Water Taxi Ride Around the Harbour

Tuesday was Nicola and Jai's last day with us. After a walk around the market we decided to try a water taxi ride. A taxi driver called Nico took us for a lovely ride, 5,000 vatu (about $60) for the four of us for about an hour.

 In the background is the new handicraft market building on the Port Vila waterfront, which is almost finished, and the waterfront development is nearing completion. It is a huge improvement after the mess we saw 2 years ago just after Cyclone Pam. The handicraft stalls have been squashed in with fruit and vege market for the last 2 years and it is very crowded there, so everyone will be very pleased when the new market is open for business. Hawkins Construction has been supervising the work, with most of the workers being locals.

There is a dredge working in the harbour to make the shipping channel deeper, and the sand it digs up is used for the reclaimed area.

Banana boats moored in front of Ifira Island, where our driver comes from. We asked him why they are called banana boats - he wasn't sure but thinks it is maybe because of the shape of them.

 At low tide, you can walk across from Ifira to the main island.

 A colony of sea urchins in the shallows - the people of Ifira protect them as they help keep the sea water clean and clear. We could also see fish and coral in the shallows nearby.

 Then along the edge of the main island, several ships moored or being worked on. This one looks very un-seaworthy.

 There is a huge development on the container wharf - a large area is being reclaimed from the harbour.

The cruise ship wharf does not appear to be getting any upgrade. 

Closer in to the harbour front of Port Vila is Iririki Island. It has a beautiful resort on it, but along one side there are several boats which were wrecked there during Pam and have not been removed yet, and are unlikely to be for a long time.

For our last evening we took Nicola and Jai to the Lookout Restaurant, along with Neville and Gloria. It has a lovely terrace looking out over the harbour and we watched the sunset from there. The meal was not that great but it was still a lovely way to end their Vanuatu holiday 😊.

We were very sad to see them go early this morning, but we hope we will soon get some more visitors to show around this beautiful and interesting place.