Farewell 2010, Hello 2011!

What an interesting and fun time I’ve had over the last 2 months. I’ve been channelling my 18 year old party self, had the courage to fly in what I think is the world’s smallest airplane and stood no more than 100m from the fiery mouth of an active volcano. All in all I can honestly say that I bought in the New Year in typical Teneale style! Seeing 2010 come to a close was quite sad as I realised this means I will be yet another year older in a short 2 months but I am happy to say that I wrapped up the year with great friends and good times.

A fellow IHG colleague arrived in town at the end of November from Alice Springs to assist our Executive Chef for two months.  At first I didn’t have much to do with him but after I forwarded a guest feedback email to him we started chatting and eventually decided to head out for a drink. I can honestly say this was the turning point for my next two months as from this point forward my time was filled with parties, booze and a lot of workouts for some on a certain stripper pole in town.  

I had an orphan’s Christmas this year as I was not lucky enough to be able to travel home. Working in hospitality means that you have to work these holidays sometimes and over the years I have had my fair share of orphan’s Christmas’. But this year was the best Christmas I could have had without my family. We were holding a Christmas Luncheon at work so I offered to assist and run the lunch to ensure everything went smoothly. It was a typical hot and humid day but everyone had that festive cheer about them and it turned out to be a great luncheon. I finished an hour early and sat down with a family from Oz and shared a couple of wines and some great conversation.

Then I was off to spend the rest of my Christmas with my adopted Vanuatu family – the dive shop guys. My afternoon and night were filled with laughter, entertainment and countless conversations that cannot be put to paper. Needless to say I had an absolutely amazing time and a lot of fun.

The festivities didn’t stop there. Christmas week was spent at Voodoo (local nightclub) and preparing for NYE. We spent NYE at the dive shop and what a great idea that was. The dive shop is located right on the water front in town. From there we got the best fireworks display for free! It was nowhere near Sydney standards but it was just right for our little island party. NYE wouldn’t be complete without a nudie swim from someone at the party and we got our wish when one of the dive guests dropped his pants and jumped into the water. Entertaining it most definitely was!

Dragging ourselves out of bed the next day, the crew reconvened for New Years Day and the party continued. A small group of us spent the afternoon on a private island here at the resort I work at. We took food, booze and music and spent the day on the small beach. Everyone was shattered by 6pm so we all made it back to my place and we took up camp on whatever space we could find – bed, couch, chair it didn’t really matter. We were all but passed out when I get the call I had dreaded for the whole day. Work. The restaurant was busy so my General Manager called and asked me to go and assist. I was in no shape at the time but with a bit of makeup and a splash of water on my face I endured 2 and a half hours of work and then retreated home to find everyone passed out. It didn’t take me long to join them and 14 hours later we were up and moving again.

In the New Year my good friend ‘the chef’ and I took an overnight trip to Tanna Island to visit a live volcano. After surviving the 1 hour flight in an 8 seater plane we were taken to our ‘love shack’.  The word shack is probably an overstatement but there were two beds so we were happy. The drive to the volcano took 2 and a half hours and the terrain was horrible. I hit my head on the roof countless times and had to hang on for dear life as we drove through some very deep wash outs. We finally arrived at the top and wow what a view. I had the eerie sense that I was in one of the Jurassic Park movies. Beautiful tree covered mountains surrounded by crystal clear ocean. The volcano was making loud noises and spewing out a lot of ash, rocks and smoke. Eventually as the sun went down the real fireworks started with lava shooting out in every direction, getting close enough to us that you could hear it hitting the ground. There is no other word to describe this experience then ‘amazing’. I recommend that this adventure goes onto everyone’s bucket list.

Back on the main island, my friends and I took advantage of having some time off together and drove around the island, enjoyed time at the local saloon bar and watched the boys play cowboy on a life sized stuffed horse and had another ‘interesting’ Bislama lesson from a great friend from work.

I took the chef to the airport yesterday as it was time for him to return to reality and time for us to stop our partying ways. OK well let’s face it, that’s not going to happen so we’ll just aim to slow down. I’ve said it before, but it’s always sad to say goodbye to a great friend whether you’ve known them for 2 months or 2 years. Matty will be greatly missed but thank god for facebook and photos so the experiences and memories can be relived at any point in time.

I have so many exciting things coming up early this year I can barely contain myself. First is a trip back to the farm to see the family. Then I’m off on a girl’s weekend in Bris Vegas before jet setting back to my tropical paradise. Some of my family are coming to visit at the end of Feb to help me celebrate my birthday so watch out Vila there will be 6 crazy Queenslanders and 1 Mexican (Victorian) invading this heavenly place!

 2011 started with such a bang that I can foresee it only getting better from here!