Vanuatu Part 3: Honeymoon Beach, Erakor Island, Mele Falls, and Hideaway Island

On our way back from the airport after Tanna, we stopped by the mission office and met some missionaries (who were having P day) and the some of the senior missionaries in the office.

The APs came over that night to discuss upcoming transfers. We all joined in the meeting and added a lot of opinions. :)

My parents were busy the next morning, so we took these three and explored some of the "China shops" (most of the shops in Vanuatu are Chinese owned and sell various knick knacks) and had some lunch at Sea View.

Later that afternoon we headed to explore the tide pools over by Eton Beach.

Cute bare bum Davis! We played a bit in the water. I think this was right before I saw a coral snake in the water and we rushed out very quickly. 

Lots of creative playing in the mission home! We ended up buying a soccer ball to give them something else to do.

The next morning my dad was busy, so the rest of us headed to Honeymoon Beach which is quite close to my parents' house. We were basically the only people there and had a great morning.

We did our first snorkeling of the trip! Violet did the first snorkeling of her life and loved it. It really was great snorkeling, but I didn't bring my tevas which was a major mistake because the five minutes walk on the coral out to the snorkeling spot was the worst. Otherwise we had an amazing time!

That afternoon we headed out to the sewing shops to try to find Violet a local dress. These cute ladies each have a shall and sell dresses they've made. They also take special orders to make you a dress. We didn't end up finding anything we loved, but had a lot of fun exploring. Except for Max--he wasn't feeling well and just laid on the floor as we walked around.

That night we had a missionary dinner for the missionaries entering the mission. One of them was actually from our home stake. Most of the missionaries were from other pacific countries. It was so fun to get to know them all. 

It was fun watching my parents do their new missionary training.

Breakfast in the mission home!

The next day we headed out to Erakor Island to spend the day. We took a little boat from a little pier just down from my parents' house.

Today was Davis's first day (kind of) snorkeling! He was so cute and was always like this with his bum up in the air. There were hundreds of star fish everywhere and he loved picking them up. He picked lots of other stuff up too, even when we told him not to. :) 

We brought these cool kids snorkel masks and they worked great!

A cute Grandma Jean/Davis moment.

Always looking for star fish.

Always collecting shells. They were obsessed with finding small sand dollars on this beach.

Lunch at the Erakor Island Resort

The resort had this cool iguana room.

Andy played Grandpa Mark in chess.

That night we headed to the Honeymoon Beach area for the Fire Show at the Beach Grill. Max lost a tooth and threw it in the ocean "so part of him would always be in Vanuatu." 

There was the prettiest sunset that night. And while we all waited for the fire show, there were tons of kids running around, playing and wrestling.

The fire show was really fun! The kids loved it. It definitely wouldn't have been allowed in the US. Or at least the audience would have had to be much farther away.

The next day we went to Mele Falls. It was incredibly gorgeous! It might have been my personal favorite site we saw.

We went on a hike where we passed through water and smaller falls up to the biggest one.

The big falls! Some of us dove in and swam around. The water was very powerful and loud.

We all swam in the lower falls! It was awesome.

A cute picture from a round of Catch Phrase

The next day we went back to the Beach Grill for lunch. I loved their burgers! They serve them with cucumber and beets and it's actually super good.

After lunch we headed to Hideaway Island where we spent the afternoon snorkeling. I would call this Davis's first real snorkeling experience and he did so great! He held my hand and we swam all around looking at all the beautiful ocean life. I think it was possibly the best snorkeling in my life. They also have the famous "underwater post office" which was kind of fun to see.

Andy loves snorkeling and was always the first one out there.

Max with Grandma and Grandpa.

That night we went to dinner at Stone Grill, which was so so good. Definitely our best meal in Vanuatu. It's an outdoor restaurant and the view was beautiful.

It's the coolest restaurant! They bring you a hot stone and you cook your steak yourself until the meat is cooked how you'd like it. We loved it so much we immediately booked another reservation for our last night.