Pacific Insider
There's no time like 'island time'…

Taking a short break. Have a fabulous festive season!!!

That may seem a silly heading, but careful observation will see locals in Vanuatu communicating with their eyebrows. The raising of eyebrows can mean ‘hello’ or ‘yes’ and you can even flag down a bus with a facial expression. Likewise, you may here people ‘hissing’ at each other. This is a way of grabbing another [...]

Geckos are small, harmless lizards with adhesive pads on their toes. Mostly nocturnal, they wander the walls and ceilings, cack-cacking, mating and keeping the mosquito population down. Repeat – they are harmless. I’m repeating that because of a resort in Fiji that told me they had quite a few American tourists complaining that there were [...]

The coral, colourful fish and visibility in the waters around Vanuatu and Fiji mean great snorkelling and diving. The difference between hard and soft coral is that soft coral (more delicate and pretty) requires currents to keep it alive, so the best soft coral is found on the reefs.  Best I have experienced is the [...]

Dance is an important part of Samoan culture. The sasa is a synchronized group dance with the rhythm coming from clapping or beating a drum or woven mat. The siva is a lyrical, poetic and graceful dance that tells a story. Watch the delicate finger movements and you may follow the story without a need [...]

Spiders in Vanuatu are really big with webs as thick as ropes but they’re harmless (the spiders, as well as the webs). In fact, if you’d gone on the Ekasup Cultural Village tour you’d know they were traditionally used to help men catch fish. The web the large spiders weave is golden. Men would get [...]

True ongoing eco habits in the Pacific are hard to find.  Matava on Kadavu in Fiji is an Eco-Adventure Resort and last month it received it the first PADI Green Star Award in the Asia Pacific region for sustainable and eco-conscious environmental activities and business practices. Well done!

Gosh! Good news for Cook Islands Tourism. According to a recent survey, 91% of Australian consumers hadn’t heard of the Cook Islands! That is one very big market to tap into with an awareness campaign. I would imagine that close to 99% of Aussies would have heard of Fiji. Hmm.

It’s official – Polynesian Blue is now Virgin Samoa. Hard to believe that it is 5 years since the inaugural Poly Blue flight. That was an amusing one – Virgin didn’t know that Samoans can eat until they are tired, rather than eat until they are full, and the entire stock of food was consumed, [...]

Due to popular demand the naughty but ever-so-nice hypnotist, Mark Anthony, is returning to Benjor Beach Club mid February. You may recall that the highlight (or perhaps lowlight) of the last show was when the owner of the Vanuatu Daily Post had absolutely no say about whether he should, or should not, make passionate love to [...]