VANUATU - APX

VANUATU
FACTS:
Visas: Nationals of Commonwealth countries, the
EU, Fiji, Japan, Norway, the Philippines, South
Korea, South Africa, Switzerland and the USA do not
require visas for stays of up to 30 days.
Health risks: Tap water in urban areas is generally
safe but not in rural areas. Visitors to the outer
islands should take precautions for malaria. No
vaccinations required.
Time: GMT/UTC + 11 hours.
Electricity: 220 to 240V 50 Hz.
Weights & measures: Metric
Currency: Vatu (VT)
Full country name: Republic of Vanuatu
Area: 860,000 sq km (533,000 sq mi), 12,336 sq km
(7,650 sq mi) of dry land
Population: 189,000
Capital city: Port Vila (Efate)
People: Melanesian & Polynesian (94%), French
(4%), Chinese, Pacific Islanders and Vietnamese
(2%)
Languages: Bislama ('pidgin' English), French,
English and more than 100 indigenous languages
Religion: Christian (84%), animist (16%)
The southern winter is the best time, from April to October. Expect clear, warm days with an average
temperature of 23°C (73°F). Summer is the wet season and brings warmer weather but it can be
unpleasantly steamy, with the heaviest rains in January. From April to June the islanders on Pentecost
practise land diving to guarantee their yam harvest and from August to November the spectacular clan
alliance dance, or Toka, is held on Tanna (check with the tourist office for the current dates).
Attractions
Port Vila
Efate is the island Cook called Sandwich, after
Lord Sandwich, and is home to Port Vila and most
of the tour operators. An ideal base to plan trips to
the outer isles, Port Vila curves around Vila Bay
and creeps up its steep hillsides. The central
commercial district falls neatly into a small block -
about 1km by 250m (0.5mi by 820ft) - bounded by
the harbour on one side and steep hills on the
other. Kumul Highway is the main drag and the
best thoroughfare from which to explore town. It
winds around the waterfront and leads you past
major landmarks such as the Cultural Centre, the
Constitution Building, the GPO, the fish market
and the covered market.
The French Quarter (Quartier Français) lies just
to the north of central Vila and boasts a handful of
colonial-style houses with French louvred
windows. Rue Emile Mercet affords excellent
views over the harbour. Chinatown is sometimes
called Hongkong Street and lies mostly around
rue Carnot in central Vila. Not far from the
upmarket inner suburb of Nambatu are the
waterfront markets, with the best prices in town
for food, no haggling over prices and no hustling if
you don't want to buy.
The cemetery in Anabrou is worth a visit if you're
interested in old bones and wildly decorated
Chinese and Vietnamese tombstones. It also
gives you an insight into the background of Vila's
population. Independence Park, up the hill from
the Post Office, is where the Condominium was
proclaimed in 1906. It's also where petty British
officials rubbernecked during Condominium rule
to check that the Tricolor fluttering in the breeze
at the former French Residency wasn't upstaging
them by flying any higher than the Union Jack.
While the French and Chinese quarters are in
town, the area around the park is like a corner of
a foreign field forever England, with a village
green, quaint little houses and an English church.
During the dry season you'll even hear the thwack
of a cricket ball on drowsy Saturday afternoons.
Vila is not the cheapest place to stay in Vanuatu,
and while the best accommodation there rivals
the best anywhere in the world, so do the prices.
You can console yourself that Vila offers some of
the best and most varied dining in the Pacific.
Apart from a few hostels, backpackers' lodges
and church-owned accommodation, most of the
rooms are in the middle to top end of the price
range and better suit business travellers and big
dollar tourists than budget travellers. Although
camping is not generally encouraged, you can
pitch a tent in the grounds of the Vanuatu
National Women's Council Guesthouse in
Anabrou, which also offers rooms at a reasonable
rate. There are several backpackers' lodges and
cheaper guesthouses scattered within a short
walk of the city centre.

Mele Bay
There's little at Mele Bay above water level, so if
you're not into diving keep on driving. Underwater,
the attractions just keep on coming; coral heads,
shipwrecks and an undulating topography to keep
you on the edge of your flippers. More sites are
being discovered all the time, but Black Sand
Reef is one of the most popular sites around,
replete with coral caves, tunnels and outcrops.
