach to the local air strip. It was incredible to snorkel all alone, up close to such an amazing wreck. We'd bought a waterproof case for our camera so used it to take this video...

After a while we had to head back - Ben elegantly doing a passable impression of a beached whale trying to get back in the small boat. Thankfully the wind was with us on the way back so Erik could avoid a heart attack. All in all - what an afternoon!

A South Pacific Adventure - part one

5 months and one day after getting married we finally made it to our honeymoon. We were a little bit busy in between on a few little things - painting the fence...that kind of thing.

Anyway - we made it to our honeymoon at last! And wowzers - it was worth the wait. We ended up choosing to go to the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu (formerly the New Hebrides). I'm very tempted to launch into a very lengthy, but informative history of Vanuatu right here on this blog. However, I feel this may alienate our limited but loyal readership so don't want to take that risk. Check out wikipedia instead - but I'll summarise things in two sentences.

Officially the 'happiest place in the world', this melanesian island nation, with volcanoes, waterfalls, pristine white beaches and WWII wrecks abound. Pigs are very important and Kava even more so (the local root-based intoxicant) - oh, and they think the Duke of Edinburgh is the living manifestation of their god on one of the islands.

How could you not want to go there?

We'll split the 'honeymoon blog' into a few separate areas, just to spread the enjoyment for you all that little bit further. And there's quite a lot to cram in.

We'll start with where we stayed - Tamanu. Six lovely little luxury cottages right on a white beach, about 30mins outside of Port Vila (pronounced Villa), the capital city of Vanuatu (population 30,000) on its main island. This was good as it felt we were properly out of the way, but near enough to the 'action' if required. What a lovely spot it was too with the sound of the waves crashing onto the reef to lull you to sleep. Check out these pics:

Our little cottage with the ocean right outside

The view of the Pacific Ocean from our verandah 

And look at these sunsets taken from the beach in front of our cottage, they were pretty breathtaking...

Our little cottage was made out of coral washed up on the beach.

And had a half outside bathroom!

Fortunately the wall was just high enough to make it not too weird.

The last couple of weeks

We're ticking off the days until our belated honeymoon in Vanuatu so have mainly been pottering around Sydney. We've been up to a few exciting things. Ben got some free tickets to the races. Australians love gambling. There's a big furore over rules around 'pokies' (fruit machines) at the moment. Whole rooms in pubs are devoted to them and the government want to set limits on them to stop problem gamblers losing all their money. In one go anyway.

But the races were a fairly familiar set up to the UK. Women in nice dresses and hats, women in not so flattering dresses and badly applied fake tan, steadily increasing levels of drunkeness. And horse racing.  So we spent a sunny afternoon at Royal Randwick, just down the road from our house.

Ben was pleased to see the Call to the Post.

After a very disappointing afternoon on the betting front, we had reached the last $2 of the betting limit we had set ourselves, and won nothing. After 'studying the ground' Ben decided we should put our last $2 on an 44/1 outsider.

Tension in the stands before the race

It only romped home!!!!!!!!!

We went home in profit with our first ever $100 note. Ben also went home with a sore nose from when I accidentally high fived him in the face during our celebrations.

Sydney is looking very pretty at the moment. The blossoms are out and there's lots of street festivals and bits and bobs going on as the weather starts gettting warmer. We watched men in drag singing cabaret recently in a museum. Not sure what festival that was. And there's a big noodle market in the main park. There's also lots of artworks on display and light installations.

The weather being warmer also means we've been able to head to the beach and swim in the sea. Still pretty bracing, as they'd say in my home town. Apparently Ben thought it was a lovely temperature. We nipped to Clovelly and Bronte beaches - both a 20 minute bus ride from home.

This one of Ben's bare chest is for Tim.

Koalas. Bananas.

Apparently the Aussies love outsize versions of things. So I'm told. Cowboy boots, kangaroos, koalas. I've only come across the koalas so far.

