Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five
The Way You Make Me Feel
The journey was smooth, and soon we could see the island, and its surrounding isles all sitting on the deep blue-green water, which was very clear.
As we descended to land, we could make out the fields of crops and the little grass houses……soon we were on the ground, as we got out of the plane, we could already feel the heat, it was very warm….
We walked from the plane to the airport, we collected our bags, and found ourselves a taxi. As we drove from the airport, I was so amazed by the whole experience, how small and remote these islands were.
The taxi driver dropped us off at Port Vila waterfront, where we then caught a ferry that would take us to the island of Iririki, where we had a bungalow for 2 nights…
We got checked in and went to our room, which had the most amazing view of the harbour. We changed into something more cooler, and decided to venture onto the mainland. The Hotel had left some brochures about tours around the island…
Eilidh had been here before, less than a year ago, though she was only here a day, and the tour she did was great, and she thought I’d enjoy it…
So we went into the town, having a look at some of the shops, we found the tour office, and we booked for tomorrow…
We found a store that sold snorkeling gear, and so we bought some so we could go snorkeling. We also found a record store, which did have Westlife things in it, and by pure co-incidence, was playing Westlife…though the locals didn’t notice that I was one…
We made our way back to the island, and dropped off our purchases.
We found an eating-out guide, and looked over it, while waiting the sunset…I took some photos of it, cos it was the most amazing thing, the sunset that is. We rang ‘Vila Chaumieres’ and managed to get a table for tonight.
Around 7pm, we ventured back to the main island, we got a taxi to the restaurant. We got to our table, and started studying the menu. What a variety of dishes, and mostly seafood dishes. We ordered some wine and our meals…
We sat back and admired the view. The meals were delicious. Then we finished off with fresh fruit. We sat for a while, just taking in more of the view.
As we took a taxi back to the town, we thought we’d have an early night, cos we had to be up by 8am for breakfast, and as we were being picked up at the Pier at 9.00am..
We both fell asleep, Eilidh lay her head on my shoulder, I didn’t care.
I was woken by its light, already it was very warm… I glanced at the clock, it said 7.30am. I turned over, and saw that Eilidh was awake too.
"What a glorious morning." She said.
"yeah, it is, and it looks like its going to be a very warm day.." I said.
We got dressed, putting our togs under our clothes and started to pack our bag for the trip. Towels, sunglasses, suntan lotions and our snorkeling gear..
We ventured to the restaurant for breakfast, which was very delicious, fresh fruit, cereal and even cooked breakfast if you wanted it…
Soon, we headed back to grab our bag, and catch the ferry back to mainland. We could see the bus waiting for us. so we got on, they had to go and pick up some people from some other hotels before we could start..
After the bus was fill with its passengers, the journey started.
It took us from Vila, past the Cascades Waterfalls, up over Klem’s Hill which had breath-taking views of the Mele Bay and Vila Harbour, along the dirt roads which were jungle claded, from Havannah Harbour on the sheltered side of Efate island.
Then we boarded a small dinghy which would take us to the yacht which would take us to the remote white-sanded beach.
We all got on, Eilidh who had been on it before, stood up the front, waiting for something. Soon we were joined by a group of dolphins, swimming under the bow of the boat. I was so amazed as I had never seen dolphins up close before…
We gently slowed down about a mile off an small island, and we boarded the dinghy once more.. we motored to a small beach, which was home to a turtle farm. It was most exciting, as you could pick them up, and there were some that were as small as your fist. Eilidh took some photos of me, holding some of them…
Then it was back to the yacht, for our final sailing to the Beach and morning tea of Tea and Scones…We moored off the beach, and grabbed our gear, and boarded the dinghy….
The Beach was so beautiful. Most of us, went for a swim, I couldn’t believe how clear the water was, I could see so many different fish and other sea-creatures. Eilidh assured me that the best was yet to come. Then the operator said that they’d take people out by the reef… Eilidh said that this was more spectacular. So we joined the others and went out to the reef…
I couldn’t believe my eyes, it was so deep out there, and there were deep holes lined with Coral, and there were hundreds of different types of fish feeding off the coral. I could see fishes of blue, green, purple, and yellow and brown ones. Eilidh swam nearby, I was so glad that she had suggested this…
After about 30mins it was time for lunch, it was a BBQ lunch with different types of salads, and meats. It was very tasty, and then later it was time for another swim before journeying by dinghy to a cave which apparently had Bats in it, though we didn’t see any.
Then it was back to the Boat for some fresh fruit and we threw the skins overboard which the fish all ate…then one of the crew thought it be fun to jump off the roof of the boat so most of us did jump in for one last swim. Eilidh jumped off the side and I followed. Then we got back on to the boat as it headed back to where the truck was…
We were again joined by some dolphins which swam along side us, I took some photos of them, before they swam off….
Once again, we boarded the dinghy which took us back to the van, for the journey back into Town.
Eilidh and I got out of the van in the town, and walked to the pier to get us back to the island. We looked at some of the side-stalls, and we picked up some food for dinner as we didn’t feel like going out for a meal. It was about 3.30pm when we got back to the bungalow. We sat there admiring the view…
Once the sun set, we sat back and checked out what was to offer on the television, mostly foreign channels. I don’t really remember what was on, as I must have fallen asleep, only to be woken up by Eilidh poking me.
"what?" I said. I looked, she had found MTV UK and it was playing one of our videos as an exclusive. I couldn’t believe it, it seemed like only weeks we had filmed it in the UK before the NZ/OZ tour, and there it was on the MTV…
"Wow, what a good video, and you sing on it!!" She said.
Well, it was the single that Kian and I overtook the lead vocals. I quickly rang Kian.
"Kian, its Nicky, you’ll never know what I watching?" I asked.
"What?" Kian replied, obviously saying to the others that I was on the phone.
"Our new video on MTV UK!!" I said, proudly.
"Wow, really, is it an exclusive or something.." Kian asked.
"Yeah, it is…"I said.
"Oh my god, cool, I wonder how the airplays going. Ronan hasn’t heard anything….I can’t wait to go promote this song, since I’m one of the lead vocals on it with you.." Kian said, excitedly!
"yeah, me too…I thought I’d just ring to tell you that…I’ll see you guys in a few days!"
"thanks for that Nicky, hope you’re having a good time, and not getting up to mischief!"
"Me, into mischief, never…that’s Bryan…I better go…" I said
I couldn’t believe that the fans in the UK and Ireland had seen our video…I wondered what they’d thought of a song not sung by Shane and Mark..
We sat there watching for a bit longer, we also saw some of the other Irish artist’s new videos such as long awaited new single from Boyz One! The video was really good, and well, the lads had their partners and their kids and even Steve’s dogs were in the video…
Soon it was about 9pm, and we thought we’d go to the bar for a late-night drink… the moon was up and the stars seemed brighter than usual. We had a few drinks and then we went back to our bungalow.
We both shared a bath together, and then we called it a night, both dreading that tomorrow was our last night on the island…
The sheets in the bed were cool, and soft, and we both fell asleep easy.