Lost in Aneityum

Waterfall Adventures, Jungle Detours, and Cheese Deprivation

Latitude: 20° 13.75068’ S
Longitude: 169° 46.89852’ E
Aneityum, Vanuatu

Our first proper island stop in Vanuatu was Aneityum. The island is quite small, with just under 1,000 people living here. Due to the strong winds, we planned to stay for at least a week, but we liked it so much we ended up staying for 10 days. The first thing we noticed was how friendly the locals are. Everyone says hello, and many would stop for a chat and help with whatever we were after. The first thing we did was to see the Chief to let him know we were going to be anchoring at the island and spending some time here. After that, we went for a walk on the main strip to explore the island a bit and, of course, check out the grocery situation. But there are no supermarkets on small islands – just tiny home-run stores with hardly anything in them. We even got some fruit gifted to us, which just showed again the friendliness of the locals.

After the big crossing from Australia and another two-day headwind journey to Aneityum, we finally had some time to swim and relax. As it was too windy to do any maintenance on the boat, we spent many days taking long coastal walks. On one walk, we tried to follow some instructions for a loop walk and got lost in the deepest jungle. It was funny, but only when we got back out. At the time, I started to get a bit worried and didn’t understand why we kept walking, as this clearly wasn’t what we were told. I wondered what a search and rescue would look like in Vanuatu with no helicopters and any official help at least two days away. In New Zealand, when I volunteered for Ark in the Park in the backcountry, we were all set up with radios and PSBs (Personal Search Beacons). Even that wouldn’t help you here with rescue days away. It wasn’t really that dramatic – it was just a jungle detour, but something that crossed my mind.

A few of the crew, including Mark, went to the Presbyterian church service on Sunday, but I gave that a miss. I know how much nicer church services are in the Pacific Islands, and having lived with many Pacific Islanders in Auckland and Wellington, I have been to Fijian church more often than any other church. I knew that I wouldn’t understand anything, as it was held in the local language Bislama. And as three-hour church services aren’t enough, it would feel twice as long if you can’t really follow, even with very nice vocals and singing.

Our highlight was definitely hiking up to the waterfall. Our local guide, Elisha, showed us where he was living with a beautiful garden. After that, we continued our three-hour hike to the waterfall. We had a short stop to get some sugar cane to nibble on—absolutely delicious! Apparently good for cleaning your teeth too, but I’m not too sure about the sugar and teeth thing. The whole time, Elisha was clearing the trail with his machete. No one had been to the waterfall for three years, so the track was pretty overgrown. After 1.5 hours, we had a very quick stop asking how much longer we had to go. With Elisha indicating that we were close to the end, we decided to carry on without a proper break. Every half hour from here, we would get a ‘not long now,’ which turned out to be another 1.5 hours. But when we got to the waterfall, it was well worth the hike, and we had a refreshing dip in the ice-cold, fresh water. On the way back, Elisha kept picking up plants from the jungle for his garden like a shopping tour. Like, actually, why do we spend hundreds of dollars on plants every year to make our garden look pretty? We should all just go into the bush and use local plants and trees for our gardens!

Talking about gardens, people in Aneityum really take great pride in theirs. They’re perfectly separated by cute little trees with local plants and flowers and some stone separations and stone walls. We did wonder if that was because cruise ships arrive here quite often on the neighbouring island, Mystery Island, and you can book village tours on Aneityum. I don’t think anyone came here and said, “You should make your garden look pretty like Western Europeans,” but it was still lovely to look at them.

Sourcing fresh food was definitely a challenge. The local fresh produce market was meant to be on Tuesday at 8 am, but when we got there, we found out there was no market that day. Most of the ladies would come from the other side of the island by boat. Then we were told that the market would be on Thursday. One day before the market, we heard that it had been cancelled. Then, on Thursday afternoon, while taking a walk around the island, we learned that the market was on, but they only had oranges. So, makes sense if there is no vegetable or fruit to sell, there is no market. The people can only sell if they have overflow; if they don’t, they need to keep it for themselves. Meanwhile, we found avocados, which were first gifted to us. Then we managed to find some in a store. Avocado is a newly introduced fruit to Aneityum, and they’re huge and delicious. With only 0.50 cents an avocado, we could at least live off that. Locals kept giving us fruit here and there, but we have plenty of frozen and canned goods, so not really worried about not having enough food. Fresh fruit and vegetables are really just luxury. And cheese—well, let’s not get me started on that again.

I was counting down the days to get back to the city to get some cheese. Even though a big ship with supplies arrived from Port Vila while we were there. The ship arrives once a month, and it takes more than 12 hours to get everything off the ship, with the whole island helping—animals, wood, generators, petrol, tools, stationery, hardware, food, anything you can possibly imagine comes off that boat. Basically, all the things an island without electricity and running water, and with two cars on the whole island, would need. That also meant the stores were stocked up again, but with no store having a fridge, any luck of cheese was nil. Fourteen days without cheese was just about as much as I could handle. I mean, what do people actually eat without cheese, especially if you are a vegetarian? I was definitely running out of meal options or ways to complete my meals. But before long, I was able to sing, “Oh happy cheese days.”

But back to this beautiful, southernmost island of Vanuatu, Aneityum, which is part of the Tafea province. We had a great time here exploring and getting to know the culture and customs a bit better. Our first impression of our first proper island stop is that people, especially children and teenagers, are just so extremely friendly and happy with what they’ve got. And if you are old enough to hold a machete, you’ll get one. I’d definitely come back and I’d recommend anyone cruising the Pacific to make time for this little island.

If you want to see more of what we got up to here, check out our YouTube video about Aneityum below.