Drive from airport through town and to the dock
Often, when we go to third world countries, I get a bit anxious, especially when arriving after dark and not really being sure of what you’re getting into. The trip from the airport at Espirtu Santo to the dock to catch our boat across is probably only about 25 minutes, but everything was dark and I wasn’t too comfortable. The streets were mostly empty. There were the odd couple of guys on bicycles. There were a few ‘pimped out’ cars with loud stereos. We got to the dock, on the boat and to our resort without much issue at all. What I realized later was that the people of Vanuatu are among the happiest, least intimidating people I’ve ever met – I still wonder why I was so nervous!!!
Aore Island Resort
The resort that we stayed at was ‘rustic’ at best, but at the same time, it was lovely, and relaxing and just what I needed after a long few months of work without a break. I believe it was probably one of only two accomodations on Aore Island, and it was certainly the namesake for the island. The resort was comprised of a main building that held the offices and the restaurant, with about 10-12 little single room huts that wrapped along the beach on either side. The food was nice, without being too over the top. It wasn’t too expensive, and the service wasn’t too ‘in your face’. Just relaxed like you would expect on a remote Pacific island.
The Resort | Canon PowerShot S120 | 5.2-26.0mm | 7.8mm | f/2.8 | 1/320th | ISO80
Up the Beach | Canon PowerShot S120 | 5.2-26.0mm | 5.2mm | f/2.8 | 1/500th | ISO80
Diving with Aore Adventures (the Captain was Paul)
The resort just down the beach was actually the only dive shop on the island. They provided both diving and fishing services, but we just took them up on the diving. Paul and his wife were originally from Brisbane, where they ran a dive shop there as well, but have since migrated to Vanuatu. Paul was great, the dive guides that he provided were great, all very low-pro and relaxed while still being professional.
Diving the USS Coolidge
The USS Coolidge is one of *the* wreck dives to do around the world. The ship is positioned in the water very shallow with the bow at just less than 20 meters depth. You can actually do it as a shore-dive from Espiritu Santo, but we hopped a boat to get there. The ship is laying sort of 2/3rds on its side, and the stern sits down about 70 meters depth. Now, the Coolidge used to be a luxury liner before it was conscribed into military service during World War II. Now, when it was a commercial ship, it was meant to hold ~600 or so guests. However, once it became a military ship, there were ~3,200 service men on the ship. You can imagine how cramped it would have been. Anyhow, we dove down to the, then about another 40 meters down tracking the top of the ship, we crossed over and tracked the top of the ship back up to more shallow water. It was super interesting – there was a bucket that is attached to the boat that still holds gas masks, ammunition and guns (as you can see below) from when the boat originally went down.
WW II Rifle | Canon PowerShot S120 | 5.2-26.0mm | 5.2mm | f/1.8 | 1/500th | ISO640
Butterfly Fish | Canon PowerShot S120 | 5.2-26.0mm | 5.2mm | f/2.8 | 1/500th | ISO400
Reef Dives
After our experience diving the wreck, we wanted to see a bit more ocean life, and a bit more nature, rather than the man-made stuff that sits at the bottom of the ocean. Paul was kind enough, and knowledgable about the area to focus on a few reef dives instead. On this trip, we actually broke our depth record on each of the three subsequent dives. Our prior deepest dives were actually for our Advanced Open Water Certificaiton, where we got to 28 metres. First dive, we hit 38 meters, second one, 42 meters, and the third one, we actually got down to 48 meters. If you dive, you know that when you get down to depths like those, your actual bottom time is pretty quick relative to the time that it takes to pressurize and get back to human levels. My partner had to trade out oxygen tanks amoung the numerous safety stops on the way back up to make sure she didn’t run out.
Dolphins racing our boat
On the tail end of one of our reef dives, we were headed back to shore and we were absolutely delighted to have a pod of dolphins try to race us back to shore. They were as you expect dolphins to be – playful, fun and with a mind of their own. You’ll notice in the photo below that somehow we managed to capture a diving turtle in the same shot!!!
Racing with Dolphins | Canon PowerShot S120 | 5.2-26.0mm | 15.2mm | f/4.5 | 1/250th | ISO160
Racing with Dolphins | Canon PowerShot S120 | 5.2-26.0mm | 10.2mm | f/4.0 | 1/250th | ISO160
Champagne Bay
On one of our spare days, we hired a driver and headed back to Espirito Santo and up to Champagne Beach. It was about a 1-hour drive, and we arrived just between breakfast and lunch. We took a short, ~1 hour snorkel and stuck around long enough to have lunch made. Really idealic, and really nice. The boys were out fishing, I imagine trying to get food for the family for the evening.
The boys out fishing | Canon PowerShot S120 | 5.2-26.0mm | 26mm | f/5.7 | 1/640th | ISO80
Blue Holes
Now, I don’t fully understand what makes blue holes so blue. Something about the absorption of red light in the light spectrum….yada, yada, yada. I’m half color deficient, so these things don’t make complete sense to me, but anyway. I’ll tell you the colour of the water is breathtaking, and it’s really interesting to visit one of these blue holes. There are a number across the island – if you make it to Espiritu Santo, I highly recommend popping by one.
The Blue Hole | Canon PowerShot S120 | 5.2-26.0mm | 8.3mm | f/3.2 | 1/80th | ISO640
A Rope Swing | Canon PowerShot S120 | 5.2-26.0mm | 8.3mm | f/3.2 | 1/80th | ISO640
Pub run by the Aussie Lady while waiting for the flight
Finally, the long weekend was wrapping up and we took the boat across to the ‘mainland’ prior to our flight. We stopped at a pub that was just near the dock to have a couple of drinks as we had a good hour or so to waste. This pub was run by an aussie lady, who literally went to Vanuatu about 20 years ago for a holiday and never left. The pub was a bit rough-and-tumble, but all good fun and the owner had a story about everyone on the island. Can’t miss it – just a block over from the dock. Make sure to stop in and say hi!!!
Paul Rin Travel Photojournalism 