We woke up to find it was somewhat overcast, so Lu suggested we walk the dog up to the local village, Tanoliu. It’s a lovely little village with a primary school, some food stalls and a kava bar under an old Banyan Tree. It also has a Museum which showcases a collection of memorabilia from the Second World War. The collection has been painstakingly put together over many years by Ernest, a bit of a local character who is now 83. Ernest was 10 when a fleet of military ships first arrived in Havannah Harbour. At first Ernest was frightened that Vanuatu was being invaded by the Japanese but his father reassured him that they were American.

Ernest welcomed us with open arms to his collection. He was delighted to hear we were English: he motioned enthusiastically to a portrait of Winston Churchill painted by the door of the museum. ‘A great man – he saved the war.’ He is keen to add a Union Jack to his collection of flags which line the road outside the museum.

Ernest has collected his trophies from the shore and the sea. A mainstay of the collection is glass coca-cola bottles and fragments of bottles which the American servicemen left behind. Ernest pointed out that each bottle has the name of a different American state printed on the bottom. Apart from the coke bottles, he showed us hand grenades (NOT live, he assured me!), a rifle and bullets from a large naval gun. He had dog tags with the names of American servicemen on them. You could still read the names. I noticed that one was called Ernest!

There were other, unusual things, like the helmet of an old fashioned metal diving suit and a pair of binoculars. There were also bits of fusillage from a range of war planes, including Spitfires. Ernest’s enthusiasm was infectious and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit. After we left, Lu told us that the original museum building was badly damaged by Cyclone Pam. The money to rebuild it was donated by a crowdfunding appeal launched by American workers at Coca-cola.

In the afternoon, the sun came out and David and I decided to visit Mele Cascades, which is on the road to Port Villa. The entrance fee is a fairly steep 2,000 vatu. For that, you get to meander up a series of pools leading up to a beautiful waterfall. At several points, you have to wade across the water. Towards the top, the path is completely submerged. Fortunately, we had been warned by Lu and were wearing wet shoes. We were pleased to find ourselves almost alone at the falls. Apparently it is on the cruise ship itinary and can be very crowded.

All the way up the shaded path, there are invitingly deep pools to jump into. We saved our swim until we reached the highest pool and walked back down in our wet swimming costumes. If we’d been feeling more adventurous, we could have stayed in the water and travelled all the way down the fall, sliding from pool to pool.

At the bottom of the fall, there was the option to lounge round a natural swimming pool filled with water from the cascades with a café and even a bar. However we wanted to get home and get ready to go out for drinks at the Havannah Resort.

The Havannah Resort is an upmarket hotel for adults only. It is right on the beach, and only a five minute walk from Lu and Tim’s house. On arrival, we put in an order for cocktails – Margheritas all round – and then sat back to watch the nightly show: sunset! Despite being so close to Tim and Lu’s house, the bay looked quite different from the Resort. Once the sun went down, we surprised the staff by hopping down onto the beach to take a short cut home for dinner. Fish pie made with fresh local fish, loving prepared by resident chef, David Scull. The Havannah Resort was a great place to go for a drink but that night, I doubt that the guests ate as well as we did.