You Only Live Once

You Only Live Once

Tuesday 27 May 2014

Settling in....

So here we are...and we are loving it! 

Heading into week 7, 2 weeks down after a month of visitors and all is going well! We of course loved, and love, having our family and friends here but it was good to get stuck into Island life as a family!

The 1st month spent with our visitors felt like one long holiday as we did all the usual "holiday" touristy things that there is to do here...and there are so many! If you are thinking of coming here on holiday it is a place where you can do as much or as little as you want and there are plenty of options. Here are some of the things we love and highly recommend....


We thankfully found a fantastic fully furnished house to rent which is situated on the 2nd lagoon, it has a pool and plenty of space and is about a 10 minute drive from Port Vila Town, depending on traffic! It has a cottage at the back of the property which is perfect for when our business partners, Lou & Jason come over and for any other visitors.

Front entrance to our house

Sunset looking out to the Lagoon and Nakamal from our garden
A Nakamal (Bislama word) is a traditional meeting place in Vanuatu

Other than our business our time here is all about family for me. We seemed so busy in NZ that I often felt guilty about not spending enough quality time with our 3 children mixed with resentment because I also didn't seem to have enough time for me! 

Here, I definitely have more time...I don't feel rushed...this is Island Life! I am still working part time from home but our day starts earlier so I fit a lot more into my day. The children are at school from 7.30-1.30pm so if I have jobs in town I can have these done, had a coffee and pastry at one of my favourite cafes, Au Peche Mignon, and be home before 9am. Then in the afternoon there is plenty of time for after school activities and homework. 

Au Peche Mignon - the pastries and cakes here are amazing!


They make a great coffee!

The extra time is of course helped by the fact that common place here is to have a house girl, gardener and pool guy, therefore, there is no household chores to be done by me! We have 2 house girls, Edna who comes 3 days a week and Noeline who comes 2 days and also does our babysitting. They are wonderful! The concept is unusual to me and I have found it hard to not do things, but the girls do not like me helping so very quickly it has become the norm to have these lovely ladies in my life every day and organising my household.

Our lovely Edna

Our very smiley Noeline


My priority after our visitors was to ensure the kids settled quickly and even though we had a few tricky moments, in the first couple of weeks of school, I think we can safely say they have all settled well, have made friends and are enjoying life here, even Jack, our 10 year old, who was our concern as he was the one that wasn't really keen on this move.


Millie, Joe & Jack - 1st day at Port Vila International School (PVIS)

I had to very quickly master driving on the left hand side and although initially it was a bit daunting after a couple of times it became second nature. There don't appear to be many road rules and the intersections which mostly lack signage are interesting to say the least! It is not law to wear seat belts and the kids ride on the back of my truck! 

From the stats showing on this blog I have readers from all around the world, which is great! There are a few reasons for writing this blog, firstly, it is so we have a record of our time here, secondly, it keeps our friends and family up to date with what we are up to and last but not least, it would be great to engage with other people who have or are interested in doing something similar to us...so I am wondering if any of you have moved countries for a new adventure? It would be great to receive any feedback/comments....


1 comment: