Aradonna's blog

What an amazing day we had yesterday! After a leisurely bacon and eggs breakfast we were greeted by our first visitor of the day, a turtle surfaced near the boat and popped his head up a few times to gulp some air and say hello before diving down again to graze. Soon after a dug out canoe came by with a young couple, Isabel and John. We asked if they had a garden and promptly gave them some seeds as well as some fishing hooks. They were very grateful and told us they were paddling their way to the other side of the channel to go prawn fishing. They invited us to join them and we were delighted! We followed in our dinghy, around the reefs and into a small passage between some mangroves. They helped us clamber up the bank and Isabel explained that this land belongs to Johns Grandfather. Isabel was raised and educated in Efate and her English was excellent, along with a little French and German, and of course the national language of Bislama. John was from Maskelyne Island and speaks hi s native local language as well as Bislama, so they speak Bislama together and Isabel became our guide in English. John went ahead, thwacking his way through the long grass and the bush growing over the track with his 18 inch long bush knife. Isabel pointed things out to us along the way. She showed us where they grow Taro and Manioc (Cassava), plus Island Cabbage and Banana. As we walked through the jungle we saw bright yellow and bright orange pods hanging in some trees, they were about the size of Avocados, but more oval in shape. Isabel explained that these are the seed pods of the Cacao tree. John cut a couple down for us and sliced them in half. This was the first time we had seen the fruit that gives us chocolate! It was nothing like we expected, white inside, with a sweet sticky marshmallow like substance covering the purplish seeds. Sucking the white sticky substance off the seeds was sweet and fruity, like lollies! The seed itself was just like a tasteless wax, we have no idea how anyone decided it could be fermented and made into chocolate. We enjoyed sucking on several of these fruit lollies during the day. When we reached the stream, John began foraging with his bare hands in the rock pools and soon came up with fresh water prawns! After handing a few to us it was clear that we needed something to put them in. No problem, John cut a piece of think bamboo above two segment seams and handed us the hollow tube to pop the prawns into. John went back to hand catching more prawns and Isabel found a few leaves that she folded into a stopper to plug the top of the tube so the prawns could not jump out! Very simple and very clever. We climbed up through the jungle and visited more rock pools, filling our tube as we went. John made it look easy, but you need to be very fast with bare hands to catch these slippery fast movers in the water! On the way back down stream Isabel asked if we had ever eaten Navara. Seeing our blank looks, she explained that when a coconut lying on the ground first starts to spout a leaf, but before it puts down roots, it is called Navara. John split one open and instead of having juice inside, the whole cavity was filled with a white spongy substance. We ate some - yum! It was like coconut sponge cake! Encouraged by our thrill of new experiences, John decided to get us a young coconut to drink. Within a few seconds he had scaled a very tall coconut tree. No ropes, no tools, just bare hands and bare feet and he walked right up to the top! Balancing his feet on the trunk at the top and with one hand holding on to a branch and one hand on a coconut, he turned several coconuts until they dropped. Once back on the ground he sliced the top off a couple of coconuts with his large bush knife, so we could drink the sweet juice. Next he cut open the shell so we could scoop out the soft white flesh with the spoon he had created from a special slice of the outside of the young husk. By the time we had enjoyed our cacao pods, navara, coconut juice and flesh, we were replete - what a way to have lunch! John took 4 of the other young coconuts he had dropped from the tree and took most of the husk off from around the sides, leaving a small peak on the top of each one. Then, stripping a vine from another tree to make a thin strip of string with a hard stick on the end, he then poked the strip through the tops of each coconut, pulled it through and tied the string together so that all four coconuts were tied together and easy to carry by the string. Amazing use of local materials and great to see the skills involved in living in the bush. We can see now why the local people all walk around with their bush knives - they do everything with this one tool! John then cut one of the bunches of vines that were hanging down from the trees and water came out like turning on a slow tap. Isabel plucked a leaf from the vine and in one hand folded it over with a twist and it instantly formed a little cup to be used to collect the water from the vine and drink it. She explained that this was how they quenched their thirst when working in the bush to make their gardens.
Back at the garden patch, Isabel picked some Island Cabbage for us, which is nothing like our cabbage but grows with several leaves from each stalk on a taller plant. To hold the little bunches of leaves together, John cut a banana leaf from a tree and then split the stalk of the large leaf to make a long string. The bunch of leaves were laid into the leaf, folded and tied with the stalk string into a neat packet. So simple.
