Hideaway Island

We spent our last day on a small island called Hideaway Island, just of the capital of Vanuatu, Port Vila on the island of Efate. Port Vila was really big in comparison to Luganville, even though it was still very small with just a few quite primitive shops and restaurants. We went into Port Vila to watch the fruit market which was open 24 hours per day and sold a lot of fruit and vegetables neither one of us had ever seen before. In the afternoon we snorkelled and visited the worlds only underwater post office at about three metres depth. We also posted some postcards and looked at some more fish. One fish was biting my hair tie quite hard which was a bit funny and scary.




We snorkelled until it got dark and then we had a big nice dinner. We both really enjoyed snorkling at Hideaway Island and especially all the different types of anenomy fish we saw there.

Local Village

Our final excursion was with a guide to a local village, where we were shown all the traditional methods of making food and clothes in Vanuatu. Unfortunately they could not perform any songs or dances as a chief of one of the other villages had died 10 days prior. We also had cava, a narcotic drug together with the chief which symbolises us becoming friends. I did not really want to take it as the hygiene did not look to good but we had to out of respect, and as expected I got rather sick and had to go on antibiotics back in Auckland. What was really amazing about our whole trip to Espiritu Santo is how little tourists there were there. Going there and leaving we were the only non islanders on the plane. There was hardly anything arranged for tourists in the little town of Luganville, only the dive centers and some non-existing food stores and a fruit market. Everyone was also really happy to see you and we quite often felt stared at. We believe it was really nice to enjoy the south pacific like this, hence like it used to be before a lot of it became very exploited with lots of resorts.

Charlies & Cindys reef

I and Annika are not as keen on wrecks as the guys, so on the last diving day we all decided to do some coral diving. We went with Aquamarine Divecenter as Allan Powers’s boat was broken. The corals were very beautiful but relatively new and not too colour full. We went to two spots, Charlie’s reef and Cindy’s reef. Charlie’s reef had much more corals and also seemed to be a very large reef. Some corals got really big in this place as you can see. The second dive was at Cindy’s reef, which had more fish and was rather rich in Clams. The island you can see is Aore Island, which is just opposite to Luganville, where we stayed.

Blue Hole

Except for diving we did two excursions. The first one was to a freshwater spring called the Blue Holes. We asked to rent the guides car as we thought it would be more fun to go by ourselves. The only problem was that there were no road signs or notices once you got in to a certain area, so it took us a little while to find the water in the middle of the jungle. Going around Santo there were quite a few signs of WWII. The roads that were now rather bad seemed in fact to have been pretty good in the past, judging by the concrete marks. We also saw several supply sheds and landingfields. Even more clear was the effect on the natural environment. The whole rainforest was covered in "military cover leaves" and mostly looked like a large Paintball zone. Anders and Markus were both running around checking the roads and surroundings while I and Annika were sitting in the car eating cookies. We dived in the holes and the visibility was really amazing. You could in fact see the leaves in the trees when looking up from 18 metres depth. Above you can see some of the photos on Anders practicing UW photogtraphy, as well as a self portrait by Markus.

After the Blue Holes we drove on to a beach called Champagne beach, which is on the north-eastern side of the island. The beach is supposedly one of the most beautiful beaches in the Pacific and the sand grains were very small and white. It was really nice to go for a swim!

Million Dollar Point

The third day of diving we decided to leave the luxory liner SS President Coolidge to dive at Million Dollar Point.
The place has got its name as the Americans dumped millions of dollars worth of equipment at the end of WWII. The cost of shipping it home was too high and according to our guide the Americans tried to sell everything to the French at an unreasonably high price. When the French came back with a lower offer the Americans were offended and decided to dump everything into the sea. Maybe not the best for the environment but fun for scuba divers as the bottom from 15 to 42 metres is covered with cars, jeeps, boats, trucks and so on.
The spots also attracts sea life and we saw a lot of corals. Anders and Annika even saw a turtle, when Markus and I were stuffing around with the camera.

We had a good time diving the MM$Point even though we were longing for more reefs and colourful fish at this point.

Coral Gardens

When scuba diving deep, one always has to ascend slowly and preferably stay some time at around 5 metres depth. Luckily, there was a small coral garden on the way up from President Coolidge. I think I and Annika both enjoyed seeing some fish and corals and not just wreck parts. It was particularly many Clown fish, or now commonly known as Nemos as well as some Swedish fish.








It was also a great opportunity for me and Markus to practice the settings on the camera, as you can not get any decent photos on automatic mode.