Well folks, if you want to find somewhere for instant unwind, this is it. What a fabulous place - so beautiful, friendly and relaxing.
We arrived yesterday morning to fab weather and had an ‘interesting’ taxi ride to the jetty in port Vila Harbour. There is so much traffic and such bad roads and they drive on the right side of the road, which made it feel pretty hairy! However, the driver was very friendly and welcomed us warmly – setting the trend for everybody else that we have come into contact with here.
We were picked up and ferried across the harbour (about 500m) to the jetty on Iririki Island and our holiday began. We knew this because we were met by guys who insisted that we were not to carry our own bags, stating “your holiday has begun”. Tipping is not practiced here, so they aren’t just trying to get a bit of extra dosh either – they mean it.
We were greeted with drinks, and a flower behind the ear for me and Toni, then we were driven by golf buggy to our apartments on the opposite side of the island. Wow! We feel like the beautiful people! Two floors, modern and spacious. Downstairs, lounge with big flat screen TV, office areas, dining area, fully appointed kitchen (including laundry), bathroom with shower and toilet and a spa outside on the balcony. Upstairs, bedroom with a full wall of closet, big flat screen TV, bathroom with shower, toilet and spa bath and a chaise lounge outside on the balcony. They are built about 20 metres up from the water so the view is unimpeded and beautiful. Spacious, clean and cool – in both meanings of the word – AND a bottle of Moet in the fridge as part of the package. Truly this is something special. The guy who brought us to our room was really thrilled that we were excited about how gorgeous it is (as you can imagine, we did a lot of oohhing and gasping as he showed us through – not ones to hold back when we are excited), everybody seems really proud of what they have to offer and they love it when we love it too.
After unpacking, we wandered down to the pool area and had some lunch and cocktails – we figured that since we had been up since 5am – 3 hours earlier than normal – we needed to add 3 hours to the time (2pm) to determine ‘body’ time. Therefore, it was 5pm ‘body’ time and acceptable cocktail hour. So I have had some of the ‘have one for me’ cocktails and will make sure that I fit the rest in before the end of the week. We chilled by the pool, reading and ‘rehydrating’ for the afternoon and that was a great way to ease in to holiday mode. We relocated to a restaurant on the island, just in time for cocktail happy hour, and stayed for dinner on the deck looking back toward Port Vila. It was a perfect, wind free island evening – and as it was Sunday evening, fabulous singing (and a very long sermon) wafted across the water to us. The bill was a bit mind blowing though – the 1 NZ dollar is worth about 64 Vatu, so the dinner and drinks bill for the four of us was 13,625.00! Takes a bit of getting your head around!
About 8:30, we found ourselves knackered from a day of traveling and lying about and headed off to bed and fell asleep to the sound of waves gently lapping the shore below us.
We arrived yesterday morning to fab weather and had an ‘interesting’ taxi ride to the jetty in port Vila Harbour. There is so much traffic and such bad roads and they drive on the right side of the road, which made it feel pretty hairy! However, the driver was very friendly and welcomed us warmly – setting the trend for everybody else that we have come into contact with here.
We were picked up and ferried across the harbour (about 500m) to the jetty on Iririki Island and our holiday began. We knew this because we were met by guys who insisted that we were not to carry our own bags, stating “your holiday has begun”. Tipping is not practiced here, so they aren’t just trying to get a bit of extra dosh either – they mean it.
We were greeted with drinks, and a flower behind the ear for me and Toni, then we were driven by golf buggy to our apartments on the opposite side of the island. Wow! We feel like the beautiful people! Two floors, modern and spacious. Downstairs, lounge with big flat screen TV, office areas, dining area, fully appointed kitchen (including laundry), bathroom with shower and toilet and a spa outside on the balcony. Upstairs, bedroom with a full wall of closet, big flat screen TV, bathroom with shower, toilet and spa bath and a chaise lounge outside on the balcony. They are built about 20 metres up from the water so the view is unimpeded and beautiful. Spacious, clean and cool – in both meanings of the word – AND a bottle of Moet in the fridge as part of the package. Truly this is something special. The guy who brought us to our room was really thrilled that we were excited about how gorgeous it is (as you can imagine, we did a lot of oohhing and gasping as he showed us through – not ones to hold back when we are excited), everybody seems really proud of what they have to offer and they love it when we love it too.
After unpacking, we wandered down to the pool area and had some lunch and cocktails – we figured that since we had been up since 5am – 3 hours earlier than normal – we needed to add 3 hours to the time (2pm) to determine ‘body’ time. Therefore, it was 5pm ‘body’ time and acceptable cocktail hour. So I have had some of the ‘have one for me’ cocktails and will make sure that I fit the rest in before the end of the week. We chilled by the pool, reading and ‘rehydrating’ for the afternoon and that was a great way to ease in to holiday mode. We relocated to a restaurant on the island, just in time for cocktail happy hour, and stayed for dinner on the deck looking back toward Port Vila. It was a perfect, wind free island evening – and as it was Sunday evening, fabulous singing (and a very long sermon) wafted across the water to us. The bill was a bit mind blowing though – the 1 NZ dollar is worth about 64 Vatu, so the dinner and drinks bill for the four of us was 13,625.00! Takes a bit of getting your head around!
About 8:30, we found ourselves knackered from a day of traveling and lying about and headed off to bed and fell asleep to the sound of waves gently lapping the shore below us.
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