A day at leisure

Our first day in Vanuatu has passed without much to report. Today we got ourselves fitted for snorkelling gear and some handy reef shoes (to protect us from the coral that lines the beach at low tide). We then took time out to explore the resort, including its Instagram-worthy pool and nifty private jetty.

Garry and I were delighted to spot a colourful pink starfish off the jetty, followed by a sea eel silently stalking prey as it weaved its way through the coral shoals. I then spent several hours building a personal living expenses budget in anticipation of retirement. I've had this on my to-do list for months, so it was great to finally get started on this critical lifestyle project.

We eventually made our way into the warm tropical water shortly after 2:00pm. We spent almost an hour snorkelling our way along the shoreline reef. The fish life was abundant, and the coral was blooming in spectacular style everywhere we swam. 

Sadly, we didn't encounter any sea anemones, and thus there were no Nemo fish to be seen. However, I spotted plenty of colourful Parrot Fish, and the vivid Blue Chromis were everywhere. These tiny, bright blue fish belong to the same group as damselfish.

It was happy hour at the bar this evening, so we sat and enjoyed a couple of half-price cocktails and sampled some local kava before sitting down to dinner on the edge of the beach (that's the view at breakfast this morning below). It's been a blissful start to our Pacific Island getaway.