Shutter Diaries 1.0

Upon hearing we had travelled from Sydney the first words our shuttle driver said to us was "Thank you Australia, you have been good to us." Only minutes before I saw two Royal Australian Air Force planes standing on the edge of the tarmac with a team of busy workers offloading military vehicles and medical supplies.

Several months ago my sister mentioned that she wanted to travel somewhere for her 35th birthday, I eagerly invited myself and a decision was made that Vanuatu would be our destination. Flights and accommodation were booked. We were all set to go, or so we thought.

Four weeks prior to our arrival mother nature conjured up one of her finest tropical storms to date, on Friday 13, March 2015, Vanuatu experience their worst natural disasters in history. Cyclone Pam had left behind a trail of catastrophic damage to the country's infrastructure, communication, food and water supplies and displacing 45 percent of the nation's residents.

Damn you Pam!

Over the next several weeks we learnt that our resort was back up and running and guests were welcome. There was no doubt in our minds that we still wanted to go, we were assured that we wouldn’t be a burden on resources. As planned we boarded our plane and set off to the unknown.

During the remainder of drive our driver continued to tell us his story, he was from a small island off Efate which had been completely destroyed, his house in Port Vila had been severely damaged and lost its roof. It would take weeks if not months for supplies to become available to begin to rebuild.

Pacific Island nations frequently experience cyclones are extremely resilient and recover very quickly. Crops were re-planted within a few days and life was continuing as normal. The friendly hellos from locals, laughter from the children and cheerful sounds coming from the villages was proof of this.

On my final night in Port Vila, while lying in bed I heard the gently pitter patter of rain outside, I began to think about the driver I had met on our first day, how was he coping with all this rain and no roof?

Even though I did not fully understand the full meaning of the "thank you" at the beginning of our journey, as the days evolved we learnt that many tourists had cancelled or postponed their holidays, Tourism is one of the main sources of income for Vanuatu and continuing with our holiday was helping their recovery.

As the say in Bislama thangkyu Tomas