Gotham City is an extravagantly colourful reef
named for the large resident population of batfish.
One of the best dives, with a spectacular array of
tunnels and underwater holes, is at The
Cathedral, and Tuki Tuki has excellent visibility
and enormous chasms that divers can swim
through. Semle Feders and MV Konanda are
two accessible wrecks scuttled in 1985 and 1987,
for the not-so-serious and the very-serious diver
respectively. Mele Bay is 4km (2.5mi) north-west
of Port Vila, and you can reach it on foot or by
taxi.
Erromango Island
The population of Erromango, once estimated at
10,000, is now around 1500. Some locals say the
depopulation - caused by introduced disease and
blackbirding - was in retribution for missionaries
killed last century. The Martyrs' Church at
Dillon's Bay has small tablets in memory of the
preachers welcomed with open mouths by locals
yet to kick their boutique meat habit. Sandalwood
first brought Erromango to the attention of
Europeans, and the forests on this mountainous
island are still a fine reason to visit. Many people
come to trek independently along myriad paths
that cross the island, but you need to hire a guide
for some of the more rugged walks. Huge kauri
reserves, sheltered estuaries with white sandy
beaches, caves full of bleached and mineralised
skulls, and tropical rainforests with diverse flora
are highlights. Erromango is just over 100km
(60mi) south of Efate, and Vanair has return
flights from Vila.
Pentecost Island
Pentecost is home to the spectacularly frightening
naghol, as land diving is known there, and under
the maxim that you should fall before you can
walk many boys are primed for land diving from
an early age. Despite a flimsy overlay of
Christianity many islanders live traditional
lifestyles and adhere strictly to indigenous beliefs.
If you aren't interested in watching the land dive
you can do your own underwater diving at Laone
or visit hot springs at Hotwata. Melsisi is a fine
place to see kava and cocoa plantations, and
from south-west Pentecost you get splendid views
of Ambrym and its actively puffing volcanoes.
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Pentecost is 190km (118mi) due north of Vila, and
there are return flights from both Vila and
Luganville.
Luganville
Luganville is a messy collection of corroded,
corrugated iron WWII huts, ugly concrete slabs
and rusting steel sea walls, with no decent
beaches unless you like walking on coral the
consistency of broken glass. Dining out is limited,
although the market is reasonable for the budgetconscious.
There's no night-life to speak of other
than numerous nakamals (kava bars), and they'll
become very attractive if you have to spend too
much time here. Nevertheless Luganville is a
good base for trips to the northern islands, such
as Pentecost, Maewo and the Torres group.
Down the road from town is Million Dollar Point,
where the US military dumped tons of equipment
- including canned food, bulldozers, trucks, jeeps
and crates of Coca Cola - at the end of the war.
Most of that is now encrusted by coral, making for
great diving in the still, shallow water. More good
diving is to be had 10km (6mi) across the Segond
Channel from Luganville on Bokissa Island,
which has a resort, restaurant, bar and swimming
pool. Luganville is the capital of Espiritu Santo
Island, 260km (160mi) north-west of Port Vila.
There are daily flights from Vila to Pekoa Airport,
6km (3.7mi) outside Luganville.
Off the Beaten Track
Torres Islands
When the South-East Trade Winds are blowing in
the far north of the archipelago the surf is up in
the Torres Islands, and even if it's not, the brilliant
white beaches are still worth a laze. Only four of
the six main islands are populated, and the
Polynesian influence is at its strongest here. They
get so few visitors this way that the shops are not
geared up to tourists, so you'd be wise to bring
some of your own supplies. Coconut crabs,
elsewhere a delicacy, constitute an important part
of the local diet and you can pick them up
cheaply. On Toga Island, children as young as
seven smoke tobacco, using coconut crab claws
as pipes. Hand stencils are visible on the walls at
Yeyenwu Caves on Hiu Island, the northernmost
island in the group, and they will keep stalactite
and stalacmite buffs entertained for hours. You
can see Vanikolo in the Solomons from Mt
Wonvaraon on Hiu. Flights leave from Luganville
for Linua, and from there you can get around in
outrigger canoes or speedboats.
