Tanna Video

When I went to Tanna to see the volcano, there was a New Zealand couple along on the same flight. They had moved from New Zealand to Chile and bought a dairy farm, which they'd run for around a decade before purchasing a sailboat and taking to the seas.

Vanuatu was an early stop for them. They were there waiting on some parts, and so took the plane to Tanna instead of sailing.

They messaged me today with "We made a video of our Tanna trip! You'll have to find it--can't figure out the link."

If you're curious about the volcano trip I went on, this is a pretty good summary. It's charming. 

Gallery of the Pacific

Here are some photos of other moments from the trip I took last week.

Enjoy! At least, I did. 

Polaris Pajamas or Paw Paws?

The processing power of my brain has gone numb, and I am lying in a Best Western bed across from Sydney’s Hyde Park, unable to compute what all I’ve seen over the last week. The volcano alone would have been enough, but the land diving had put me over the edge, and I can’t take any more input. At least, not yet.

How did I used to travel like this for months—even a year once—at a time? Everything is overwhelming and exciting, and it’s funny I used to also build in time for writing. Right now, I feel like a social media post is about my max, and I’m woefully behind even on that, because sleeping feels more essential than social media.

The sudden shift from Vanuatu to Australia is aggressive, like flying to New York from Haiti. I filled my water bottle from the hotel room tap and took a few tentative sips, then laughed at myself and gulped it all down.

Diving Into Dirt

All three of Air Taxi’s small planes were scheduled to fly to Pentecost Island this morning for Naghol, or land diving. I went to the Tanna volcano with Air Taxi last week, so when the transfer van pulled us tourists up to the domestic gates at the Port Vila airport, I scampered up to the counter and paid my departure tax immediately, rarin’ to go. The next seven people to follow my lead went on the same plane as I did, captained by Duncan from…I have no idea. I can’t even remember his accent. British? Aussie? I have forgotten, weirdly. Anyway, Duncan was a professional pilot who works all over the world, including in Afghanistan during the most recent evacuation.

“How old is this plane?” I was pretty sure it was at least as old as I am, but Duncan wasn’t saying. “Older than all of you, younger than me.”

Maybe.

We all put in our earplugs and took off first, and the single-engine Air Taxi followed with six passengers 13 minutes later. The other two-engine aircraft with eight more folks followed along after that.

We knew rain was imminent, but Duncan was a pro. He dodged the clouds and got us through the hour-long flight with minimal turbulence. But when we got there, he landed and then turned to us as soon as we all had our earplugs out.

“The other two planes turned back due to the clouds. You’re the only people here today.”

Shit, was I lucky! Last week, I’d been thwarted by the Air Vanuatu jet from Sydney being delayed by two days, and I’d missed my Saturday booking. Imagine if I’d come back to Vanuatu from New Caledonia and missed it again! I sure wouldn’t be able to hang around another week.

Check out the land diving photos, they tell the story better than I can.

We missed the picnic and dugong spotting on Efi Island on the way back. Duncan wasn’t taking any chances with the rain. I’m back in my hotel now, drenched in sweat and dirt, and I’ve just scrubbed the mud off my shoes so I can get into Australia tomorrow. I’ll be there for 20 hours before it’s off to LAX.

What a completely weird and incredible experience.

Surely It's Licensed

Hulk go to kava bar.

But Will It Rain?

Here's the plan for Saturday. I hope it doesn't rain. I hope Air Vanuatu doesn't leave me stuck on New Caledonia tomorrow. I hope I see the dugong, but I hear that's tough.

To Tanna

Volcano Day was amazing. I left my bag at hotel reception and took just a few things for overnight. Air Taxi picked me up, then we fetched two Kiwi dairy farmers living on a boat (having sold their dairy farm in Chile), then we picked up two French IT guys from Bangkok who were working at a local bank in a contract. A local grandpa joined us at the airport, and off we went in a 10-seater plane to Tanna Island.

We stopped by the lodge to drop off our stuff before a driver took us (not the grandpa, he was just hitching a ride home) to the volcano. The road was nuts, muddy potholes you could lose a Toyota in. Our driver was young, jolly, dreadlocked, and unable to speak English, French, or Spanish so the events all felt random. We never knew what was going to happen next, like travel before the internet. But he drove well and planted us just under the volcano rim. We hiked about five minutes up the ash to stand on the rim and gaze into the literal abyss.

It was terrifying, dangerous, and awesome. It took me about 20 minutes to work through my fear of standing close to the edge, but the view was worth it.

We watched the lava past sunset, then hiked back down to our driver. We were all covered in ash, and the lodge had lovely and welcome showers, plus dinner.

Quick Pivot

Vanu-what? Vanuatu! That’s where I am.

