Matthew Burgess

So I’m back from my recent trip to the Vanuatu Islands… and although it rained (every. single. day… bar one, which was overcast anyway), it was still a fabulous trip.
The people in Vanuatu are some of the friendliest I’ve ever met (not surprising when you consider that Vanuatu has been voted the “Happiest Place in the World” 3 years running now; although, to be honest, I’m not sure how you quantify something like that.

In many ways, Port Vila (which was the main town near where we were staying, Iririki Island) reminded me of South Africa… careening “mini-buses”, and slack to none road-rules were the order of the day.

Unfortunately we were there at the wrong time of the year to travel to Pentacost to see the original vine “bungee” jumping, and the weather was so bad that flights to Tanna to see the world’s most accessible active volcano were cancelled for the entire week. In all… the weather was not the most co-operative.

That said, a holiday is what you make of it, and the girlfriend and I had some great times kayaking, snorkeling, and touring Efate (whether it was with a tour minibus, canoeing in a wood cutout up the river, all terrain buggy tours, or solo trips to outstanding features like the Mele Cascade… see pics of all below).

I’ll probably update this with more information later, but I’ve returned to an absolute MOUNTAIN of emails from under which I’m still struggling to extricate myself… so for now, enjoy these photos.

Hope you all behaved.