These generous young people tried to give us more things and wanted to feed us fish for dinner, but we said they had already been very kind and we did not want to take more! So we said our fond farewells, thanked them in English and Bislama and left them to get on with the rest of their day. What a treat we had that day! As we zoomed back to the boat on our dinghy we caught a glimpse of a dugong surfacing, we were very lucky! Back at the boat that afternoon, it was time to go diving. The crystal clear water gave us plenty of light, even at 30m of depth. We found some pretty fan corals, so delicate and lacy in various shades of green and yellow, along with some soft corals in vibrant black, green, white and red. We were astonished to see a very large Lined Butterfly fish. These yellow white and black reef fish are common, but usually we see small ones, about 5 - 10cm. This one was huge! Somewhere between 25-30cm across it was a giant! There were plenty of colourful fish to be seen - mixtures of purple, yellow, blue, white, black, green, some with stripes, some with spots - just beautiful! We also saw a large Spotted Eagle Ray swimming by - a magnificent creature! It was one of those days filled with awe and wonder. New experiences, amazing local people, and yummy treats. We enjoyed our fresh water prawns as an entree and the cabbage became part of our main meal. What lucky people we are! Today we chewed up a few more miles heading north, with the wind building up again as the day went on. Some dolphins popped up beside us for a short visit on the way. Tomorrow we will head off early to make Santo before the winds gather strength in the afternoon.

A couple of weeks ago when we visited Moso Island with Pieter and Sarah, one of the villages told us they needed fishing gear. So, during our stay in Havannah Harbour earlier this week, we went back to deliver lures, hooks and line. Although this island is not far from the main island of Efate, it is still fairly isolated and the people were very grateful. They told us about a snorkeling spot where we could see many clams and we had a wonderful time in this area which is teeming with life and colour. We spotted some pairs of Rubble Pipefish - these are small thin creatures that look like a sea horse that has been elongated and straightened out. They are always in pairs and camouflage themselves well in the coral rubble. As promised by the locals, we saw hundreds of colourful clams amongst the coral bommies and interesting rock formations.
We left Havannah Harbour on Wednesday. As we came through the pass between Moso Island and Lelepa Island, we caught a 38cm Blue Fin Trevally. Our biggest catch so far this year and a pretty fish. Great eating too! We had a lovely sail in almost perfect conditions for 5 hours, until the last hour, when we had a couple of squally showers pass through. We arrived at Emae Island in time for lunch before going ashore with our special deliveries. We had visited Emae Island on 27th May and dropped off some seeds, but this island stuck in our memories as the one that needed more help than the 14 other islands we have been to. Emae is far away from anywhere. There are 10 villages here, with around 800 people in total. Cyclone damage to trees and houses here is by far the worst we have seen. Most of their income comes from selling copra. Copra is produced from coconuts. The people on the island collect coconuts, take the husks off by hand, crack open the shell and place the flesh on drying racks. Lighting fires under the drying racks helps to dry out the flesh and all remainig shell has to be removed, again by hand. This is quite a labour intensive process, with only hand tools. Once the flesh has been smoked dry, it is packed into sacks - it is now copra. Each person gets 10 vatu per kilo for the copra, this is around 14 cents per kilo in NZ$. While this may not sound like a lot of money (it is not much at all!), the sheer volume of coconuts produced on the island creates a stable income for this tiny economy. Unfortunately, cyclone Pam stripped all the coconuts from the trees and has devastated their harvest. Many coconut trees have been torn down and lie broken on the ground. Others have lost all their leaves and are starting to rot where they stand. From what we saw, they have possibly lost 30% of their coconut t rees. It takes 5 years before a planted coconut grows into a tree that produces coconuts, so it will be a slow recovery. This means that many people here will have no money to buy clothes, or seeds, or any household goods. We had decided to revisit this place and bring more seeds, plus school supplies and fishing gear. Our plans about what to give these people had an unexpected boost, from two very different sources...
When Pieter and Sarah arrived in Vanuatu, they carried in about 10kg of childrens clothing. Sarah had done well, negotiating with Air NZ to accept the excess baggage free of charge as part of the relief effort! Well done Sarah and hoorah to Air NZ! These childrens clothes will now be worn by the pikininis on Emae Island. Pieter and Sarah also donated fishing hooks and line, now safely delivered to Emae as well.