I came to see Naghol land diving (Saturday), and a volcano (Sunday). But Air Vanuatu’s big plane broke, so I was supposed to be stranded in Sydney until Sunday. Yes, even after the call center agent had promised me the delayed plane would get out on Friday night.

When I got back to the Sydney airport after my visit to Taronga Zoo, the Air Vanuatu agent was handing out hotel vouchers...for TWO nights. Folks heading out for a week's vacation were quite upset. "We drove two hours to get here! Where did you come from?"

"Los Angeles." They looked horrified...and continued to wait for their hotel vouchers. Not me. I raced to the shuttle bus to the domestic airport. Maybe there was a way.

While on the bus, I bought a one-way ticket to Brisbane. I got to the bag check two minutes before cut-off. Then at the gate, used the airport wifi to buy a discount ticket from Brisbane to New Caledonia off one of those sketchy sites, then bought a ticket for Saturday morning from New Caledonia to Vanuatu. 

An hour later at Brisbane, I raced from the domestic terminal to the international terminal. I got to the gate six minutes before they shut the door—I was improving. While sitting on the plane waiting for takeoff, I was able to google and ascertain that I couldn't sleep in the Noumea airport, and there were no hotels at the airport. So I booked a shuttle and a hotel room. A few hours later, I was on a shuttle to a hotel in Lemon Bay. I didn't see a lot of Lemon Bay since the return shuttle was due in at 5:25 a.m, but I'd be back to Noumea later in the week.

After all that, I got to Vanuatu two hours after the Naghol Air Taxi left for the land diving. Curses.

I’m sorting out how to go to Naghol on 3 June instead (it’s complicated), but in the meantime, today is volcano day!

Long Way Around

That might be the broken plane I was supposed to arrive on yesterday. I improvised and flew from Sydney to Brisbane to New Caledonia to Vanuatu, but missed the Saturday-only land diving. Maybe I can improvise my way back in a week.

Living the High Life

I'd been careful to get an upgradeable ticket, and then used a heap of points to get myself upgraded to Polaris class for the 15+ hour flight from LAX to Sydney, where I planned to connect to Vanuatu for my holiday. I was excited to go into the Polaris lounge at LAX, but to be honest it wasn't that exceptional in comparison to the regular United lounge, which is quite nice here in Los Angeles. 

 And then, on the flight, the flight attendant gave me pajamas and slippers. I couldn't see myself cramming into the tiny loo to change into and out of the pajamas, so I stayed in my street clothes in my little Polaris compartment.*

This is all a far cry from a neck pillow in Economy!

*to be regretted in a subsequent entry.

I Miss Thorntree

I tried hunting for info on airport taxis in Vanuatu. You know, the kind of thing I'd once look up in my Lonely Planet, or after that, quickly hunt down an online personal account of someone who'd just done it and shared the price and if there had been a queue, or maybe just a link to a thread somewhere stating taxis are as easy as a shared shuttle.

I did eventually find (on a forum) that yes, there are plenty of fixed-rate taxis and I won't have a problem, but to get there I had to wade through SO MUCH CRAP. It really is astonishing just how worthless AI and content-mill articles are. Are there taxis? Why, yes. There will be taxis. The airport features taxis, a male toilet as well as a female toilet, and a baggage conveyor belt. The male toilet is located in a convenient location near the female toilet. The taxis are in a line near the location where baggage is available.

Thanks. How useful.

Reading these poorly written passages makes me laugh about the threat of AI. And then I write about AI, and then AI has more material to sample, so it can get better.

What could possibly go wrong, she says, hitting "Post."

New to Me

I am going to Vanuatu in 10 days, with short stopovers in New Caledonia and Sydney. 

And because I'm paranoid about the debt ceiling talks, I just got foreign currency ahead of time, for the first time since maybe 1992...

Upcoming Holiday

I'm thinking about making this year's vacation a trip to Vanuatu around Memorial Day. I was just reading about the main city when I stumbled over a mention of a local comic book! I got excited and found a reference to the creator in French...and that is where I learned he died in 2020.

Office de Tourisme du Vanuatu
November 16, 2020 (courtesy translation software)

"It is with sadness that we learned over the weekend of the sudden death of Guy Deroin, visual artist/writer/designer/ni-Vanuatu painter 🖌

Better known as 'Guigui', he is the author of the only comic strip in the country 'Mino', available in French. His dream was to create an amusement park for adults and children, with the theme of the cultures of Vanuatu 🇻🇺

Exactly 11 years ago, he allowed Vanuatu to win a world record recorded by Guinness, in the category "How many people can write a story in 24 hours" 🏆

Guy Deroin drew 35 images illustrating the adventures of two children and a giant turtle as they travel the 85 tropical islands of the Vanuatu archipelago 🏝

838 children participated in writing the story based on his drawings, each contributing a sentence 🖊

In 10 hours, school children and a handful of adults broke the previous record (set by 797 Austrians) 👏"