Connecting Vanuatu to the World: Jennifer’s Story
Jennifer runs the Mele Botanical Gardens on Efate in Vanuatu. Her business and all her employees depend on a steady stream of tourists from Vanuatu’s main airport – Bauerfield International Airport.
The World Bank has supported the government of Vanuatu with a US$73.9 million project that has provided much needed repair and rehabilitation for Vanuatu’s three main airports.
Air transport serves as a connection for Vanuatu to the world but also ensures Jennifer and her employees are able to continue to work and support their families.
Learn more about the project: vaip.vu
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Top 10 Best Attractions in the South Pacific
Top 10 Best Attractions in the South Pacific according to Lonely Planet.
10. Vanuatu's Volcanoes
Vanuatu is not on the average traveller's destination wish list. Head to the island of Tanna to see Mount Yasur, the world's most accessible active volcano. A tourist favourite, Tanna is also home to waterfalls and men in penis sheaths and grass skirts. If you get the chance, stay to witness one of their ancient festivals or rituals.
9. New Caledonian Coasts
New Caledonia is a collectivity of France with a particular status, it has its own laws and its own government. New Caledonia offers beaches, mountaintop fondue in chalets, camping, amazing snorkeling and diving, and fabulous French food.
8. Indo-Fijian Culture
Fabulous festivals and food provide visitors with a peek into Indo-Fijian culture. Diwali, the Festival of Lights, is celebrated nationwide in October or November. It's ushered in with nightly displays, from multicoloured spotlit extravaganzas to delicate candlelit driveways and households.
7. Tahitian Dance & Tattoos
Tahitians love to dance. The best dance performances in the country take place at the annual Heiva Festival, which is held in Pape'ete in July. During the rest of the year, professional groups offer performances at the big resorts. Tattooing, another strong cultural trait, has enjoyed a revival since the early 1980s. For many people, it's a symbol of identity.
6. Diving
The South Pacific offers world-class diving, with an irresistible menu of underwater treasures: luscious reefs festooned with huge sea fans, warm waters teeming with rainbow-coloured species and bizarre critters, eerie drop-offs that tumble into the abyss, and lots of pelagics, including sharks and manta rays -- not to mention the thrill of diving uncrowded sites.
5. Easter Island's Moai
Easter Island is one of the most isolated islands on Earth. Officially a territory of Chile, it lies far off in the Pacific Ocean, roughly halfway to Tahiti. Known as one of the world's sacred sites, it is most famous for its enigmatic giant stone statues or Moai whose oversized heads, carved centuries ago, reflect the history of the dramatic rise and fall of the most isolated Polynesian culture.
4. Inland Treks
Most people travel to the South Pacific for the beaches but no one should go this far without heading inland. Imagine arriving to the tip of a knife-edged peak to watch seabirds fly by at eye level, plunging into massive waterfall pools, or finding petroglyphs hidden by hibiscus next to a rushing river. And these are everyday examples.
3. Whales in Tonga
Tonga is an important breeding ground for humpback whales, which migrate to its warm waters between June and October; it's one of the few places in the world where you can swim with these magnificent creatures. They can be seen raising their young in the calm reef-protected waters and engaging in elaborate mating rituals.
2. Island Welcomes
A garland of flowers is one of the most simple yet beautiful offerings on the planet and no one gives out more of these than the people of the Pacific. Loudness and brashness are out, subtle hospitality and genuine goodwill are in. If they could give you the moon they would, so please don't ask for it.
1. Diverse Paradise
Any of these countries could be that place on a 'Travel to Paradise' poster that makes you want to leave your job and live in flip flops forever. But the South Pacific isn't just a homogenised string of palm trees and blue water. The cultures and landscapes that spread across the Pacific Ocean's vastness hold an incredible diversity, from rugged atolls to mangrove-encircled high islands and from Euro-chic capitals to traditional tribes in jungles. Each island group is home to its own sort of wonderful.
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