Gaua Island

Dominated by Mt Garet, which puffs steam, ash,
sulphur and smoke into the air, Gaua Island is
renowned for its natural beauty. Lake Letas lies
on an ash plain at the top of the mountain, and
the lake's extraordinary ability to carry the
reflection of passing ships hundreds of metres
below has earned it the more prosaic name of
Lake Reflection. At 7km (4.3mi) long, it is one of
the largest freshwater lakes in the South Pacific,
although volcanic sulphur has stained the waters
orange-brown. Thousands of birds come here to
feed, and incubator birds lay their eggs close by,
abandoning them to incubate in the warm mud.
De Quiros estimated that 200,000 people lived on
Gaua, most likely a gross exaggeration to impress
the Spanish king, but dozens of stone ruins and
dry stone walls reclaimed by forest attest to a time
when Gaua supported a larger population than
the 1300 it does today. Trekking on Gaua is
strenuous, but the lake and Siri Falls are worth it.
The falls drop away into dense forest shrouded in
mist. The Banks Group, of which Gaua is the
second largest, is serviced by air from Luganville,
and speedboats ply between the islands. Small
trading ships also service it from Luganville.
Maewo Island
volcanoes, Mt Inrerow Atahein and Mt
Tahentchai. Accessible reefs, such as Port
Patrick and Inmal Reef, are ideal for diving and
hot springs at Umetch, Itchepthav Bay and
Anwunupol offer a rewarding soak at the end of
a long day. The locals at Anawamet have created
an offshore marine sanctuary to protect the
numerous turtles that feed there, whereas they
are hunted for food elsewhere on the island.
Vanair links Aneityum to Vila.
History
Some of the islands have been populated
continuously for thousands of years and others
are still uninhabited today. The earliest known
settlement was on Malo Island, where pottery at
least 4000 years old has been unearthed.
Prehistoric cultures in Vanuatu were plagued by
inter-tribal warfare. The tribes' rich spiritual life
attributed all natural and human-induced bad luck
or calamities to sorcery, and they staged lavish
festivals to appease the gods. The elaborate
burial chamber of a nobleman buried in AD1265
was excavated on Eretoka Island, off the coast of
Efate, and bears evidence of human sacrifice.
A needle-thin chunk of land on the maps,
Maewo's central mountainous ridge draws more
than 4000mm (that's 4m, or 13ft) of rain annually.
Not surprisingly, the rivers run fast and the jungle
grows thick. A magnificent waterfall surrounded
by deep waterholes lies near the airstrip. Two
coral monoliths at the village of Kerembai
represent people turned to stone in the island's
mythic past. Sorcery, secret societies and a rich
mythology flourish on the island despite, or
perhaps because of, its tragic history. About 90%
of Maewo's population was wiped out by disease
and blackbirding during the 19th century. Avoid
Maewo during the mid-year yam harvest, when
the mid-year hurters, masked men wearing sacks
and banana leaves chase and beat people with
thorny sticks. Hot springs at Lolarouk and
Gaiofo, and cascades at Naone make Maewo
worth more than a flying visit, and you can dive on
a wrecked blackbirding vessel at Talise. Reach
Maewo by air from Luganville or on the Aloara,
that sails from Vila and Luganville.
Aneityum Island
The southernmost of Vanuatu's islands, Aneityum
arguably has the most pleasant climate. Tropical
fruits and vegetables grow luxuriantly and a
walking track that loops around the island makes
trekking an attractive prospect. It is harder work
in the interior, but worth it for the magnificent
mountain scenery punctuated by massive kauri
pines and ancient waterfalls. Three mountains
dominate the interior, two of them extinct
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Explorer Pedro Fernandez de Quiros laid eyes on
the islands in 1606, naming the first one he
sighted Nuestra Señora de Austrialia del Espiritu
Santo, known today simply as Santo. His lofty - if
quixotic - ideal was to found New Jerusalem in
the Pacific on the banks of a river he called the
Jordan. But the locals didn't really want to be
saved and the prevailing south-easterlies
continually hindered the Spanish landings. De
Quiros wandered off into the Pacific not long after
he arrived, presumably believing his failure had
condemned the unsuspecting ni-Vanuatu to burn
for eternity. Among the Spanish, Portuguese and
French explorers who followed was Louis Antoine
de Bougainville, who wrote that he had been
'transported to the garden of Eden'. The
Englishman Captain James Cook was perhaps
less starry-eyed in 1774 when he wrote that the
traditional manner of preparing kava 'is as simple
as it is disgusting'.
