We're back in Noumea after an all too brief sojourn in Vanuatu (Van-WAH-tu), a group of islands a little Northeast of New Caledonia. We didn't have time to sail there and sail to New Cal (as Finn calls it) and make it to Brisbane in time, so we took the short cut by plane. On the flight we had a reminder that we were entering a malaria zone as the stewardess walked up and down the aisle, spraying us for mosquitos. We had hesitated to go to Vanuatu as it is a malaria zone, but we have heard it is more an issue in the rainy season and does not seem to be a current outbreak.

We arrived in Port Vila late on Sunday night, checked in to the Vanuatu Holiday Hotel within walking distance of the downtown. The room was very Spartan, yet clean, with functioning toilet and showers. The kids thought they were in the lap of luxury - despite the 5 dead cockroaches on the floor and under the beds. We congratulated ourselves on our fine selection of hotel since the roaches were dead and not scurrying around the place without care.

We spent a couple days exploring the city, shopping at the farmer's market, playing in the park on the swings, investigating our options for Day 2. We settled on an all day van trip around the island of Efate (Eh-FAR-tey), some traditional dancing, fire walking, sand drawing and snorkeling at a couple beach spots. For lunch we stopped at a restaurant along a rural beach road, a small band (including baby goat) serenaded us while we ate.

On the third day we got up at 4:30am and headed to the airport to fly to tiny Tanna island, home of Mt Yasur (Yah-ZUR), the "world's most accessible volcano." Lucky for us this volcano is on Tanna where the safety rules are a bit more lax. Back in the US, officials would probably stop us miles before the actual volcano and force us view the activity from far away. That was our experience in Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii anyway. On Tanna, we stayed at the Tanna Evergreen Resort. We had the family unit, a small plywood house complete with raised concrete flooring, a stinky fridge stocked with frozen meat, a piano and piles of church literature stored in the rafters. It was actually a lovely place and the kids wanted to stay indefinitely.

At 3pm on Wednesday afternoon, our local guide Jack, picked us up in his 4WD truck and we headed out to the volcano. We had been warned that the road was bumpy - teeth rattling was how I'd describe it. After 2 hours of driving partially on paved roadway, and mostly through dirt track in the bush, we arrived at the base of Mt Yasur. The sun was just setting as we hiked up to the rim of the crater. It was moonlike, with gray stand and black lava rock scattered about. Before we saw the eruptions, we heard them. Loud booms, bangs and spurts would come out of nowhere and then we'd look up to see smoke billowing from the mouth of the crater. Once the sun set and darkness fell, we could see that the billowing smoke actually contained bits of molten lava as well. We had quite a light show that night as we sat on a log by the edge of the crater. Jack offered to take us higher up the ridge so we could see down into the crater's mouth - not such a good idea with the kids - but Eric took the challenge and off they went into the darkness, hiking up a somewhat marked trail. Jack and Eric were on the ridge when the largest of eruptions happened, sending a hunk of burning lava up and over their heads!

Not much can top that kind of experience, except a visit to a Kastom (custom, traditional) village on Tanna where the people work very hard to live according to their ancient traditions rather than getting caught up in the modern ideas of schooling, western medicine, jobs for money, etc. For a small fee and with another local guide, we were invited to see how they live. The women showed us how they cook Laplap, a staple in their diet. Laplap is made by grinding banana and tapioca into a mush, then spreading that on leaves, which is then wrapped in a banana leaf and grilled on an open fire. The result is quite good though it may have given me and Eric both a bit of a stomach bug. The men showed us how they start fire by rubbing two pieces of wood together and how they roll their own tobacco. Finn and Sophie joined the kids and climbed up an ancient banyan tree. Sophie came down once the ladder ended, Finn followed the lead of the boys and crawled off the ladder and up the banyan roots for the last 10-20 feet and made it all the way up to the tree house (see the pictures!) This made a big impression on the kids. The visit ended in song and dance. Even the littlest of the boys was in the middle of the dance circle doing his best to keep up. It made me consider how song and dance are such an important part of everyday celebrating in these islands. Back home in the US, we often focus on perfection and precision in order to prepare ourselves to dance or sing for others, leaving the less talented out of the mix altogether. What a shame.

As always, the visit included a chance to look over their traditional handicrafts for purchase. One of the items was a bow and arrow set that a boy Finn's age had made. He showed Finn how to shoot the arrow and that was that - we now have a bow and arrow to stow somewhere on the boat!

The only real drawback with Vanuatu was the potential for malaria, so we bought medicine at the clinic in Port Vila and we have treatment on board should something arise. We did take precautions with bug repellant, long sleeves and pants, and mosquito coils at night so I think we are relatively in the clear, but just in case, we are prepared should something arise.

After surviving accommodations, bumpy rides to volcanoes, watching our child climb 40 ft up into a banyan tree, lathering up with mosquito repellant every day, we thought we were home free the morning we went to the airport to check in for our return flight to Noumea. Not so fast!

The gate agent would not issue our boarding cards because we had no tickets beyond Noumea. He wanted us to prove that we had a way out of the country once we were allowed back in. We didn't think to bring our boat registration or other immigration papers with us. We just assumed that if we originated in New Caledonia and bought a round trip ticket we'd have no problem flying back. In retrospect, we should have worried a little more about this because Eric and I both had to carry a letter from our ship's captain last year when we flew into one place to meet the boat and then flew out of another country once we'd made the passage. This agent was determined not to let us into New Caledonia until we could prove that we would be leaving. Eventually, he referred us to his supervisor and the race with the clock was on - just 1 ½ hours to prove that we could leave Noumea. We thought about calling the Noumea harbor master who could verify that our boat was in their harbor - but they didn't open until 8am and our flight was leaving at 6:30am. Then we thought we could show him our crew list, but we had forgotten our power cord for the laptop we brought and by the time Eric booted it up it was out of battery. We asked if showing him our blog site would work - sure, he said, but he didn't have internet at his terminal so we'd have to go to the café, buy an internet card and log on to one of two (very ancient) machines at a kiosk. We bought the card, tried to log on, but we couldn't get a connection. At that point we were getting desperate, so I asked the supervisor if anyone at all in the airport would possibly have an internet connection. He felt my pain so he took me back into their offices, behind the security door and the luggage checking, and logged on to an office computer. Almost there....but not quite, turns out the internet connection for the entire airport was down. We were almost at the point where we'd have to put up thousands of dollars to buy refundable tickets from Noumea to Seattle, until Eric unearthed one of our boat cards we had made to give people we meet our contact info and blogsite address. The supervisor made a Xerox of the front and back of the card for his files. This little card showing our boat name and the names of each of us seemed to do the trick and suddenly we were back at the gate receiving our boarding passes. Yikes! So, let this be a warning to any cruisers who plan to fly mid-journey....keep your boat registration papers, crew list and first born child with you at all times.

We hear from our weather router that Thursday Oct 14th may be our day to head out. Crossing our fingers and looking forward to reaching Brisbane at last.