Southeast of solomon Islands, north of New Caledonia lie the tightly packed archipelago of islands called Vanuatu, inhabited by the Ni-Vanuatu.

The total land area is approximately 14,700 square kilometers and the territorial waters cover 450,000 square kilometers.

The climate varies from tropical in the north to sub-tropical in the south. The average midday temperature in Port Vila is 29 degrees C. in summer and 25 degrees C. in winter.
Rainfall is about (90 inches) a year. (No snow.) Islands are richly forested and have sandy beaches.

There are many extinct and active volcanos. The northern volcanos, Guau and Vanua Lava, are very active. Aoba is one cone rising up 4,500 feet. In the middle of the archipelago are the active volcanoes, Ambrym and Lopevi. The latter of which only re-activated about 50 years ago. Yasur is a volcano located on the southern island of Tanna.

Pentecost Island is apparenently the home of "bungee jumping", part of a spring ritual that occurs there.

Settlement of Vanuatu first occurred some 3500 years ago.

For a portion of its colonial history, Vanuatu was known as New Hebrides (should you run into older source material).


source: http://www.vanuatu.net.vu/VanuatuOnlineDirectory.html