This one was good. In the blue mountains.

This one was a bit weird. I think they got the ears a little wrong.

Yep the ears are definitely wrong. Here's a real one we saw in Brisbane.

Things are looking up on the banana front. When we arrived they were getting on for $19 a kilo (about £14). Look at this...!

Still not many takers though.

A trip Up North!

Last weekend was a bank holiday here in New South Wales. Not that they call them 'bank holidays' - but you know what I mean. Monday off work! Yippeeee.

We decided to make the most of it by hiring a car for a couple of days. The 2nd day was spent driving to Ikea, so I'll spare you the details of that. Needless to say there were billy bookcases and hot dogs. And a receipt as long as my arm. Same as in the UK.

Now - onto the exciting stuff. Our first UP NORTH here in Sydney. The north side of the harbour extends in a peninsula about 40km north, up to a point called Palm Beach. So - astride our trusty steed (a Hyundai Getz) we got up nice and early for a drive up there.

The drive got off to a good start as we got to tootle over the Harbour Bridge. And very nice it was too. Take a look...

Thanks to Mrs Weatherley on 'steady-cam' there.

As mentioned, the peninsula extends about 40km and is known as the Northern Beaches. A string of lovely beaches and coves accompany the drive. It really is beautiful. Now, for those of you who are fans of Australia's number 2 soap export Home and Away, Palm Beach is also known as Summer Bay. Anna was excited to see Alf's shack.

Alf wasn't in...

Palm Beach itself is absolutely beautiful. It's pretty posh, with the most amazing beach houses. Apparently it's where Sydney's great and good have homes. I don't blame them. Here are some snaps.

We had some lovely fish and chips there too. The first we have had since we got here. They were worth the wait. Mmmmmm.

Also - whilst pottering back to the car we stumbled across the best vehicle we've seen since we arrived in Oz. Now - it seems the aussies are in love with their Utes - just like in neighbours. I've started a new 'Ben's Top Ten'. This time 'Top Ten Utes'. There'll be a blog post about it at a later date - but here's a sneak preview of the current Number One.

After spending a couple of hours in Palm Beach we decided to drive back down the coast road and stop off at some of the other lovely beaches and coves. These beaches are all really famous with the surfer types as they each have their own type of surf. Apparently. Here's a selection of them:

Whale Beach

Whale beach again

Avalon beach and another one in the background

It was a bit blowy...

There were loads of other beaches that we didn't get time to explore. We'll be back when it's a bit warmer. Get ready for photos of me in my speedos!

Run Benny Run

An unseasonably warm Spring day (31 degrees), a 9 kilometre route through the sometimes slopey heart of Sydney and three weeks of training. What could possibly go wrong for novice ginger runner Ben Weatherley......

.....well nothing actually. The sun shone, the views were stunning and it was all completed in a very respectable 55 minutes.

The 9k is just one of three events at the Sydney Running Festival - the other 2, a half and a full marathon, were probably not so much fun in 31 degrees, but the 9k was not bad at all. Over the harbour bridge, round the botanic gardens and finishing by the Opera House - a very scenic run. We even looked after some 'celebrity' runners for work before the race. Probably not worth mentioning who.

I know. This is one serious athlete.

A scenic and civilized start. Sunshine and a flat white.

Naturally

Red, sweaty but rather pleased with ourselves at the end

Some redder than others

Midis and schooners all round

Ben wore his medal to bed. Seriously.

It's Bananas!!

Australia is reasonably expensive it turns out - and some things are more expensive than others!

The terrible floods in Queensland (the main banana producing area) in recent years have had quite an impact on the price of bananas! We were utterly oblivious to this until I was called a show off by someone at work for eating a banana. I listened in shock to the explanation and then checked our shopping receipts when I got home. Turned out we'd spent about $42 dollars on 5 bananas. The banana is a luxury item. Now we mostly eat mandarins.