Sunday April 16
After our less than ideal arrival we got up at 9am and went for breakfast - it was overcast but warm, humid and windy. The resort restaurant was right on the beach (with even some tables on the sand) - breakfast was a la carte and very good - one highlight was the coffee - which we needed heaps of.
We met with the manager, Pascale (a lady) who briefed us on all the resort facilities - of which there are many - spa, gym, tennis, kayaks, SUPs, and motorised transport to take you to 2 small islands just off shore for snorkelling and picnics.
After brekkie, we walked around the resort which is very nice (luxury but not Maldives standards) - the sun came out for a while but then some rain squalls moved in. Our villa (the honeymoon villa) is very large - 2 separate room with covered and uncovered lounge areas outside and a plunge pool - all right on the beach.
We spent the rest of the morning lazing about as storms moved in and out. Around 1pm we had a light lunch and after another bit of lazing we suited up for a snorkel. The weather had improved and while not sunny we had a nice hour-long snorkel around the resort reef. After cleaning up and showering it was time for sundowners on our private beach-front cabana beside our plane pool. The sunset was lovely - as seen by the following photo.
We went for dinner a bit early for us (6:45pm) as food service is quite slow. We opted for just a main each (one tuna and one steak) and a shared dessert (tiramisu). By the time we walked back to our villa it had started to drizzle / rain again. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.
Monday April 17
After a good night’ sleep we had brekkie then took the resort shuttle to the town for a look around. You had 2 hours which was sufficient - we picked up some local cash and a bit of grog for happy hour on our beach front salon.
Back at the resort we had a light lunch of a couple of wraps then rested before our 3pm snorkelling outing. The resort provides (at no cost) a boat and driver to take you to a local island where you can snorkel as long as you want. The boat driver keeps an eye on you as you drift along the edge of a reef. When you’ve had enough he pickups you up and drives you back to the resort. I was a bit concerned about getting back on the boat but made it with no problems - of course Dieter did too. I asked our driver if people ever could not get back on and he said it does happen in which case he guides them to the beach where they can get on. The driver asked Dieter how old he was - and when he said 80 the driver was stunned !!!
Back at our villa we cleaned up our gear and showered and relaxed before our sundowners in our cabana. The soft tropical breeze brought back memories of our first trip to the Pacific islands some 45 years ago,
Dinner was fish for both of us - snapper and wahoo - not really a 10 out of 10.
Tuesday April 18
Another beautiful day but windy. We had a nice breakfast at the beach front restaurant as usual - I managed to dump the entire contents of the salt grinder all over my bacon and eggs - anyway they apologised and made me a new brekkie (even though it was entirely my fault).
We’ve decided not to stay over until Sunday (as offered by the resort) as the Sunday flight departs at 7am meaning we would need to leave the resort at 5am - not sure why when it’s a 35 minute drive to the airport and Air Vanuatu only has one airplane so arriving 1.5 hour before a flight which would undoubtedly be delayed makes no sense. And with Air Vanuatu’s “pause” on catering there would be no breakfast and given the third world nature of the airport you’d be lucky to even get a coffee at the airport.
Due to the strong winds we had a bit of a lazy day - swimming at the pool, reading, eating, drinking - we tried to go for a snorkel late in the day when the tide was right but they warned that there was a strong rip so we gave it a miss.
Wednesday April 19
It was a sunny warm but very windy day - so beach activities were limited - we had a ‘beach bum’ day - swimming at the pool, reading, eating etc. We did a short kayak late in the day when it was a bit calmer.
Thursday April 20
We had booked a hire car from this morning for 2 days with plans to explore the island. So off we went - around the island having a look around and stopping at The Havannah Resort for lunch (at the recommendation of the resort owner, Tony, who was on site this week). The resort looked great and we had a nice lunch. We arrived back at Eratap around 4pm and went for a quick snorkel.
Friday April 21
We still had the car but we felt there was not that much else to see so left a bit later and drove to Tamanu Resort - only 15 k’s away but due to the condition of the road it was about a 45 minute drive. Tamanu also looked really nice - we had lunch which was pretty good - except I ordered chill crab which was pretty much inedible - poor choice on my part. We tried to return the car to World Car Rentals but they did not have a driver available to take us back to Eratap (which we expected) but we were able to pick the cash we had paid for the car as we had changed the payment to VISA to ensure we were covered by the additional insurance. So we drove back to the resort and they would collect the car the following morning.
Saturday April 22
It was time to leave - the resort had offered to let us stay over one more day but the Air Vanuatu flight on Sunday departs at 7am meaning we would have had to leave the resort at 5am so we cut our losses (ie Friday) and kept our departure as originally planned.
We had a lazy morning - packing, going for a swim and a final lunch before leaving in the hotel mini-van at 1pm. We checked in at the airport very quickly only to find our flight was delayed - it was nearly 5pm when we finally departed. The flight home was pretty much full - and quite torturous - I vowed I’d never fly economy on an international flight ever again - even a short one.
Our flight landed at 7:30pm (local time - one hour earlier than Vanuatu) - we got through immigration really quickly and by some miracle our bags were almost first on the carousel. Fortunately there was no queue at customs and we arrived home at 8:30pm - Dieter took the bags in and I rushed over to Ventuno to get a table before the kitchen closed. We finished off our beach break with a shared burrata and Galosa pizza.