With school back, the same question is on everybody's lips: "When can we go on holidays again?" Quickly followed by, "OK, so how will we pay for it…?" The weakening Aussie dollar has local tourism operators punching the air. (How does one actually punch a colourless, odourless, gaseous mixture, incidentally? Now there's a question for Dr. Karl...) But there are still some brilliant bargains available offshore.
While I'm a self-confessed Fiji fanatic, Vanuatu offers very good value for money.
In fact, Air Vanuatu has just announced cheap fares for teens, on sale until February 27 for travel until late this year.
Travellers aged between 12 and 17 can fly return, from Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne to Port Vila, from $415 including all taxes and charges. The cheap children's fare is also on sale, at $199, if you book before March 27.
Unlike a lot of other Pacific destinations, Vanuatu is targeting adventure travellers. For families, this includes ziplining and zorbing. The latter sounds like a delightful dance, in which you spin around speedily in a circle before smashing plates to smithereens.
But it's not. At Wet 'n' Wild Zorbing, you climb inside a huge plastic ball, which slips, slides and somersaults down a grassy hill. Yes, you do this by choice: it's not a form of modern-day medieval torture. This park boasts, "the longest Zorb ride in the world, with a 2.5-metre hydro ball transforming into a waterslide down the rolling hills of Mele, keeping the kids occupied for an entire afternoon", according to the PR blurb.
I like the sound of that last bit.
Just before zorbing, in the alphabet of adventure activities, is ziplining. Regular readers may remember my embarrassment at avoiding ziplining in Idaho, as 82-year-old Grace whooped and hollered, hanging from a metal hook high above the valley.
"Mamma got a bit scared, did she?" Grace taunted. Truly, you don't know humiliation until you've been teased as a, "chicken, buk, buk, buk, bugerk!"... by an octogenarian.
The zipline at the Summit Gardens and Cafe straddles an 80-metre canyon and a waterfall in Port Vila (see vanuatujunglezipline.com.
I think I'll be the one taking a leisurely stroll through the gardens while hubby and the kids slip on those attractive thigh harnesses. As our guide in Idaho, who was born in the Czech Republic, said, "Vee must be careful ven putting on zee 'arness, as vee don't vant to get a vedgie. Hahaha!" There are also buggy tours, which bounce through bush tracks before a break on a black sand beach, or the Zego Sports Craft for a high-speed water tour.
To me, this sounds like the perfect holiday for tweens or teens. And, best of all, it's cheap.
So, don't worry about the good ol' Aussie dollar once again entering the territory of the Pacific peso. There are still plenty of family bargains to be had outside of this wide brown land.
Email: [email protected] Twitter & Instagram: @TraceySpicer
