A really nice clear day. We’re on the harbour side of this point. We grab our reef shoes and take a walk around the point and onto the ocean side. We have a tag along, Phillipe the young son (6ish) of Sarah and John the house caretakers, comes with us. The kids all enjoy playing together.
There is a island off the tip of the point, at low tide you’d probably be able to walk across to it.
The other side of the point, while open to the ocean, is still a really well protected part of Mele Bay.
The colour of the water is stunning and the clarity is amazing. Only trouble is there is a fair bit of wild life about. Its high-ish tide at the moment, but below what must be the low water mark there are heaps of sea cucumbers and in the slightly deeper sections there are these black patches. They end up being clusters of sea urchin with those long sharp spines. So we need to be careful where we walk. At one point Justine spots a small sea snake and given the speed at which Phillipe moves, it doesn’t help the nerves.
The black patches are urchins 
Our holiday house 
Upstairs is a separate flat
This afternoon we take a trip out to Erakor Island Resort. This was probably one of the main contenders if we had chosen to stay at a resort, so I’m keen to check it out.
It’s only a few hundred meters off shore in a fairly well protected bay. They have a “ferry” that shuttle backwards and forwards. You need to buy a ticket for the Ferry, but that’s fine. We’re getting the tastes of the resorts without needing to actually stay at them. Most of the others resorts are free to visit, they just ask that you buy drinks or a meal which is more than fair. We have a quick lunch at their restaurant.
The small island is lovely. We only see the top half as they ask day visitors not to go down to where the Bures are. There is this lovely protected beach near the main resort pavilions. But again like this morning there are heaps of sea cucumbers about, which isn’t that pleasant, it seems like low tide, which doesn’t help. One interesting thing is there are also these huge colourful starfish, you wouldn’t want to stand on one, but they are nice to look at. After the swim, the Kids have a play in the playground. While the place is nice. I’m glad we made the choice we did.
We call Karl and let him know we’re on our way back so he can pick us up from the wharf, but we get this odd message. He’s apparently on the other side of the bay at his village, Erakor. He tells us to ask the boat driver to drop us off there. OK I guess?
The Ferry drops us off, Karl pick us up and we have another passenger with us. We end up being taken on this “tour” of his village, with our new passenger, this younger guy, who has pretty good English and a very smooth touch giving us a running commentary. Eventually after taking the “scenic route” we finally arrive back at the house and it’s clear the guy wants a tip for his efforts and “be nice to your mum” isn’t going to cut it. We pay him some and they are on their way.
I’m of two minds about this, obviously we’ve just been taken advantage of which just pisses me off, we’re paying Karl above average fees and are happy to do so. But then again the poverty here is something I’m not sure we can really understand, so good on ‘em for having a go. While I’m convinced this is a village racket that Karl was pressured into, the next day, I tell him not to pull a stunt like that again or we’ll find another driver.