Reply With QuoteHealth and safety is not words in their language
I recently got back from a cruise to Port Vila, we left the day before the cyclone flattened the place (ironically, cyclone Judy...my wife's name) anyway, to get from the ship dock to the town, requires a "water taxi" ride, these water taxis are nothing more than a poor condition, fibreglass "canoe" seating a dozen people on wooden planks, and powered by an old 2 stroke 40HP tiller steer outboard. The boats are near falling to bits, most motors need to be "tinkered" with to get going, there is no boating rules, no life jackets, and the trip is $5, everything in Vila is $5 ice cream, taxi, anything.....Anyway, we limped to the jetty in town, crashed into it, near flipped us over, and I was first out, I stood on the wooden seat ready to step off, and this 10' tall brown skinned local grabbed my hand to "help" he just yanked me straight up, like I was a small kid (now, I am of the "fuller figure" group (about 125kg) and when I got yanked out, the canoe tipped rapidly sideways someone's camera and phone went swimming, and everyone screamed and hung on, I laughed so did the "helper" in some ways the taxi ride was great fun, one of the other ones hit a sand bar and rolled over, no one was hurt luckily.
Health and safety is not words in their language
One of the sad signs of our times is that we have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce and canonized those who complain.
Thomas Sowell
Thats all part of the fun of travelling though isnt Noel...?...and its shows what we have to be grateful for back in this country...
Personally I'd be more worried about the buffet food on a cruise ship...
After a year backpacking through Central and South America, 30 yrs back, using all manner of dodgey transport over land and sea,the most fun-est trip was about a 100 Km journey through the Amazon on a 3 seat lounge strapped to top of the cab of an old F-truck...the young driver obviously revelled in trying to freak us out at every opportunity by driving as fast as possible over the corrogated dirt roads...fortunately there was a lap sash type arrangement to stop us being thrown off..
Poor old Port vila residents got hit by 2 cyclones in a week didnt they...?..I'm surprised they left it till the day before the first cyclone to get the cruise ship out of town..
Yep, one "small" cyclone, then Judy smacked them big time. The buffet food is OK, but we eat in the dining room most times. Things like that are what make travelling fun, on Lifou we walked in the stinking heat to a "secret" cave and swimming spot, when we got there, it was $10 each to swim.......we had no cash, so walked back again in 43 degree heat, thank god for the ice water at the jetty!
Look how nice it is before the cyclone, that's about 7-8 hours before it hit!
You would think there would be some wind or storm clouds "brewing"? Maybe it was the " calm before the storm" kind of thing? We left at around 4PM and Cyclone Judy hit around midnight, flattened shops and wrecked stuff in general, Port Vila is still closed to tourists until further notice. A few of the Islands are closed to tourists, a couple may never open again according to some recent news, be a big blow to their income.
Yep after experiencing a few cyclones including direct hits from both Larry and Yasi "the calm before the storm" is indeed how it starts...Before Yasi hit I was screwing off my shed roof which i'd only mangaged to tack on before...perfectly fine and calm weather till the first rainbands and wind started..then I had to put the screwgun and extension cord join in a plastic bag to finish off..lol..she held together through the eye of Cat 5 cyclone so I must have designed and built it strong enough (and got enough screws in it..)....Originally Posted by Noelm
There is also a "calm after the storm" where the Low pressure system (cyclone) moves on and leaves stifling hot and still weather behind....thats a horrible feeling after a bad cyclone as there is no canopy or leaves left anywhere and no shade as a result..its also unnaturally quiet out in the bush as all the critters have left, been killed or are hiding..
Got to feel for the Vanuatu people because a lot of their food crops will be devestated and many homes and buildings are not built to withstand cyclones..
it was so hot the day we were there, 45 degrees in town, there is (was) a big undercover market kind of place about 50m from the water, photos after the storm showed huge rocks in the market that we were in the day before. There was a few big ferries loading people on and going "somewhere", no idea where though. By the time it hit, we were miles away in New Caledonia where it was quite "nice" a bit breezy and overcast, but still OK. No swimming anywhere in New Caledonia at the moment, three shark attacks (2 fatal) has a legally enforced no swimming anywhere, gossip is one of the fatalities was a cruise ship passenger, no idea if that's correct though. Another unusual thing, you never see anyone fishing anywhere, not kids off jetties, not locals, nothing, next time I'm there (June this year) I will ask a local why! I know there is fish there, and I have caught a Bonefish right in amongst the tourists on Isle of Pines while fishing for Whiting that are easy to catch, getting your gear there is not easy, and bait is an issue, but to us adaptable fishos, packing some fishing gear (and finding bait) is possible.
Another kind of interesting thing, where you get off in Noumea, there is a big fish market, I always go there to look at the fish on sale, they always have big green Prawns, I asked once where to buy cooked ones (hard to communicate as they speak French) but it seems you can't buy cooked Prawns anywhere that they know of, no idea why though, lots of big Mud Crabs for around $35KG which is pretty cheap, and they always have big Mullet on sale along with lots of reef fish, big live Lobsters are about $40KG, you can buy a huge cooked (BBQ or boiled) on some Islands for about $50, served with a big fruit platter, plenty for up to 3-4 people, but because they are big, they are pretty "chewy" in my opinion, but you still just have to buy one.......
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