An epic journey

A celebratory bottle of Prosecco, half a chicken, some sweet potato fries and a hop skip and a jump to the gate we were on our first plane on our way to Vanuatu. 

Having booked our flights through a student travel agent they had kindly found us the cheapest route, needless to say this goes hand in hand with being the most scenic and therefore longest route possible. This was a 'pretty epic trip' quote miss Kelly. It was maybe not her favourite birthday but we had a lot of laughs and a number of free gifts thrown our way; some champagne, some headphones from first class and a pudding from business (the metal cutlery was so exciting at 4am UK time). 

Free champagne. Yes please 

DVT socks that are pink because you can never be too careful 

Birthday girl 

We endured so many hours on planes we can't even count them. A medical emergency in Dubai, a Storm in Sydney and an airport buggy ride later we arrived In Auckland for a much needed sleep in a real bed. We watched vintage Malcolm in the middle had a dinner of chicken and crisps and dip. A Mars bar. And a good sleep. 

We found Nottingham friends in Sydney because of our delays though!

The airport was only a 20 minute walk from the hotel and we were almost on our last plane! The Air Vanuatu flight was really colourful, the air stewardesses 'resting faces' were happy ones! A stark change from those from home! We flew over the North of North Island and landed on Vanuatu 2.5 hours later. 

View from our Auckland hotel at sunrise 

There was a band playing tropical tunes as we walked through a very primative customs department. As we hitched a ride with a very friendly taxi man we were shown the devastation left by Cyclone Pam. He explained for the most part the roofs of the little shanty huts were blown off but the people just picked up the roofs and put them back on. There were many trees knocked over and buildings damaged but on the whole people seemed to be going about their daily lives.

We set out in the afternoon to find a supermarket to buy our breakfast and somewhere to eat dinner for the evening. A place that we originally thought looked too expensive for us turned out to be just within our price range and had a gorgeous view of the Pacific Ocean. We chowed down on two massive and perfectly arranged burgers with a diet coke (we've probably had too much already) this was such a lovely way to end our first day and seems like a place we might like to frequent. 

Hospital tomorrow 8am. Gosh. Night !