Greetings from Vanuatu

Well it's been a long time coming but here is a little catchup on what we have been up to over the past nine months since September last year. 

We started this project 5 years ago when we found 6 ha of land on Espirito Santo and thought this would be a great place for a small boutique eco-friendly resort. 

 We had some frustrating years securing our land titles but in that period, the international airport opened on Santo with direct flights to Brisbane, our main access road was reconstructed and sealed and we now have full mobile phone coverage to our land. We are on the east coast of Santo, 15 Km from the town of Luganville and  sheltered by the offshore islands of Mavia and Aesi (pronounced ice).  The land is part old coconut plantation (along the road frontage), native rain forest and understorey cleared forest to the waters edge. The background photo is from our kayak taken just off from where we are building.



The local town, Luganville has also grown over the past 5 years and has 2 hardware stores plus the assortment of Chinese trade stores, where we can get most anything if you are not too picky. Although it does get frustrating when things start to disappear off the shelves if shipments are delayed. Surprisingly quite a lot of the building materials are similar in price to what you would pay in Oz.

We started last September, with the help of some Ni-van (new Vanuatu) guys working for us, cleared our land to bring in our containers and set up our building site. The containers form the base structure for what will be our managers quarters.  It was a bit like christmas when they arrived and we unpacked our generator, tools, tractor and  our small truck.

For the guest accommodation we have built a multi tiered deck around the base of a huge old "navelle" tree near the waters edge.  It provides wonderful shade and protection from strong winds. 

 The deck supports our "luxury" tent, bathroom and kitchen/dining room and steps down to the plunge pool "blue hole". 

Our plan is provide the tent and surrounds as exclusive and private executive accommodation behind a walled garden, serviced via the kitchen and dining room.

We are self sufficient, drawing water from an underground spring that rises in our own little grotto.  We make our own solar power that runs to pumps, fridge lights and computer.  We have internet access via the nearest mobile phone tower (a fair bit cheaper and easier than satellite).  We have yet to get busy on the veggie garden, chook pen and aquaponics but there are only so many hours in the day. 

I thought I had all the time in the world when I started, nine months have gone in a heart beat and now I must think about heading back to Oz. We are pushing to get our website finished and out there so that we can get this place on the tourist market.  We think initially offering it as honeymoon haven.  Always open to suggestions.