Hidden Treasure

You can spend countless hours wondering ‘what if’ or you can just jump! I’m not suggesting we jump out of planes (of course you could and I plan to someday) but rather on them. Travel is more than just an escape – it is also an education! As my travel agent told me ‘To Travel is to Own the World!’

And there is nothing more exciting than planning your next escape!

My escape came in the form of my younger brother locating me online after a 15 year search. We didn’t grow up together (he lives in NYC) but with him spending 8 months in Australia we formed a close bond and we had the opportunity to travel together with my youngest child. I took them to Vanuatu; a hidden treasure - a Paradise - and the place where love and kindness know no bounds. It was an easy choice considering he’d been ‘almost’ everywhere else, and I wanted a tropical island filled with cocktails, and a place where turquoise waters lap at the edge of the sand (not reality!) I wanted a real holiday – stretched out on a cabana watching the world go by. I didn’t even need a good book to complete this perfect picture!

Between the cocktails and waves we discovered a small treasure, known to the locals as the Blue Lagoon; it brought back memories of watching ‘Endless Love’, starring the then teenage Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkin. But it was here that we got to create new memories, filming my brother (who looks nothing like Brooke Shields or Christopher Atkins) and our young driver, a native of Vanuatu, using the flying fox to jump, to leap and then slicing the icy cold water (braver than I, who stood on the bank watching and filming, and I could afford to laugh when their jump or leap was more of a belly flop! It was funny because it wasn’t me!)

This journey was a sentimental journey of the heart for so many reasons – a chance to travel as siblings for the very first time, taking in an Island filled with people who only know how to help each other. As our little bus suffered a flat battery and a flat tire, our hearts were anything but flat; 7 helpers rushed to assist with the dead battery, and a whole village turned out to ensure our safe journey with the flat tire until we could finally stop in a remote area to use a foot pump to put enough air in it to travel further. I’ve never felt safer – we were in good hands!

This holiday was a journey of both spirit and body! We learned so much from the locals, who although they lead very simple lives, truly know what life is all about!