| Ambae,
the original Bali Hai
Ambae
inspired James Michener's mysterious island of Bali Hai
in his book Tales of the South Pacific. The island
is a large semi-active shield volcano rising to 1496m above
sea level. It's Vanuatu's second highest island with crater
lakes on the summit and cloud forests on the upper slopes.
East Ambae is wet and the west is a rain-shadow area. Ambae
is an excellent place for hiking and walking, good for birdwatching
and there are some secluded beaches. Access and facilities
are improving and a few intrepid volcano tourists are travelling
to the unique volcano of Ambae.
Ambae's
west and northeast are densely populated. Elsewhere there
are few villages. The centre for PENAMA province is at Saratamata
in the northeast. Ambae's economy is based on agriculture.
Ambae is famous for its aelan
taro and melo-melo kava.
Other products are cocoa and copra.
Not
many tourists visit Ambae even though it's close to Santo
with frequent and inexpensive transport links. It's actually
cheaper to fly to Walaha from Luganville than to charter
road transport to northeast Santo. There's a new international
airport terminal at Santo's Pekoa Airport and hopes to draw
tourists from Santo to Ambae when and if international flights
to Santo commence. New bungalows are planned for Devil's
Rock and Nangweangwea and a guesthouse at Lolopuepue.
Ambae
has three airfields so it's easy to visit only one part
of the island. If you want to spend more time and see more
of Ambae then you can use an 'open-jaw' air ticket and travel
between Walaha and Longana by land. There's a walking track
north of Ambore village that connects west and north Ambae.
Walking Ambae.
Bungalows
We feature the following places:
Devil's
Rock Camping, Devil's Rock 
Duviara Guesthouse, Duviara
Conservation Area, Ambanga 
Lolowai
Transit House, Lolowai 
Rose and Jeffry's Paradise Garden
House, Ambore 
Toa Guesthouse, Ndui Ndui 
In the
more densely populated areas of Ambae there are several
local standard guesthouses, often owned by the church or
community. These are not promoted to tourists and we haven't
visited them all. If you're waiting for a ship at Lolopuepue
then ask to see Pascal, he is planning to build a guesthouse.
News,
September 2005: A guesthouse is reported to be nearing completion
at Nangweangwea village so hiking to the crater lakes from
west Ambae should soon be more practical.
Air
Transport
Ambae has three airstrips. The table below summarises services
(March 2007) and fares (May 2006). Ambae has lots of flights
so check the latest Air
Vanuatu domestic schedule carefully. Tourists holding
an international Air Vanuatu ticket are entitled to a 20%
discount on VANAIR fares. Exchange
Rates.
| Airport |
Return
Santo fare
(Vatu)
|
Return
Port Vila fare
(Vatu) |
Landings
per week |
| Walaha |
10933 |
29833 |
10 |
| Longana |
14218 |
30913 |
8 |
| Redcliff |
12193 |
29405 |
1 |
Sea
Transport
There
are one or two ships per week between Luganville and Ambae.
In November 2004 a one way fare was 1500 Vatu to west Ambae
or 2000 Vatu to the northeast. Exchange
Rates. The crossing takes three to four hours but more
than half a day can be spent servicing the villages around
the island. Most of these ships pass by Ambae on the Port
Vila-Luganville route and stop at most places on the northeast
and west of the island.
The
Simonsen Wharf (past the main wharf on the road towards
the airport) is a good place to find ships for Ambae. It's
also a good idea asking someone from Ambae in Luganville.
Note these are cargo boats with poor facilities for passengers.
One exception is the L/C Sarafenua which has a lounge (and
no clear spaces to lay down!).
On Ambae,
good places to find ships are Ndui Ndui in the west and
Lolopuepue in the north. Lolowai is not so good because
ships may arrive unexpectedly and stop outside the harbour
where you may not notice them. It can also be difficult
to get reliable information about ships at Lolowai.
Road
Transport
Ambae has extensive road networks in the west and northeast
but the rugged coastline prevents a complete round-island
road. Some truck fares are listed below. Exchange
Rates.
| Truck
journey |
Charter
fare (Vatu) |
Shared
fare (Vatu) |
| Walaha
- Ndui Ndui |
2000 |
200 |
| Ndui
Ndui - Devil's Rock |
3000 |
|
| Lolopuepue
- Lolowai |
3000 |
300 |
| Longana
- Ambanga |
4000 |
|
Last
updated: March 2006 by Stephen.
|