Wednesday 06/01/2010

Today we took a stroll into town, to take a look around and get some food from the markets and convert some currency for the resorts final bill due 24 hours prior to checking out. We choose bananas and mangoes for lunch (it doesn't get much better) and walked down to the oceanfront to eat. Once at the ocean front we saw Sammy Ray Jones walking by, so we stopped and chatted to him whilst we ate our lunches. Sammy is an interesting guy with unique view of the world.
We said our final goodbyes to Sammy before making our way to 'Goodies' one of the best places on Efate to exchange currency.

Once we returned to the resort and paid our final bill we took a relaxing afternoon lazing around watching some DVD's we'd purchased.
At dinner Diana presented me with the handwoven bag her mother had made in her families traditional fashion, it's gorgeous and so very special to me, that Diana's mother would hand make me something without even knowing me, just from what her daughter had told her about me. I find myself wondering if people back home would do the same.

Photo to follow
Later that night the staff at Coconut Palms took us out for Kava, there were some members of staff that returned to the resort hours after their shift just to take us out on our last night in Vanuatu, that really touched my heart and showed me that they really do care about us, that we're not just another couple of guests - Thank you guys! At the Kava bar we shouted the staff Kava and a bottle of Bourbon we'd purchased earlier in the day, it set everybody off quite nicely.
As we walked back to the resort, after being informed that the staff bus had arrived to take the staff home for the night, the sadness welled up inside of me. I'm sure that if it weren't for the Kava I'd have been in tears, but I held it together enough to say good-bye to all of our new-found friends: