On one of our days in our week-long trip to Vanuatu, Kirsten and I decided we were keen to go and swim with the turtles. We headed to the Turtle Sanctuary where we saw pigs, turtles, sharks, and coconut crabs.
Unfortunately the tides weren’t quite right for us when we got there. The turtles are kept for a certain period of time in a large sheltered tidal pool, which means at high tide you can swim in a couple metres of water, but low tide we found is fairly shallow and not as good. We got to feed the sea turtles slices of pawpaw that the sanctuary provided for us.
At the sanctuary they also sheltered the baby turtles and helped them grow before releasing them into the wild to keep them safe from predators while they are young. Nearby there were a couple pigs that we could feed, and some very strange looking coconut crabs. On the other side of the sanctuary was a penned in area where we could see a couple wild sharks swim from a distance.
We were able to go snorkelling in the nearby area and there were lots of brightly coloured starfish around, so the guide put several on Amber for an excellent photo opportunity.
After our tour of the sanctuary, we were treated to a BBQ lunch of local food. The whole experience cost about $15NZ including the huge BBQ feast. It was very well priced for value. The only thing we would have liked would have been for it to be high tide, or have better photo opportunities with the bigger turtles. We had an amazing time feeding and hanging with the turtles though, so we came away very happy!