Last day - heading home 13 July

Sunday and time to head home.  A bit sad as the weather was fine.  But also keen to be home as three weeks is a long time to be away.

Our plane was late, but we manged to connect easily with Ben at the airport (so neat to see him!) before we arrived at home sweet home!

End of a big adventure.

Catamaran & cooking July 12

Played hooky again in the morning and went catamaraning together.

Fantastic!  Weather was fantastic and we saw some awesome sights.

One weird thing was seeing a long (70cm?) skinny silver fish swim upright across the water on it's tail.  Bizarrely it seemed to trip and ended up cartwheeling!

After that we heard a crashing sound which we thought was from the docks,  But no.  It was a large school of silver fish leaping out of the water repeatedly for around three minutes or so.  Bizarre, but so cool.

After lunch we went on our booked cooking class.

Thi was at a resort Le Lagon.  Much nicer that Iririki and with sun loungers!  Michelle my p.a. stayed there and loved it.

We  along with our companions wanted to steal some loungers and take them back.

The cooking lesson was a bit disappointing being rather basic - making spring rolls.  We were however called by the head chef as the 'gourmet couple'.

My spring rolls

My chocolate filo

La lagon view

Afterwards we had the gala dinner with NZLaw.

Allan at Lagon

Working? - 11 July

Ceri and I gave our talk to the conference, a piece linking the evolution of Jaws with Kiwi innovation.

Afterwards Allan and I went on an island buggy tour.  So much fun, particularly when Allan (who insisted on driving the whole time - grrr) insisted on driving into all the puddles on my side of the buggy.

The pictures tell the story...

The Vanes

Dave O'Neill

Mad driver

Alan Hay

The Vanes

Buggy aftermath

Happy passenger

Free day? - 10 July

I played hooky and didn't attend any of the conference sessions.

Instead, Allan and I kayaked slowly around the island.  this was fun, particularly as the weather had recovered.

There were many derelict ships abandoned around the island, sad but but intriguing.

Afterwa

rds we had lunch with NZLaw and did our usual play cards, drink cocktails at the bar.

Dinner was on the mainland with Vanes.  Fun times!

First day of NZLaw conference - 9 July

Weird!

Same morning as before - except I'm now managing partner of James & Wells.

We thought the Jaws owners and spouses would have dinner that night on the mainland.

The conference proper starts today with what we thought was just cocktails that night.  It was cool to catch up with old friends - including the Vanes.  Coincidentally they are our neighbours at the beach and have the neighbouring fare!

We had a tasty dinner on the mainland. Weird sign in the toilet though!

Apparently it's for the Asian tourists.

The day the earth shook - 8 July

We went to bed early, but woke around 11:30 (jet lag) so decided to read.

Just before 12 there was a large rumble and the fare shook violently!  We thought a powerboat was crashing into our pylons over the water!

Allan worked out that it was an earthquake - very scary.

While nervously waiting for the tsunami, we looked it up on the net,  Apparently it 6.3 on the Richter scale, centred 15km away on Vila, but 100km deep.  So no tsunami and no aftershocks, but what a buzz amongst the tourists the next morning!

According to locals it was common.  But there was so much chatter, people who put on running gear in the night just in case, others who slept through because of sleeping pills, people who were scared being 3 storeys up and others who thought they'd slide into the water.

Apart from the initial scare, the morning followed the same pattern as yesterday with me in aprtnership meeting till 1:30 and Allan swimming and kayaking.

Market flowers

 
I realised when doing this blog that I hadn't taken many photos, probably because we were so busy.
Something freaky happened however.  Remember we stayed near St Saturnin d'Apt - popn just over 2000?  Well, amazingly at the local supermarket in Vila, we found a bottle of wine from there!
As a piece of history, Vanuatu was once the New Hebrides and has three official languages, French, English and a pigeon English called Beslami.
Dinner at the resort and an early night again - no earthquakes.

First full day 7 July

Well I had quite an intensive partnership meeting until 1:30 while Allan swam with fishes and kayaked around the island.

You have to be careful though and wear boat shoes as there are loads of spiny urchins and poisonous stone fish.

spiny sea urchins

Vila from our fare

1984

Ubiquitous poster

Market

Bananas

After a late lunch we went over to the mainland.

There  are loads of markets , many  bursting with tropical fruit.  Others are laden with beachy clothing.  The shops are unusual, mainly of the $2 variety kind and almost all identical.

The island feels poor.  But we amused at the sign showing exports from February.  Very 1984-like.

We had cocktails at the bar before we dinner at the resort - island style!  Interesting that most of the food is curried.

 

Prawn cocktail - island style

Vanuatu - here we come! 6 July

Within 24 hours of arriving in New Zealand we were driving back up to Auckland airport.  Re-packing was relatively easy - we took only one bag - which included some of the summer gear we'd bought in Apt.  This time there was none of the latent travel anxiety - now being seasoned travellers.

On the plane again...

Only a short flight, 3:30.

For the first time we met indifferent weather.

We bussed to a jetty from the airport in Vila. The resort is on an island a short boat trip (5 mins) from the jetty.

The island is relatively small and easy to walk, kayak or sail around.  Accommodation is a mixture of 3 storey apartments and fares (pronounced far-rays).  We were lucky enough to have a fare over the water.

View from our fare

Iririki Resort

Our fare in the midddle

A number of people complained about the facilities - exacerbated by the dull weather and patchy telecommunications.  We were ok with our room, although it was tired.  The lack of reliable internet was my biggest concern, particularly with things happening at work and even not being able to do this blog.

Biggest complaint was only 6 loungers for 500 people on the island!

We walked round the island checking out the facilities which included a couple of bars and restaurants.

An early tea that night - ready for the next day!

Heading Home - briefly 3-5 July

The looong trip home was quite uneventful, the only'excitement' was a terrorist alert and the realisation that we were hovering over the States on Independence Day.

Great to be home - even for a day.  Especially to see Rebecca, although the guilt is still there about abandoning  her in the holidays.

Nudge nudge - July 2 2014

What a lovely feeling to be back in London!

It's been five years, but it feels so familiar we had  no burning urge to to do the full tourist thing.  And yes, the weather was wonderful.

First we wandered just outside the hotel around Greenwich.

Greenwich panorama

Aaart in Greenwich

Greenwich Mean Time!

As an aside we walked heaps on this trip, enjoying every step.

Of course we had to stand over the dateline - last time being five years ago.

Straddling the line

Ditto

Afterwards we mastered the Underground.

Entering the underground

Guess where we were!

Paella!

The Wheel

So cool to see the big paella pans again!

Covent garden - great shops!

Can't escape Alice

Random British stuff

Show we went to 5 years ago!

London shop...

The biggest change to London is the "new" building of the SHARD

This clearly is the largest and most dominant building in London.  Naturally we had to check it out.



However, beforehand we had to have a real olde English pub lunch by the Thames with Bwitish (spelling deliberate) beer and crap food.  But it was next to Walter Raleigh's Golden Hind ship  -so cool.

Lunch by the Thames

The Shard was a real tourist trap, but well worth seeing London from up high.

After the Shard we scurried back to our hotel to get ready for MONTY PYTHON!

This was at O2, formerly known as the Millenium Dome.  Last time was five years ago when we sw Body works.

Monty Python was awesome!

We expected them to be old, but Eric Idle sang true,the sketches were still funny (slightly modernised) and it was great entertainment overall.  Could rave for ages, but accept it, so sweet to finally see them the flesh.

Afterwards we retired to the hotel bar where we met others who had been to the concert. They raved like us!