Erakor Island Resort. Photo \/ David Kirkland<\/p>\n
It\u2019s March 2026 and I\u2019m sitting along the Port Vila waterfront with Martin, tracing the scars of the December 2024 earthquake that killed 14 people and flattened buildings across Vanuatu\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n
En route, I\u2019ve paused at the rock memorial along the main street built at the Billabong site where Martin joined rescuers for three days digging people from the rubble.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s a quiet buzz building in and around Port Vila. A murmur of a different kind. Of resilience, resurrection and of a South Pacific capital seizing the opportunity to reinvent itself.<\/p>\n
Martin, a former chopper pilot from Twizel who runs Watersports Vanuatu, is so optimistic that he\u2019s launched half- and full-day sea kayaking tours, with plans to introduce a five-day Efate sea kayaking trip soon.<\/p>\n
Two New Zealand jetboats he brought into the country in 2015 are also poised to be relaunched any day on Port Vila Harbour. Martin previously ran them from 2015 to 2020 before the global pandemic hit.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne good thing that\u2019s come out of the earthquake is that cruise ships now come to the seafront instead of the wharf [the road to the wharf was destroyed in a landslide],\u201d Martin says. <\/p>\n
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Erakor Island Resort. Photo \/ David Kirkland<\/p>\n
\u201cUnlike New Zealand\u2019s jetboats, here it\u2019s a 20-minute blast in the harbour over nice shallow reefs.\u201d <\/p>\n
I wander along the waterfront, pausing at the Mama Market with its handicrafts, and further along at the Fresh Produce Market, rehydrating on a $1 coconut. <\/p>\n
A sweaty saunter up the hill sits another New Zealander and eBikes Vanuatu owner Greg Mitchell, from Hamilton, who has similar Kiwi confidence in the capital, launching the island\u2019s first scooters with 15 yellow bikes for hire. <\/p>\n
Mitchell provides guests with a map of the island\u2019s main attractions, citing the Banyan Bay Beach Club, Blue Lagoon and Ewor River Waterfalls, among the highlights.<\/p>\n
Blue Lagoon swing. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
\u201cThe earthquake was a b****. But by April 2025 I had three times the bookings of the previous three months and August last year was my best month since I opened this business,\u201d Mitchell says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese scooters have been my absolute bread and butter. I\u2019m really looking forward to this year. Vanuatu is just such a cool place. The freedoms here are fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the core of Vanuatu\u2019s next chapter sits the iconic Grand Hotel and Casino, Port Vila, where I spend three nights in a luxe Panorama Suite with its 280-degree glass views of the harbour.<\/p>\n
Hotel general manager Mark Stanford says the 74-room hotel closed for 15 months largely for cosmetic reasons and to strengthen the building, reopening in March 2026.<\/p>\n
Melbourne-based owners the Zagame family have worked with renowned local engineer Cyrille Mainguy (who lost his cousin in the Billabong collapse) and New Zealand-based structural and civil engineers Markplan on the building, which has rebranded as a \u201cboutique hotel\u201d replete with refurbished rooms, suites and restaurant.<\/p>\n
Eden on the River. Photo \/ David Kirkland<\/p>\n
The hotel has plans for future \u201cactivations\u201d such as live entertainment on Wednesdays and a poolside DJ on Fridays.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve always been the heartbeat of Port Vila. We want people to know that this is the place to be seen. Vila\u2019s been missing that,\u201d Stanford says.<\/p>\n
In Vanuatu, it\u2019s about the culture and the geography and there\u2019s potholes, and you either love it or hate it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later, I join Vanuatu-born Gateway Shore Tours owner Alfred Hosea, who is operating new group and individual tours of Efate.<\/p>\n
In early May, Hosea will open the South Pacific\u2019s first inflatable waterpark \u2013 measuring 100m long and 70m wide \u2013 along the Port Vila waterfront.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019m trying to do is create something different, another product. I think it will boost a bit of tourism in Vanuatu,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
We drive one and a half hours from Port Vila, striking those famed potholed roads and avoiding chickens and kids, past working blokes brandishing sharp bush knives and blunt senses of humour, and arrive at Siviri Village.<\/p>\n
Former Australian policeman Micheal Haschka has created Turtle Cove Villas, which opened in December last year.<\/p>\n
These four simple yet elegant villas all face Undine Bay \u2013 home to hundreds of Hawksbill turtles (and the odd dugong or two), who inhabit the shoreline, and from which this resort has taken its name.<\/p>\n
Just offshore, I snorkel the pristine 2km reef, which is the longest continuous reef on Efate, brimming with fish and coral.<\/p>\n
Over on Eratap Lagoon, the former Aquana Beach Resort has been rebranded and its 16 bungalows refurbished as E\u2019Nauwi Resort, which is now one of only a few in the nation owned by a local Ni-Van resident.<\/p>\n
E\u2019Nauwi Beach Resort. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
I feast on its signature seafood platter: think coconut crab, local lobster, mussels, fish \u2026 and view the day spa perched on the lagoon.<\/p>\n
E\u2019Nauwi Resort general manager Linda Kalpoi believes Vanuatu offers something more than other South Pacific countries because of its unique history of French and British rule.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been voted the happiest place on earth three or four times now. It used to be known as the \u2018untouched paradise\u2019,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Australian\/Ni-Van couple Samara and Benie Masauvakalo launched Mali Beach Club overlooking Mele Bay last September after deciding Vanuatu needed its own version of a \u201cBali-style beach club\u201d.<\/p>\n
I find swings (without the influencers), fire pits and cocktails (try the Pain Killer \u2013 vodka blended with sweet pineapple and orange juice and finished with a hint of Midori and a splash of grenadine to emulate the sunset).<\/p>\n
\u201cCompared to the rest of the South Pacific, Vanuatu is untouched. It is more rugged,\u201d Samara says.<\/p>\n
Back at the Grand, I sit on my balcony late at night and listen to the hum of boats as they criss-cross the lagoon. It\u2019s a hum that is slowly turning into a buzz and will become a roar. Of resilience and revival.<\/p>\n
The writer travelled as a guest of The Grand Hotel and Casino Port Vila and Vanuatu Tourism. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Erakor Island Resort. Photo \/ David Kirkland It\u2019s March 2026 and I\u2019m sitting along the Port Vila waterfront…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[433,3390,82106,4475,2956,6215,18280,185,26662,27944,117,111,43,139,69,197644,29268,4529,191536,79762,1240,223,196,142351,210374,210375,4276,102,9192],"class_list":["post-408890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-adventure","tag-best","tag-christine","tag-hire","tag-holidays","tag-hub","tag-inflatable","tag-is","tag-itself","tag-kayak","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pacifics","tag-port","tag-reinventing","tag-retschlag","tag-scooters","tag-south","tag-the","tag-tours","tag-vanuatu","tag-vila","tag-waterparks","tag-why","tag-with","tag-writes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}