So this 8-day vacation did not start off on the right foot. We should have left Sydney on Friday April 14 at 11:15am arriving Port Vila (VLI) around 3pm local time (+1 hour from Sydney) in time to settle into our villa and have dinner etc. However, as it happened on Thursday at 5pm, after we were fully packed and ready to depart for the airport at 8:45am the next morning, we received word that our Air Vanuatu flight was cancelled. It seems we had been rebooked on their Saturday flight which only depates at 7:20PM !!!
We were not totally surprised as Air Vanuatu had been cancelling flights for the past 2 weeks as they waited for parts for their one and only 737-800 (which is the only plane capable of servicing NZ and OZ). It seemed that some flights were being operated by Air Narau (who even knew Narau had an airline much less a 737).
Finally after 2 dead days - we finally boarded our flight for Port Villa some time after 8pm on Saturday. Air Vanuatu is quite a ‘shit box’ airline - on this 3.5 hour flight they didn't serve anthing but a small snack (a meat pie which we declined), warm water and tea or coffee - no alcohol - cost cutting I presume.
Arrival in Port Vila was typical third world - crummy airport, surly immigration officials and slow luggage delivery. Our resort pickup was waiting for us even though it was now 1am in the morning - my heart sank when I saw the minivan - it could only be described as a jalopy. Of course the resort was pretty much closed down but someone took us and our luggage to our villa - fortunatley the rain had let up as it was a bit of a walk along a very dark path. Once in the villa we were again a bit disappointed - their was no welcome - the mini bar was empty and there were no welcome snacks - one would expect a luxury report to have a welocme bottle of chilled Champagne and a cheese plate or similar. At least they provided 2 bottles of water.
The drive from the airport to Eratap took 35 minutes in total darkness - no street lights (or in fact traffic lights) here - the main road around the island is sealed (they drive on the right) but last 5 k’s to the resort is a rough track made worse by the heavy rain over the past couple of days.
After digging out our jammies and toilet bags we hit the sack - hoping things would look up in the morning.