The other boost in supplies came from Jaap and Marijke, a Dutch couple living in Japan! These kind people had sent 20kg of kitchen supplies, clothing and towels to Nettie in Vanuatu, to be given away to cyclone damaged villages. The couple in Japan and Nettie are all mutual Dutch friends of Karl, from many years ago when they were all in NZ. What a coincidence that we were visiting Nettie on the day these boxes arrived from Japan! After a quick discussion with Nettie and a couple of texts to Japan, it was agreed that we should deliver these boxes of goodies to Emae.
So, together with our load of educational materials and more seeds, we loaded up the dinghy with a total of 40kg of supplies to go ashore at Emae. This was far too much for us to carry down the 5km road to the school, so we waited for an hour until a ute came by. Some local lads had waited with us and flagged down the ute, who gladly transported us and all our goods to the school. The Principal, Richard spotted us and said "Welcome back!" He was very very grateful for the parcels we unloaded and promised to distribute everything to the 10 villages. He also gave us an update on our first delivery, proudly telling us that all the villages had been busy planting the seeds and these were now growing! It gave us a great feeling to know we had helped to make a difference here. Many thanks to all who have been part of the donation chain :-) Yesterday we had another early start, departing at 7am for the 45 mile trip to the Maskelyne Islands. We had 20-25 knots from the SE, which was basically from behind, plus a following sea, so good conditions pushing us along at around 6.5 to 7 knots. Great sailing, until the tide changed. About 1pm we noticed that our speed had slowed down to 3.5 to 4knots and the seas were getting lumpy. Wind against tide was producing steep waves, which built to 4-5m. The wind increased to 30knots gusting 35 at times and the sea became very rough, with a cross swell that developed as we got closer to land. The 5m waves pushing us from behind and 2m waves on the beam created a washing machine motion. Everything that was not tied down was flying around the cabin! So the last hour of our journey was more about holding on tight to the boat so we wouldn't get tossed about. Finally, about 3.30pm we entered the northern pass into the reef system around the Maskelyne islands. What a difference! Suddenly we were in calm tranquil waters. Bliss! Back to our favourite anchroage at Sanko Island, we dropped anchor at 4pm and marveled at the crystal clear, calm glassy water around us. In here you would never imagine that the sea is raging outside. We will enjoy the tranquility today, go for a dive and relax. Tomorrow we will continue our journey north.

Our adventures with Pieter and Sarah began the minute they stepped off the plane. After a quick hug and hello, Sarah hurried over to get some local currency (Vatu) out of the ATM at the airport. The machine promply ate her card! Being a Sunday, the people at the airport advised us to go to the ANZ in town on Monday morning. It turned out not to be quite that simple! For a start, the bank was busy, with queues heading all the way to the door at every teller. There was a teller for foreign exchange, who eventually helped change some NZ$ to Vatu, but this person could not help with lost cards. The next two tellers were for withdrawals only, then there was a teller who only handled deposits. Finally there was the teller who handled lost cards. After already standing in the money exchange queue for quite some time, Sarah had to go to the back of the line at the lost cards queue and wait some more. As it looked like we would be there a while, Karl decided to get some more cash out of the A TM outside the bank. Heather joked "Don't lose your card" and looked up just in time to see the dismay in Karl's face as the machine shut down after swallowing his card too! Fortunately, the security people were able to retrieve Karl's card quickly. Sarah was not so lucky. In all, Sarah made 5 trips to the bank that day, to wait in line to see if her card had been delivered from the airport ATM. The last visit was after the bank had closed - they arranged to let her in the back door to meet the man who had been clearing hungry ATM's full of cards all day long - his full time job apparently! By the time Sarah got her card back, it was definitely time for celebration.
The next day was the wedding of course and then a restful day to recover :-) In the remaining week we were together we played tourists in Efate. Swinging on a rope to drop into the Blue Hole for a swim, a cultural dance, traditional village lunch, a drive around the island including over the WWII airstrip, a coconut demonstration and stops at various lookout points to see little islands and resorts dotted in the twinkling sea below. We visited the Tanna Coffee factory, where we learned that the coffee processed here, in Efate, comes from over 500 growers on Tanna Island. The cyclone has destroyed much of the crop and they are now down to only 10% of usual production. It will take three years to get volumes back to pre-cyclone levels as they have to wait for new plants to grow.
Of course we did some sailing and snorkeling along the coast of Efate as well as at Lelepa Island and Moso Island. We were treated to many displays of flying fish defying gravity, along with a surprise visit from a pod of dolphins and a few turtle encounters. More seeds were distributed, this time to the two villages on Moso Island, along with some children's clothes donated by Sarah. The northern village has just started a turtle hatchery and will soon be offering glass-bottomed boat rides too.