Vanuatu's more recent history brims with a
panoply of pulpit-pounding priests, scurrilous
slavers and fumbling colonial bureaucrats. Hot on
the heels of the explorers came the adventurers
to harvest whales and sandalwood and the
missionaries to harvest souls. The Europeans
brought epidemics of influenza and measles,
venereal disease and the slave trade, and the
populations of some islands, particularly in the
north, have never recovered. The English and
French, often at war with each other last century,
settled uneasily next to each other in the New
Hebrides, as the archipelago was known until
independence, and formed probably the strangest

colonial administration the world has seen. Two
declared enemies were sitting in each other's
pockets and forced to cooperate in a far-flung
outpost of the European empire. They finally
settled on a joint mandate early this century with
the Anglo-French Protocol (the 'Condominium',
sometimes referred to as the 'Pandemonium'),
establishing equal influence for both powers.
By far the greatest misery inflicted on the
islanders was 'blackbirding', the South Seas' own
version of slavery that continued into the early
years of the 20th century. Thousands of ni-
Vanuatu were persuaded and downright
kidnapped to work on the sugar and cotton
plantations of Queensland and Fiji, and many
never returned. WWII brought a massive influx of
US military personnel to Efate and Santo, which
became crucial bases in the Pacific War. The
country was awash with American know-how and
dollars, and many ni-Vanuatu earned real wages
for the first time in their lives. More importantly,
the islanders observed black Americans enjoying
the material benefits and luxuries afforded the
whites, and this played no small part in their
agitation for independence.
In the late 1960s the Nagriamel movement began
to attract thousands of followers, mostly in the
northern islands. Its leader was Chief President
Moses (Jimmy Tupou Patuntun Stevens), and it
was originally confined to obtaining rights to the
'dark bush', the land Europeans had never
claimed or settled. Nagriamel became
increasingly politicised, however, and petitioned
the United Nations in 1971 for an 'act of free
choice' over the archipelago's independence.
Britain and France agreed that under the terms of
the Condominium neither would withdraw without
the other, which became a recipe for inaction.
They were finally dragged to constitutional reform
by 1974-75, and as the islanders agitated for
further rights they conceded to elections.
Condominium bureaucrats could see the writing
on the sand by then - even they were aware of
the stink of colonialism in the modern world.
Independence was set for mid-1980, but amid
widespread secessions the Condominium
fractured over its inability to agree on much more
than the height to fly their standards. Anglo-
French troops could not halt the violence and
looting that broke out even in the larger towns,
and the local government finally called in troops
from PNG to restore order and declared
independence on 30 July 1980. The 1990s have
seen bouts of instability in government. A scheme
by the paramilitary Vanuatu Mobile Force to
overthrow the government and establish martial
law over a pay dispute was thwarted in 1996.
Allegations of massive bank fraud by members of
the Carlot Korman government were aired the
same year, and continuing political uncertainty
has seen the economy slow down, foreign
investment fall and the economy shrink despite
the flood of money that has washed in owing to
the country's tax-haven status. In February 1997
the government signed an agreement with the
Asian Development Bank to significantly
restructure the economy with private investment
funds.
In November 1997 Vanuatu's president, Jean-
Marie Leye, dissolved parliament and called fresh
elections. He made the decision so Vanuatu could
find a solution to its problems and because the
current government had not kept its promises.
Despite elections and a new governement in
March 1998 there was another change late 1999.
Around the same time Vanuatu was hit by an
earthquake and tidal wave which caused
extensive damage on Pentecost Island.
Getting Around
Hiring cars, 4WDs and jeeps is relatively
straightforward, and the taxis are plentiful and all
metered. Mini buses are frequent but
untimetabled; simply flag down the driver, tell him
where you want to go and pay a set price per trip.
Efate has around 240km (148mi) of sealed roads
and Santo has 370km (230mi), but sealed doesn't
mean free from potholes. Many of the roads on
the outer islands are off limits during the wet
season. If you want to island-hop it's usually
better to fly because inter-island passenger boats
are irregular.
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