I thought that Fiji was beautiful, but Vanuatu is really on another level. I’d highly recommend visiting here if you ever get the chance; it’s just a shame it’s so far from the UK. That may be a little unfair on Fiji, however, as I felt ill for most of my time there, whereas now I feel well and strong. I’ve finally finished my course of antibiotics for my cough, which is much better but not totally gone.

The resort I’m staying in, Blue Bay, is stunning – probably the nicest place I’ve stayed in so far. It’s another relatively new locally-owned venture, about 15 minutes’ drive from downtown Port Vila, with 6 or so bungalows spread out along the beach (yes, that means I have my own sitting room and a totally empty second bedroom that I’ve christened “the torture chamber”!). There is a sandy beach here, which is rare as most areas have rocks and/or corals, and guests can rent snorkelling gear and kayaks. It’s been very windy since I arrived, so I haven’t taken a kayak out yet, but I’m planning to do so tomorrow (New Year’s Day). If all goes to plan, I might even try to reach Hideaway Island, which is about 3km away across the bay. Slightly unusually, my accommodation includes breakfast and dinner. This is particularly good here because the food is excellent and there aren’t any shops or restaurants within comfortable walking distance. Last night at dinner, we were joined by a man singing and playing the guitar, which was a nice touch. As in Fiji, however, it’s the staff who really make the place; they’ve done a brilliant job organising activities for me, giving me free lifts, putting mosquito coils in my room, and even doing my laundry. Nothing is too much trouble.

I did a couple of dives yesterday morning and they were absolutely brilliant. The dive school had around 25 divers and 3 boats going out, so they designated one boat for those of us with the Advanced Open Water qualification. This meant that we were able to dive the Konanda wreck, which sits at a depth of nearly 30m. The coolest part was being able to penetrate the wreck in several places, including the main deck and the captain’s room. The wreck had been sunk specifically for divers, so it was safe to swim inside it. Elsewhere on the wreck, some furniture and props had been placed to make it more interesting, as you’ll see below! I haven’t done much wreck diving before but I’d like to do more of it. The second dive was a reef dive; though we didn’t see any particularly big animals, the variety of fish and coral life was amazing – on a par with anything I’ve seen elsewhere. It was a really good pair of dives and has certainly whetted my appetite for the Philippines, where I’ll be staying at a dive resort.

I managed to fit in a couple of activities today. This morning’s tour, “A Taste of Vanuatu”, was unfortunately the kind of tour that I thought had been consigned to the history books. The sites that our small group of four visited were pretty good, but they were thrown together in a somewhat chaotic fashion, with little information or insight provided. To top it off, we started over an hour late (resulting in my nearly missing my afternoon activity) and the guide was handsy, and didn’t like being called out on it! In terms of the places we saw:

• The coffee farm had some interesting information if you were prepared to look for it, and the coffee I tried was tasty, though the presentation about how the coffee is made was rushed through so quickly as to be barely intelligible;

• The Mele cascades were pretty and made for a refreshing dip, but they weren’t nearly as impressive as the wadis in Oman (which are similar but on a grander scale); and

• The kava house was really good. As with most things, the host makes or breaks the experience. Our host was very informative and she talked us through how kava is made and the traditions surrounding how it is drunk. We enjoyed some moments of absolute hilarity, including the host telling us that men who drink kava become homosexuals (she meant platonic friends!), and a flamboyant Italian lady in our group telling us that the factory should export more kava – which has soporific qualities – to the US, to send them all to sleep permanently!

The Mele Cascades

After some logistical wrangling that I won’t bore you with, I made it to the location of the Zipline, which is high up in the jungle near here with nice views over the ocean. It’s expensive, at nearly £100 for the double Zipline, but I soon understood why: it’s a highly professional and safe operation, with none of the fooling around that you sometimes see at such places. Each Zipline (I did both) consists of about 7-10 separate passes, some of which are in the treetops, some on the ground, and some really long ones traverse entire canyons with spectacular views. It took about two hours to do the whole of both Ziplines and it was a highly enjoyable experience – if you’re comfortable with heights! I have a lot of video footage from my GoPro knockoff, which was strapped to my wrist throughout, but I haven’t sorted through it all yet.

Tonight for New Year’s Eve, I went to a local beach bar with a nice young Australian/British couple from my hotel. We thought we’d missed the fire dancing display but it was actually running 90 minutes late, so for once “island time” worked in my favour! The fire dancing was very entertaining, though the bar emptied out afterwards, so we ended up coming back to the resort to watch the fireworks across the bay and have a quiet New Year’s Eve. I’m mainly relieved that that’s over for another year… An early Happy New Year to everyone back home in the UK, 11 hours behind me!