Beyonce and Jay Z employ full-time videographers to follow them around 24 hours a day, capturing beautiful, candid, Instagram-worthy footage.
Sinead Corcoran discovers you can become a hero on your own social-media feed in Vanuatu
Iread once that Beyonce and Jay Z employ full-time videographers to follow them around 24 hours a day, capturing beautiful, candid, Instagram-worthy footage. I’ve never wished more that I, too, could afford this set up than when riding a palomino bareback in the Pacific Ocean, both of our blonde manes swishing majestically as if we were on the cover of a Mills & Boon novel.
After sailing on a New Caledonian cruise I disembarked in Vanuatu, and spent an afternoon at a horse ranch.
Just 10 minutes from Port Vila, nestled among rainforests, coconut plantations and white sandy beaches, Club Hippique Adventure Park is where you can live out the Disney princess scene of your dreams.
For less than $100, the lovely locals who run the ranch will take you on a guided tour of the island, through 200ha of rolling hills, palm trees and blue lagoons. At the end, they’ll even let you ride your horse bareback into the ocean, while patiently snapping hundreds of flatteringly angled photos of you for your Ins tag ram.
As a horse-riding rookie, whose only experience had been watching The Saddle Club as a tween, I felt in very safe hands. The staff are meticulous about matching horses with riders’ ability (or lack thereof) and with more than 60 steeds, there’s one to suit everybody — so rest assured you won’t have any romcom-gone-wrong scenes where you’re flung off a galloping loon.
If horses aren’t your thing, but you still crave a picturesque but adrenaline-y pic for your social media, zip along to Vanuatu Jungle Zipline.
This is where you can soar over canyons and jungle while accepting your imminent death. Just kidding, it’s 100 per cent safe.
The course is run by experienced staff who go around the course with you and put all your nerves to flight. On some of the ziplines, they even catch you in their arms as you hurtle on to the platform — so you’ll feel like a very dainty tree nymph. Still scared? So was I, but it’s honestly fine. I promise. From the very beginning of the zipline tour (you do a series of ziplines around the island, as if you’re Lara Croft on an artefact hunt) you remain threaded on to the safety line like a very secure bead on a necklace.
This does, however, mean that once you’re on, you’re on — so even if you have a little panicky meltdown, the only way off the course is to keep going. It’s fine. It’s so fun. You’ll love it.
Just picture it, you get to fly over the tree with breathtaking views of the forest right down to Mele Bay — it’s the closest you’ll ever get to knowing how a tropical bird or Wonder Woman feels; it’s divine.
What if you have a massive head and you’re worried the helmets won’t fit and you’ll zip your head off somehow? I can personally vouch that they have helmets for even the biggest potato noggins — and no one’s ever guillotined themselves (I asked).
I’ll be the first to admit I’m a classic “indoors girl” who hates the beach and nature in general — but I loved Vanuatu.
There’s a whole bunch of fun and zany ways you can push yourself out of your comfort zone. Do it, you’re on holiday. You’re a brave holiday person now.
And hey, even if you have a full-blown panicky meltdown on the zipline, no one back home will know — and you’ll still have a very impressive, brave holiday person ‘gram to show for it.