Giveaways
WHILE I was on Efate, the central island of Vanuatu, where the capital, Port Vila, is located, I decided to catch a domestic flight to the island of Tanna to see Mount Yasur, the most active volcano in the world.
Tanna is more traditional than Efate. The first feature film ever made in Vanuatu, Tanna, is a true story about two young people from the island who decide to marry for love rather than have arranged marriages.
Arranged marriages are an aspect of what is known in Vanuatu and other parts of Melanesia as kastom, meaning custom or the old ways.
A couple of scenes in Tanna’s trailer show red-hot rocks and blobs of lava erupting from Mount Yasur, which is in the southeastern corner of Tanna.
It’s really to see Mount Yasur that most tourists come to Tanna, though some also tour the kastom villages.
And so, I flew to Tanna to see the volcano.
And arrived at the airport, near Lenakel, the largest town on the island, though it only has a population of about one and a half thousand.
I stayed at a place called Tanna Volcano View, which had an upper level called the Tree House.
However, because the upper level shook so much, I decided that I would only stay on the ground floor. It cost me US $50 a night for two nights.
It may pay to bring earplugs, as there is a chance you may be kept awake by barking dogs, crowing roosters, and men partying on kava.
I booked a tour for the evening, because the best times to view the volcano are at sunrise and sunset, when there is more of a chance to see the glowing lava.
I spent the day in a hammock.
And admired the nature, the cultural carvings, and gateways.
But the main purpose of my visit was to see Mount Yasur, which has apparently been erupting nonstop for 870 years. Here’s a drone video of its exploding crater.
And a more scientific one.
As sunset approached, we stirred and headed for Mount Yasur.
Here’s a village we saw on the way.
The mountain is surrounded by eroded, ashy badlands, known as the ash field.
Mount Yasur isn’t very high, and is quite easy to climb.
However, Mount Yasur wasn’t especially active when I was there, and all I saw was a lot of fumes and a bit of a fiery glow. I have heard that Mt Yasur has become less active since the December 2024 earthquake, as if the two were connected. On the other hand, it is a fact that the volcano’s activity fluctuates naturally, and has done so for many years.
The night tour lasted for two hours, from 4:30 to 6:30. They have three guides up there, and people had children as young as three. We weren’t given any hard hats or protective gear, though there was lots of safety signage.
Here is an experimental video that I made, with scenes taken on a brand-new GoPro camera I was just then in the process of mastering (it’s a bit wobbly). The first few scenes are of beaches on Efate, but the last one is of Mt Yasur and people in the viewing area.
In my opinion, the barrier at the top would not meet New Zealand standards, as a kid could go underneath.
Perhaps, if one has to bring small children up there, it might be a good idea to have each one on a climbing harness, so that if it fell into the maw of the volcano, you could haul it out again.
In general, if you just want to see the volcano, I would advise travelling to Tanna on a package tour, which you can do for about NZ $1,000 from Port Vila, as there are too many uncertainties otherwise in finding good accommodation, safe drivers, and so on.
There are also cultural tours of the villages.
But of course, if you are on a package tour, you have to stick to their itinerary and go along with other people, which restricts your freedom to explore and talk to people.
I read about one woman who is the co-owner of the Tanna Evergreen Resort, which runs tours and accommodation. Her position as a co-owner is unusual because Tanna is still very patriarchal, the kastom land passed down through the men.
Mt Yasur is not the only active volcano in Vanuatu. There are many others, including one that seems to be just as lively, right now, on the island of Ambrym.
What else did I find out? Well, although non-ni-Vanuatu cannot own land on Tanna or elsewhere in Vanuatu, they can lease it for up to 75 years, a period that is derived from the productive life of a coconut palm!
All up, for two weeks, I spent about NZ $3,000 including air fares to and from Vanuatu from New Zealand. That was being extremely cost-conscious and cooking my own food. While that does not sound like a hugely costly trip, it was a little more than I had expected after travelling more cheaply in Latin America, and was why I remarked, in previous post, that Vanuatu was expensive. Certainly, you could spend a lot more if you passed all your time in the resorts.
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