Bokissa Private Island Resort Vanuatu
Bokissa Private Island Resort | Getting There | Accommodation | Restaurant | Activities |Points of Interest | Contact From the very start, Dave, his wife Jan and his son Alan had a vision of creating a high quality, private island resort in Vanuatu with as little impact on the rainforest and coral reefs as possible. Bokissa Island is a rare tropical gem. Only a 20 minute boat ride from Luganville (and an international airport) Bokissa has a virgin rainforest, a white sand beach, clear sea water, good landing area, and a thriving, healthy, living coral reef. Nobody lives on Bokissa other than the management and staff of the resort and their guests. Bokissa Island and the surrounding reefs and waters are owned by the villagers who live on the neighboring island of Tutuba. They lease Bokissa to the resort and gave Dave and his family exclusive rights to maintain the entire island and coral reefs and the waters over the coral reefs as a nature reserve and private resort. Dave and his son are engineers by trade. There isn't anything they can't build or fix. You can't imagine how essential this is to their vision and your enjoyment of the resort they created on this isolated little island in Vanuatu. The first thing they did was set up an astonishing infrastructure - generators, workshop, miniature slipway for their boats, sewage treatment facility, rain catchment areas and tanks, laundry area, a wharf and floating dock for guests and supplies, and they helped the people of Tutuba Island build a mini-village for the staff, complete with school facilities, playing field, medical clinic and church. All the staff of the resort come from Tutuba and since they are the land owners, they have a vested financial interest in making sure everything is perfect and safe for you as a guest of the resort. Dave and his son, with the aid of the people of Tutuba Island, built everything for your enjoyment, the restaurant, kitchen, bar, the very best freshwater swimming pool in Vanuatu with a swim-up bar, the walking trail through the forest, the dive boat, the dive shop, volley ball court, and of course the farés. Dave and his son are professional engineers and these are first rate, high quality facilities that operate 24 hrs a day. You really should have a look behind the scenes when you are there - at the kitchen, the work shop, the desalination plant, and realize that these were created and are maintained on a day to day basis by a couple of Aussie guys with know-how and committment. Jan, Dave's wife, also plays an active role - she does the book keeping, grows some magnificent orchids (both indigenous and exotic) and makes sure the beauty of the resort blends in perfectly with the rainforest and the sea. All of this was and is done with complete respect for the natural setting. Walk out of your waterfront Faré and you are standing under huge beach trees festooned with native ferns and orchids that are probably over 100 years old. There are no cats or dogs or chickens on the island and this protects not only your peaceful sleeping at night, it protects the rare native birds in the virgin rainforest that covers the island. The trash and non-compostable garbage is all taken to Santo - not buried or burned on the island. The sewage is treated with a very modern bio-treatment plant that you would never know is there. The water in your faré is soft and safe to drink - captured from rain and desalinated from the sea. The electrical generators are far from the bungalows so you don't hear them running, but they run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. There are two different generator systems designed to conserve energy - supplying different levels of electricity depending on use. The SCUBA diving compressor is kept in perfect condition. The Vanuatu resort's dive boat, fishing boat and speed boat are ready to go all the time. It's really just amazing. The villagers keep the resort supplied with fresh fish and lobsters - but not from the reefs that you can enjoy by snorkelling right from the white sand beach in front of your Faré. Nobody fishes the reefs or takes specimens from the reef or anchors on the reef. The environmental precautions were done because of a deep personal love and respect for the life of the sea and the forest and the people of Vanuatu. No other resort in Vanuatu, and practically none in the entire Pacific Ocean, have demonstrated this kind of committment. It was more expensive than you can imagine and, there is no Vanuatu law, no regulation, no inspectors that made them do all this. Dave and Jan and Alan are private people who like to keep to themselves and enjoy their work. You'll see them every day and in the evening and they will help you with whatever you need. But they are not chatty social type people. The staff, like the owners, are supportive and maintain the resort facilities to perfection but if you don't particularly seek them out you will probably not even notice they are there. Meals are buffet style and included in the cost of the faré - you can dine with the other guests or sit at a separate table by the pool or even on the wharf if you wish to be alone. The food is fresh, varied, and scrumptious. Fine wines, beers and spirits are available at the well stocked bar. It goes without saying that people who go to Bokissa are looking for a place to enjoy their privacy and immerse themselves in the "work" of a dream holiday in the embrace of a truly lovely little tropical island with a white sand beach, sparkling clear water, and really beautiful living coral reefs. The resort enjoys a lot of repeat customers and word-of-mouth recommendations. From time to time famous people (like movie stars or singers) who want some time off from the world show up at Bokissa. There are just 16 Farés and, given enough advance notice, it is possible to reserve the entire facility. Bokissa Private Island Resort is a place where you are "on your own" but with the facilities to do whatever you like - kayak up a hidden river, picnic on a desert island, dive on the largest accessible shipwreck in the world, treck through the mountain river gorges of Santo, visit tradional Melanesian villages, or just laze out the door of your Faré, swing in a hammock under a big old tree overlooking the white sand beach and shimmering blue lagoon, open up a good book, and drift in the calm currents. Click here to see some virtual reality sphere images of Bokissa and the Bokissa Coral Reef To see more photos of Bokissa private Island Resort Vanuatu click on the camera
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