[day 5 - haggling and waterfalls]

Amazingly, I was up early at 6.30am full of beans and with way too much energy considering how late I went to bed! Oh well, sleep when I'm dead... I raced up onto deck to take photos as we docked in Port Vila, Vanuatu. I also ducked down to the Reception Desk, and Mum's camera had been handed in. Yay! The weather was warm (26 degrees) with a few clouds, and the sun was just peaking through.

I surveyed the mad scene of taxi and bus drivers all vying for our business ... it was very confronting ... luckily I had be warned of this by friends who'd been on this cruise before. We teamed up with the 'pink ladies' ... four crazy 50-something ladies who come from the Gold Coast, and wear signature pink hats.

Like monkeys in a cage, you're met as you walk through the chain wire fence by about 50 black men all screaming at you and they're running down, jostling and in your face. The first driver said, "I take you for A$150", to which I replied, "No, too much", the price kept dropping until I said yes to A$70, which made it $10 each, which I thought was more than fair for the day. He agreed he would take us around and wait for us while we visited the sights. A couple of older ladies, who'd been friends since they worked together as 14yr-olds doing their tailoring apprenticeship, also tagged along with us (safety in numbers) and we filled the minibus. No seatbelts, and in average condition, we hoped we'd chosen our bus and driver wisely. Our driver's name was Sam. He took us to Cascade Waterfalls, which was very pretty ... although I'd already had a sneak peak at a video from a friend, it's just not the same as experiencing it yourself. The older ladies waited in the bus while we did this and then he took us to the beach opposite Hideaway Island, which is basically this little island about 100m off shore that has a resort on it. Islander children waved and followed the bus just before we got there, and the older ladies threw wrapped lollies and chocolates out the window for them. The kids raced to meet us, and then started picking up shells off the beach and giving them to us. When I took their photo, they all yelled 'Facebook', I thought that was funny.

We then drove back to town and Sam waited for us for an hour so we could go shopping. My boys will be very happy as I got a couple surprises each for them, and my hubby will be even happier as I have an 1125ml bottle of OP Rum for him that I picked up for A$20. Happy days.

Some quick browsing of the markets before I got back on the ship, and then I went straight to another quilling class, got an ice cream from the New Zealand Ice Cream shop on board (for my late, late lunch) and watched an ice carving demonstration.

The weather Gods weren't being as kind, as the wind had picked up as we left port, and it drizzled rain at times. For the first time we've really felt the rock and roll, and you walk a great zig-zag line as you walk down the halls. I'm thinking this is lucky it's on our way home, as it's given us a chance to get our 'sea legs'. Dinner was again with Dexter and Marlon, and my Mum's partner who didn't order dessert, got a 'special' delivery when the rest of us received our sweets.

Having an earlier night tonight, and I won't be in a big hurry to get up either as we've a day at sea. On our way home... sniff, holiday is coming to an end.