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Top Attractions in Vanuatu

Port Vila

Port Vila is the capital and largest city of Vanuatu and is located on the island of Efate. Its population in the last census was 44,040, an increase of 50% on the previous census result . In 2009, the population of Port Vila formed 18.8% of the country's population, and 66.9% of the population of Efate. Situated on the south coast of the island of Efate, in Shefa Province, Port Vila is the economic and commercial centre of Vanuatu. The current mayor is Ulrich Sumptoh, of the Union of Moderate Parties, elected in January 2014; his deputy is Leimara Malachi, of the Vanua'aku Pati. On March 13, 2015, Port Vila bore extensive damage from Cyclone Pam. Locally the town is most commonly referred to simply as "Vila" (with a long i sound, not like English "villa"). The name of the area is Efil in the native South Efate language and Ifira in neighbouring Mele-Fila language. Vila is a variant of these names. Today, Ifira refers to the small island in Vila harbour where many of the area's traditional landowners reside. The area occupied by Port Vila has been inhabited by Melanesian people for thousands of years. In Autumn of 2004, an archaeological expedition known as Teouma discovered a burial site of 25 tombs containing three dozen skeletons of members of the Lapita culture. Pieces of ceramics found at the site were dated to the 13th century BC. In May of 1606, the first Europeans arrived at the island, led by the Portuguese explorers Pedro Fernandes de Queirós and Luis Vaz de Torres. In the 19th century when the islands were known as the New Hebrides, the British possessed economic control of the zone, though by the end of 1880, the economic balance began to favour the French; this transition can be seen in its nickel mines of New Caledonia and plantations. French citizen Ferdinand Chevillard began buying and clearing land around Port Vila to be converted into the largest French plantation on the island. Instead, it was converted into the municipality of Franceville, which declared independence on August 9, 1889, though this only lasted until June of the following year. It was the first self-governing nation to practice universal suffrage without distinction of sex or race. Although the population at the time consisted of about 500 native islanders and fewer than fifty whites, only the latter were permitted to hold office. One of the elected presidents was a US citizen by birth, R. D. Polk, a relative of American president James K. Polk. After 1887, the territory was jointly administered by the French and the British. This was formalized in 1906 as an Anglo-French Condominium. During World War II, Port Vila was an American and Australian airbase. In 1987, Cyclone Uma severely damaged the city. A powerful earthquake in January 2002 caused minor damage in the capital and surrounding areas. The city suffered massive damage from a category 5 cyclone named Cyclone Pam in March 2015, whose eye wall passed just to the east of Port Vila.

Torres Islands

The Torres Islands are in the Torba Province of Vanuatu, the northernmost island group in the country. The chain of islands that make up this micro-archipelago straddle the broader cultural boundary that distinguishes Island Melanesia from several Polynesian outliers located in the neighbouring Solomon Islands. To the north is Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands, to the south Espiritu Santo, and to the southeast the Banks Islands. To the west, in the ocean, is the deep Torres Trench, the subduction zone between the Australian and Pacific Plates. The seven islands in the Torres group, from north to south, are Hiw or Hiu , Metoma, Tegua, Ngwel , Linua, Lo or Loh, and Toga. This chain stretches 42 kilometres . The highest point of the chain is only 200 metres above sea level. They are less rugged than the country's islands further south. Contrary to popular belief, only a few stretches of the Torres Islands' coastline are graced with white sand beaches; in reality, much of the shore is composed of rocky coral uplift. As of mid-2004, the Torres Islands sustained a total population of approximately 950 people, dispersed across at least ten settlements of various sizes, all of which are located on or near coastal areas. The names of these settlements are: Yögevigemëne , Tinemēvönyö, Yawe and Yakwane , Lotew (on Tegua; sometimes misspelled Lateu), Lungharegi, Telakwlakw and Rinuhe (on Lo), and Likwal and Litew (on Toga). A small airstrip on Linua opened in 1983 and provides the only regular transportation link with the rest of Vanuatu. Lungharegi is considered the administrative centre for the Torres Islands, but this role is very small. It has a community phone and medical clinic, but no bank or police station and only two barely stocked stores.

Mount Yasur

Mount Yasur is an active volcano on Tanna Island, Vanuatu, 361 m high above sea level, on the coast near Sulphur Bay, southeast of the taller Mount Tukosmera, which was active in the Pleistocene. It has a largely unvegetated pyroclastic cone with a nearly circular summit crater 400 m in diameter. It is a stratovolcano, caused by the eastward-moving Indo-Australian Plate being subducted under the westward-moving Pacific Plate. It has been erupting nearly continuously for over 800 years, although it can usually be approached safely. Its eruptions, which often occur several times an hour, are classified as Strombolian or Vulcanian. The glow of the volcano was apparently what attracted Captain James Cook on the first European journey to the island in 1774. Today the mountain is a sacred area for the John Frum cargo cult. Members of the cult revere John Frum, a deified messenger who foretold the bringing of wealth to the island by American forces, and believe he resides in Mount Yasur with his countrymen. The village of Sulphur Bay, the center of the movement, claims the volcano as part of their territory. A visiting television team found in a deep gully left by a lake which had suddenly drained, an exposure of old ash deposits including thick layers telling of two massive eruptions "more powerful than Mount St. Helens" several centuries or more ago; one of them had made the old caldera that Mount Yasur is inside.

