Wednesday 31 August Cleared and ready to go

It was a day for the final bits and pieces. Last trip to Customs and Immigration to complete our paperwork to head on to Vanuatu. Last trip to the ATM to get cash to buy currency for the next country and a last opportunity to tackle Fijian bureaucracy at it's very best. Vis-a-vis buying vatus, the currency of Vanuatan.
First we go to the ANZ bank with our Fijian dollars and completed customs clearance papers. The teller asks for a passport and an outbound airline ticket. First problem is being on a yacht as this is a new twist. Our assistant today had never seen a yacht clearance form before and had to check it with his manager. He came back 15 minutes later to say yes they could sell us vatus but he didn't have any in stock. We had to go the main branch 5 minutes walk away. We walk. We queue. The assistant takes our papers away for 10 minutes and returns to say yes, she has vatus but we have to go to the clearance bank around the corner to obtain permission to export Vanuatan currency. All this for £200 which would be sufficient to pay customs and immigrations fees on a small island without an ATM and expenses through the islands up to the capital, Port Vila.
We walked to the clearance bank and sat and waited while the girl filled out our form and had it countersigned and then back to the queue at ANZ an hour after we'd begun our quest at midday. The poor assistant uttered the unfortunate words 'the person who issues the money has gone to lunch'. Cue loss of cool as my precarious grip on patience slipped away. It worked though and we got our cash without more ado.

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