Port Vila.. I hadn't really planned too much for this day. Just thought we’d take it as it comes. We went up for breakfast a bit later to miss the crowds cos everyone wanted to get off the ship as soon as possible. No tenders in Port Vila, we docked right at the wharf, such as it is!! When you get off the ship if you haven’t booked a tour through the ship there is what seems like hundreds of blokes waiting to get you into their taxis/buses. They start yelling prices and almost grabbing you saying "come with me, I take you to town" … We started talking to one guy and said ok to $10 to get to town then he said $150 for him to drive us around for the day, we said no we’d just go into town so he said $100, we said no.. then Rodd said $80 and we’ve got a deal and he said ok…. So he drove us into town, stopping at a spot for a good photo back at the ship, he also chatted to us about Vila which was nice.
We drove through town and straight out to Mele Cascade waterfalls where we organised for Isaac to come back and pick us up in 2 hours.

The entry into the falls is $20pp which is for the upkeep of the paths and I guess wages for the guys that are stationed along the way to lend a helping hand but I thought that perhaps it was a little steep for what you get.. which is a semi strenuous trek up through rainforest, walking through the fast moving stream to the big waterfall at the top, there's ropes strung along the way to hang onto and some steps carved into the rocks to climb up the stream. I’d suggest going straight there from the ship cos you get there before all the organised tours and it’s not nearly as crowded, we found the hoards were making their way up as we were on our way down. You can swim anywhere along the way to cool off and have a rest. When we got to the top we hopped in the little pool under the falls, Rodd found a little cave at the back and as he was looking into that an eel swam ever so casually past my legs. I just commented "oh look an eel" and boy did that clear the pool out!! Women all shrieked and scurried out and I just looked at the guy working there ( what a job, just standing around under a waterfall all day making sure tourists are ok! ) and asked him if they bite or anything.. he chuckled and shook his head and said no, I could see he was laughing inwardly at all the silly tourists freaking out!! Once back down the bottom we sat for about half an hour and had a drink before going out to meet Isaac, our driver. He was waiting for us when we got to the gate and took us to the boat dock for Hideaway Island, again we planned for him to come back in 2 hours.

The boat only takes about 5 mins to get over to the island and you pay $10 once there. We hadn’t taken our snorkel and goggles so hired a set for $5. The fish here were amazing… so many different colours, bright yellow, iridescent blues and purples and some really big ones too. Unfortunately our underwater camera seems to have got some water inside, I think when Rodd first took it in at the waterfalls cos it was fine yesterday. We were really disappointed to not be able to take photos underwater here cos the fish just swam right up to you and just seemed to hang around, would have been so easy to take some great shots. We had some lunch at the beach bar here too, I had some wine and Rodd a beer, unfortunately they didn’t have any beers he liked so he was stuck with a Crown… I think it’s the first time I’ve ever seen Rodd only drink half his beer before pushing it away in disgust!! We absolutely loved this island paradise and vowed that one day we'll go back and spend a week there just lazing on the beach loungers and snorkelling. There is so much more we'd like to see and do in Port Vila.. one day!!

Isaac was waiting for us when we got of the boat and we got him to take us into town… he went off somewhere for an hour while we wandered around the shops trying to find a big straw hat for Rodd. We’re both rather sunburnt regardless of the fact we’ve been slathering on the sunscreen.

In and out of a lot of Chinese trade stores all with the same sort of stuff until we found this really good shop… no hat for Rodd but we got him a couple of Vanuatu t-shirts and I bought a few things as well. This place had some great Billabong and Quicksilver stuff at really cheap prices so we got Jack a few pairs of shorts for $10. We went past a duty free shop that had a sign out the front for "Duty Free Alcohohol".. wish I'd taken a photo of that!! One more stop at the chemist for some more sunscreen and some conditioner ( cos it’s $8 onboard for a tiny bottle ) and then it’s time to meet Isaac again. By this time it was about 2pm and we’re both exhausted so decided to go back to the ship. Isaac dropped us off at the marketplace just before to wharf and we had a quick look but we were both so hot and tired that we decided to just go back onboard... I was planning to go back in an hour or so to buy some of the gorgeous dresses I saw but once on the ship I realised I really didn't NEED more dresses... later that night I saw a lady wearing one of the dresses that I absolutely loved and had a moments regret cos it was in a truly gorgeous material... oh well!!

Back on board we changed out of our swimming gear and all fresh and clean headed out on deck to enjoy sailing away from Port Vila. Of course we ran into Paul and Fiona who were also out on deck so we spent a half hour or so chatting to them about our day. They had done a dive experience where you walk down about 3 metres and see the underwater post office... maybe next time. We stayed out there until the sun started setting.

We floated about until the show started at 7.30... Let me Entertain you.. this was a game where passengers that were game enough to sign up get to sing the next lines of the song.. or fill in the missing words. It was entertaining and it helps that the barman was circulating so we could order drinks!! After this we went to the Waterfront for dinner again.. we both ordered a fettucine with broccoli which was very nice. Princess was working our table again so of course Rodd grabbed her for a photo, and she even let him don her santa hat for the pic ( all the crew were wearing these the entire cruise ).

Next we made our way to the Connextions Bar where the karaoke was on.. usually I avoid that but on this occasion all of the competitors were actually pretty good so I was clapping, singing and dancing along up the back all the way through. Gareth, the host, actually called out to me at one stage " I see you rocking away up the back there girlfriend!!" After Karaoke we went up to Deck 12 for the Tropical Island Deck party.. I wasn't wearing anything overly islandy though but we sat at the bar and enjoyed the music. Then the party moved up to the Attic so we went up and got a drink but only stayed there about 15 mins cos the place was full of kids "dancing" to doof doof music!! So we went out on deck 14 and had our own little party!! Then we thought we should get some food to soak up the alcohol so went to the Grill and I ordered my usual late night feast.. margherita pizza with chilli flakes, Rodd had his BBQ chicken wings.

So another great day has come to an end.. time for bed so we can do it all again tomorrow!