Lake Letas

Lake Letas is the largest lake in Vanuatu, located in the center of the volcanic island of Gaua of the Banks Islands in northern Vanuatu. The place submitted an application to be considered an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004. The lake is U-shaped, surrounding Mount Gharat on all sides except southwest. It is about 9 km long and about 6 km wide, with an area of 19 km². It is situated in the center of the 20 km diameter island; the lake rests 418 meters above sea level and it is 119 meters deep. It is a fresh water lake with a temperature of 32° Celsius, where only eels and shrimps can survive. The water in the lake is not very clear, but has a greenish color. Water constantly flows out of the lake at a natural overflow located on the eastern side of the lake. The water flows about 3 km east to Siri Waterfall and then another 3 km through rivers Namang or Be Solomul before it reaches the sea. Local people say there is a canoe at the top of the lake which is used to cross the lake from the eastern side to get to Mount Gharat. The canoe is sometimes located on the eastern edge of the lake, or sometimes on the north-eastern edge of the lake . A rough estimate of the water flow rate out of the lake was approximately 3 cubic meters per second. In the 1980s it was suggested that the lake could be used as a resource for power generation to supply industrial developments but later the Tourism Council of the South Pacific has suggested that the lake should be included in Vanuatus protected area system. The Department of Physical Planning and Environment is currently considering the status of protected area to the lake.

Malakula

Malakula Island is the second-largest island in the nation of Vanuatu, in the Pacific Ocean region of Melanesia. It is separated from the islands of Espiritu Santo and Malo by the Bougainville Strait. Lakatoro, capital of Malampa Province, is situated on its northeastern shore and is the largest settlement in the island. On the northeastern side of the island there is a group of islands called Small Islands, amongst them Vao, Atchin, Wala , Rano , Norsup, Uripiv and Uri . Off the southwestern coast is Tomman Island, in the south Akhamb Island and at the southeastern point the Maskelynes Islands are found, among them Sakao Island and Uliveo. It has a maximum elevation of 879 m. It is called Mt. Liambele. In 1768, Louis Antoine de Bougainville gave his name to the straits which separate Malakula from Santo. Discovered by the Spanish expedition of Pedro Fernández de Quirós in 1606. During 1914 and 1915 the British anthropologist John Layard lived on the island taking anthropological notes as well as phononographic and photographic records during his fieldwork. On his return to Britain he donated copies of the more than 400 photographs on plates to the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge.

Paama

Paama is a small island in the Malampa Province, Vanuatu. The island is about 8 km from north to south and only 5 km or so at its widest point. The island is dominated by hills, rising to a height of around 550 m in the north. Paama lies a short distance south of Ambrym, a little further east of Malakula, about 7 km west of the large active volcano Lopevi (Ulvae, in the vernacular (see Crowley 1982), and a short distance north of the island of Epi. During daylight, all of Paama's neighbouring islands are clearly visible from various locations on the island. Indeed, on a clear night the red glow of Ambrym's twin volcanos can be seen clearly from the black sand beach at Liro. The now uninhabited island of Lopevi dominates the view east from the village of Lulep, on the northeast coast of the island. This active volcano is reasonably regular, erupting every two years or so, causing quite serious problems for those living in the villages of Lulep and Luli in the northeast of the island. The acidic volcanic ash falls onto gardens, ruining crops, and onto the natangura (sago palm) thatched roofs, rotting it.

Pele Island

Pélé Island, sometimes spelled Pele in English, is a volcanic island located 11,2 miles north of the island of Éfaté in the Shefa Province of the Republic of Vanuatu. It has a total area of 1.7 square miles, Pélé is inhabited by about 200-220 Ni-Vanuatu villagers residing in the four villages: Worsiviu, Worearu, Piliura, and Launamoa. Pélé Island is a part of the MPA Nguna-Pele Marine Protected Area, which was established in 2003, and is a popular Vanuatuan diving location. The Nguna-Pele Marine Protected Area covers a total area of 11.5 sq. mi., including numerous reefs, sea grass beds, mangrove forests and intertidal lagoons. The Nguna-Pele Marine Protection Agency is located in the village of Piliura, and mounts an exhibition and sells T-shirts. Income from tourism is distributed by the Village Tourism Committee and supports aims as village water supply projects. The island can be visited daily by boat from the Paonangisu area by the town of Emua on Éfaté's north coast. There are also yachts available both from Emua and Nguna for day and overnight charters to the island. The island is nearly adjacent to the island of Nguna, with a small passage no deeper than 33 yards separating the two. It has a tropical climate and has a maximum elevation of 650 feet at its highest. Much of the island is extremely steep and rocks prevent you from walking along the coastline around the island. White sandy beaches are found in Piliura, Worearu, Laonamoa, and Sake. Overpopulation has led to a steady migration from Pele villages to southern Nguna in recent times.
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