Moso Island, Vanuatu

We finally caught our flight in Phoenix, Arizona after storing our truck camper and saying good bye to our friends Curtis and Vicky to make our way to Vanuatu.

Vanuatu is an island nation situated in the South Pacific. The island where we want to spend the next 12 months is called Moso Island and is north of Efate, close to Port Vila. We got picked up at the airport and brought to a guesthouse for some rest.  After travelling nearly 24 hours we dozed a bit before we got picked up from our boss and his wife for dinner. Owen introduced us to a local brewery with really good beer and at a French restaurant we had a nice pizza.

The next day he brought us to Moso Island where we got greeted like crazy by the dogs. Tanna, the little one is still very clumsy and so soft.  Patch, his dad, is only here to train Tanna in the beginning and will go back to Port Vila. Owen showed us around at Tranquility Eco Dive Resort. The first days we were speechless since there was a lot to do on the fares (bungalows) and gear. Everything seemed to be extremely chaotic and finding things was an effort. After a couple of days Owen left us happily in the chaos. He had been on the island already since 5 weeks, trying to organize and fix some stuff.

Unfortunately we didn’t meet the last year managers so we didn’t have a hand over. Well they must have left for a reason. You just have to look at the place. We even found a dead rat in the managers’ house in a carton box. So let’s get started. With our friendly Ni-Vanuatu staff we fixed strategically the fares and serviced the gear. Inventory wasn’t been done since 2010, so let’s check out what we have. Sometimes we are soooo German :O)

Thomas and Douglas our cooks create fantastic meals, Hilda and Celine are our friendly housekeeping girls. Our divemaster Tommy knows the dive sites by heart and Thomas our instructor helps us out with the PADI courses. Steven is the turtle man and our all-rounder, David and Jeffery are our boat captains and also fit in repairing, maintenance and plumbing. Our 4 village boys are the strong supporters and good in island style building.

Next to the resort we have two cruise ships coming in almost every day. The Coongoola is our large classic timber sailing ketch and just a beauty. Our Trimaran Sea Spray offers as well snorkel trips and both stop by at our Hawksbill Turtle Rookery. Right now we have 440 small turtles and we released already 15 since we are here. The Island Diver is our dive boat and brings us to great dive sites around the islands. Whenever we have time we try to hop on board to learn about the dive sites. Micha haven’t had so much time yet but hopefully this will come soon.

In the beginning we had some water pumps down which we need to pump our wells for fresh water and some sea water for the turtles every day. Twice our generator broke down and every day we find out some more. Oil filter change for generator and compressor was necessary.

We really have to get used to the island time. In Malaysia it took sometimes longer than we are used to but here you really should start meditating. Haha, but once you get used to the island time it is actually really enjoyable.

I just say – lukim yu – which is Bislama and means “see you”.