We spent one morning at the Mele Cascades - a spectacular area with more and more cascading waterfalls at every turn along the path. At the top, we were treated to a torrent of water thundering down from the top - quite a sight! Then it was off to Hideaway Island for lunch at the resort and a snorkel in the marine reserve. Bigger fish here as they are not eaten for dinner! Another day we had a trip to the Aelan Chocolate factory. This enterprise, run by a French Vulcanologist, Sandrine, is a fair trade business, designed to get better returns for the 2000 growers of cocoa beans on Epi, Malekula and Santo islands. They had only been operating 1 week before the cyclone hit and when we visited they were still busy doing repairs to get fully operational. We were impressed with Sandrine and the journey she had been on with the growers to get better growing and fermenting practices in place and improve the quality and taste of the chocolate.
If you think it is strange to find a French Vulcanologist running a chocolate factory in Vanuatu, you will think it even more strange to learn about our dinner at Spice, an Indian restaurant. This restaurant is run by Neal, who is an Irishman. Not only is he an Irishman running an Indian restaurant in Vanuatu, he is actually a Geologist by trade! Go figure! Still, the food was delicious and the service was fabulous.
Our last night together with Pieter and Sarah, was spent with Nettie, an old friend of Karl's, who made us a tasty Dutch meal at her place. A fun and memorable evening.
After 12 days together, including our very special wedding day, we said a fond farewell to Pieter and Sarah on Friday. Yesterday we took Nettie and Lynette out for a day of sailing and snorkeling at Pango Point, which was good fun, followed by dinner with Nettie on board Aradonna. Today we rounded Devils Point in calm conditions. After having visitors on board for the last two weeks with so many stories and plenty of laughter - the boat now seems strangely quiet. There is not a breath of wind, the water is like glass - it is almost an eerie stillness. Our snorkeling activity produced the only ripples on the water! Time now to enjoy some music while relaxing and reading.

What a magical day we had at Paradise Cove in Vanuatu for our wedding! The weather forecast was not so good and it was apparently drizzling in Port Vila, but out at Paradise Cove we were very lucky as it stayed dry all day. The sun came out in the afternoon in time for our 3pm wedding and our small gathering of friends enjoyed celebrating with us on the white sand beach.
Our wedding plans had started back in January and we had originally booked a different resort, but it had suffered severe damage in the cyclone. Luckily, our Wedding Planner, Virginia, found us an alternative – and we were absolutely delighted with Paradise Cove. The bay is sheltered from the SE trade winds, which meant we could safely park Aradonna right outside the resort. It was so nice to have Aradonna sitting in the background for our wedding day.
The day started with a swim and snorkel in the bay, followed by lunch at the resort before heading to our bungalows to get dressed for the big event. Our good friends Sarah and Pieter were our witnesses and they performed their duties well. Pieter and Karl went ahead and waited on the beach beside the arbour, while Sarah helped Heather “dress”.
Heather wore a simple deep blue dress with a kerchief hemline, topped with an ivory lace cape. On Valentine’s Day, Karl had surprised Heather with a beautiful necklace that he had chosen especially for the wedding day. It looked stunning! Karl and Heather both wore lays made from white frangipani and purple flowers. Sarah and Heather both had white frangipani hair flowers.
Sarah walked with Heather down the path, through the beautiful gardens of the resort as the symphony music of “Canon” played. We were married on the beach, by a local celebrant, with Aradonna sitting in the background. Just perfect! Apart from the usual service, we had each prepared our own words and it was so nice to be able to speak from the heart on our special day.
Pieter performed his task well and produced the wedding ring, which is a perfect match for the engagement ring, right on cue for Karl. As soon as the celebrant had presented Mr and Mrs Landhuis, champagne flowed, glasses clinked and our gathering shared hugs of congratulations all round. It was truly a “pinch me” moment. Good friends, a fabulous setting, sunshine, sea – everything was simply perfect! Dinner at the resort was delicious, with coconut prawns, veal escalope’s, tender eye fillet, fresh tuna steaks and beautifully presented fresh vegetables. We had brought our own wine with us, chosen months ago, and it couldn’t have been better! The Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Shiraz we had selected got the thumbs up from our little group. We finished the meal with wedding cake, coffee and cognac before retiring to our gorgeous bungalow for a night on land! In the morning we had a leisurely breakfast at the resort before returning to our floating home as husband and wife! We are so very very lucky and very very happy!