Progress at the Flat

The septic tank is well underway,

 and Tony is pretending to work hard 😄

 The lads have shifted the big ranch slider that was bought second-hand for the front of the flat. It turned out to be too big, so Tony will either find another use for it or sell it. It is now between the new flat and the flat just behind ours (a mirror image of ours).

The lid for the tank is formed up.

and a couple of days later the tank is almost finished, just one side left to be plastered. 

It is in between the new flat and the back portion of Tony and Mary's house. Their back door will be sealed off.

New steps will be built above the tank leading to another flat yet to be built above the one almost completed.

The waste pipe for the kitchen sink has been cut into the concrete wall but not connected through to the inside yet.

Formwork for the underside of the new steps fits snugly around the toilet soil pipe.

Inside the bathroom tiles are looking good.

The first stage plumbing for the shower and basin is complete.

Survey Visit to Malapoa and Kawenu Schools

Last week the survey team visited Malapoa College to survey some 15 year olds' mouths. I noticed a big new building under construction with Chinese funding. There is a lot of Chinese aid and development happening here in Vanuatu.

 Good to see some fall protection around the perimeter of the roof - this is not common here. It's not the same as we would do it in NZ but much better than nothing.

Then we moved on to Kawenu Primary to survey some of the teachers. It was Friday early afternoon - school finishes at lunchtime every second Friday because it is pay day and the staff go to the bank to get their wages (not just at this school but in general). The Kawenu staff kindly stayed on at school a bit longer so we could use them as participants in the survey. One of their classrooms was badly damaged during Cyclone Pam - they are still waiting for the government to repair it. 

 The ridge has broken in the middle, dragging all the rest of the roof framing down with it. The wall cladding is very old timber, and it needs a total rebuild from the floor up.

Progress at the Flat

Things are moving steadily forward at Tony and Mary's house, and a bit slower at the new flat.

 It's dangerous work as all the purlins are cut to length once they are up on the roof, not down on the ground first. Here builder George is trimming off the end of the fascia with a circular saw while standing on the ladder and holding on with one hand. The purlins are well tied onto the rafters, which are attached by bolts and brackets to the top of the block walls.

 Next the barge board goes on.

At the new flat, the ranch slider is in, and the front terrace is being poured. Also a hole for the septic tank is being dug just out of shot to the right.

 Chris happily posed for this shot! The tank is going into a narrow gap between the house and the new flat.

Inside the tiling is looking good in the bathroom although not complete yet.

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.

Monday trip back to Havannah Harbour

We were fortunate to have the PCV truck for another day, so we went back out to the bay on Havannah Harbour , we stopped there on the way around Efate Island on Saturday. This time was special as we were there on our own before the tourist buses arrived.  (though with the buses there on Saturday there were only about 15 people), so there were lots more fish.  Good range of tropical fish including the Clown Fish (Nimo) they would dart out of the anemones and touch our hands before darting back.  

These two photos are from the beach over the harbour

Nicola and Jai had a great time snorkeling, they had brought their own snorkels with them. Thank you to John and Rosemaree Redshaw they left their snorkels with us so we could all snorkel.

Here we are standing in shallow water about 2 metres from shore standing with the fish

There as a wooden platform up a tree that had a great vantage point to look around the harbour

Annette is standing watching the fish, that is how close they come to the shore

There is a coral outcrop you can see to the left of Annette, there are several close to shore in a about 1.5 metres of water at low tide , one of those was Nimos home.  Several big Clown Fish and a few small baby ones were there.