Yesterday, my last full day in Vanuatu, I kayaked across the bay from my resort to Hideaway Island. It’s about a 3km trip and it did occur to me several times that I might have finally lost my mind, but I just kept paddling and eventually reached the other side after about an hour and a half. If Paul Theroux can do it all alone, then why can’t I?! It was challenging but do-able, even in choppy water. The island was quite busy – which probably explains why I slipped under the radar and wasn’t asked for an entry fee! – but it was a nice spot for lunch. While eating, I realised that, by pure chance, I’d found the location of the world’s only underwater post office – so of course I had to buy and write a waterproof postcard, swim down and post it! Apparently, the kiosk used to have divers inside it acting the part of the post office staff; even though this doesn’t seem to be the case anymore, it was still a cool experience. At high tide, it’s reasonably challenging too, as the post box itself is about 3m underwater and the slit for postcards is small. I haven’t told the recipient to expect it in case it doesn’t arrive, so we’ll see whether it makes it to the UK and how long it takes… Kayaking back was much easier and quicker than getting there, as the wind and waves were in my favour, and I was glad of it. I was very tired afterwards but it was definitely worth it! It’s made me feel like trying some similar activities at home.

Some Australian tourists staying at my resort recommended that I visit the nearby “secret garden” during my last morning in Vanuatu, and it was a good suggestion. “Garden” is a bit of a misnomer; although there are some nice plants and sculptures, and a few native animals in cages, the main focus is an incredible quantity of information about Vanuatu’s history, geography and culture. I’ve never seen such detailed information about Vanuatu anywhere else, including online. I particularly enjoyed the more gruesome parts, such as:

• An in-depth section on cannibalism, including photos secretly taken by American visitors in the 1920s of cannibals preparing and eating human flesh;

• A gory description of how some women’s two front teeth were knocked out when they either reached puberty or married – I can’t remember which;

• That human sacrifice was common, and on one of the southern islands, a married woman had to wear a rope around her neck so she could be strangled immediately in the event of her husband’s death(!); and

• The revelation that many women decided to limit their family size to two or three children and buried alive any children who were born subsequently. Their husbands sometimes tried to stop them.

You can see that, in common with many cultures, life seemed to be stacked against women. To this day, they’re still not allowed to drink kava in many communities! All in all, wandering around the garden and taking in all this information was a fitting end to my time in Vanuatu.

Coconut crab at the Secret Garden

On my way to Sydney this afternoon, the most stressful incident of the trip so far occurred. There were four flights leaving for Fiji and various cities in Australia within an hour of each other, all bunched together, and the facilities were woefully inadequate for dealing with that number of people. I queued for two hours for immigration, with the line moving at a snail’s pace. By the time a group of us heading for Sydney got near the front of the queue, our flight was supposed to have left 20 minutes ago and the final call was made. Some people on a later flight kindly let us go ahead of them (others were rather more selfish) and we just about made the flight. I think I reacted more calmly than I would have done in the past, as the outcome was beyond my control, but it was nevertheless an unpleasant (and hot!) couple of hours.

First sight of Australia

After the stress of leaving Vanuatu, the flight to Sydney and journey to my lovely guesthouse in Glebe were pleasingly uneventful. I must admit that it’s nice to be in a developed country at last! It’s strange to think that I’m over halfway through my trip now. In some ways, it’s flying by, but on the other hand, Hong Kong and Fiji feel like a really long time ago as I’ve done so much since. I’m looking forward to exploring Sydney tomorrow before going on a tour of the opera house and seeing La Bohème in the evening. It’s late here now and I’m tired, but I’ll post more about Sydney in a few days’ time.