Zipolo Habu

Oh hi! We had instantly fallen in love with Zipolo Habu. What was not to love? Joe the owner asked us if everything was OK on the first morning and we had to query him about some of the sounds that we had heard during the night. It had sounded pretty busy from our leaf house, what with something large, with scratchy claws dragging itself around inside. Joe seemed to think that it was probably a monitor lizard. I didn't actually get out of bed to check, mind. We also heard a lot of screaming and the sound of large wings beating. He found this highly amusing too and told us that this would be large fruit bats. Apparently if they decided to feed on a tree, then they would return each night to that tree. The tree in question happened to be right outside our leaf house and the leaf house backed onto the tropical jungle and the untouched part of the island. Joe suggested that we do the jungle walk and hike to the other side of the island, so off we popped.

Joe's dog scared this monitor Lizard up a palm tree, just behind our leaf house as we started the walk. It was about 4ft long. I could well believe that this was what was making the noise last night.




An unusual seed pod.


The view from the other side of the island.


We watched in amusement as these tiny hermit crabs scuttled about inside the coconut shell. We dubbed it 'hermit crab coconut battle arena'...you had to be there really...


Here's a sort vid of it.


I was hoping to see a coconut crab. Apparently they climb up the palm tree and snip down a coconut with their giant pincers, then return to the ground to eat the flesh. They are listed as endangered as a result of their size and are easy to trap, according to the locals, by leaving half a coconut by their burrow at night.



One of the huge spiders that Joe assured us was not poisonous... I had to wave a stick in front of our path to clear the enormous sticky webs...poor Wiji.


A view of the interior of the island.


Our early morning view from the leaf house.


And later that eve...


The next day we decided to go and visit one of the Skull Shrines. Tusker drove us over to the Kastom village so that we could pay the villagers...

Leaving Zipolo Habu behind.


At the Kastom Village, lots of children came out to see us. The old man in the picture with his back to us came and got the fee from the boat. He had an amazingly weathered face, quite incredible. He must have been very old.




Then Tusker, our guide, drove on to Skull Island that is the final resting place for the skulls of Rendovan chiefs. It sounded so intriguing...


Skull Island is a tiny islet at the tip of Kundu Point on Vonavona lagoon.


From here we waded through the shallows.


In the interior of the island were two separate huge rectangular piles of rocks.


Rendova's head hunters dominated the Vonavona lagoon and waged war on the regions population, sometimes 'adopting' women into their clan.


One of the rectangular graves.








Tusker blows the triton shell, the sound of the warriors call for battle.






Several of the shells.


The other rectangular grave. Tusker told us that when the Missionaries arrived they wanted the Skull Shrines to end because it was not, according to them, a proper Christian burial. So the locals moved the Skull Shrines and hid them to preserve them. This was done several times according to Tusker.






Some of the Skulls have also been taken by tourists he told us.


A wooden casket with carved door that Tusker removed for us to see in...




The skulls with some of the ancient shell money. and stone bracelets.




The view from Skull Island.


It was a very tranquil place and quite a voyeuristic experience for us.




In the distance Mt. Mase.


And Tusker whisked us back to Zipolo Habu, of which Habu is a Rendovan word for fishing and Zipolo is the protea like flower that fishermen took on their boats for good luck.




The grounds were planted with loads of the Solomon wild orchids.




Mmmm reading and drinking beer...


In the restaurant, when it wasn't a total buffet bun fight, we could order off a daily menu. The crayfish were totally delicious.




Justchillaxing on the porch.




I invited Noonoo to join us, complete with his own set of hairy balls. He hung out for the day and enjoyed the breeze from the fan.


Wiji in the kitchen with Noonoo. He gave him some of our Chilli Tuna, he seemed to cope with the flava. He was a lot less trouble than Itchy Booger!


After doing some serious chilling we decided to actually do another activity...ha ha. Joe offered to drop us off at one of the deserted islands (not that he was trying to get rid of us, being the perfect guests n'all). So we took him up on his offer and got together the essentials, snacks, sun cream, books and snorkel gear for a day alone on an island. Joe said, before he left, not to worry if he was late back, he would always remember we were still on the island if he didn't see us at dinner. Quality.

Amazing skies made me wish I could read my cloud book here...


The island opposite...just a swim away.


It was on the island that we saw a flock of white parakeets. It was quite magical.


We did a bit of beach combing, finding some beautiful cone shells, sans owner.




The hermit crabs loved the tree roots.


We did some snorkelling around the island and saw lots of big blue starfish. There seemed to be thermal waters around the island too. We could feel the really warm water in one particular deep area and also see the distortion that occurs when fresh water meets salt water. There were plenty of fish to keep us busy looking too.


Castaway. A few potential 'Wilsons' washed back and forth on the shore.


Sadly our deserted island dream was all over far too quickly, and Joe did come and pick us up.

Back at the leaf House we got the beers in and sat on the porch, again.


The beautiful glassy stillness of the water in the early morning.


On the sand in front of the deck Tusker showed us how to fool the young black tipped reef sharks into thinking they were going to be fed with fish guts...he threw sand into the sea and they shot in...


He laughed his head off


They were about 4ft long and very handsome.


I got some shots looking down on them from the jetty...


The restaurant and bar, with Joe strolling on by and Wiji chilling with Noonooo on the deck. Wiji thought Joe looked like Dave Lee Travis and referred to him as the 'hairy cornflake'...this did keep us amused for some time...


A sad end came to this clam that was kept in the water under the deck for several years, when one of the guests son's stabbed it with a stick, Lisa, Joe's wife explained to us. She was obviously very cross. How totally tragic.


Swoosh!






They really nipped close into the shallows.


The leaf house was always a good place to meet the wildlife. This enormous spider was on Wiji's bag, shame. He really does hate them.




Lmao, I'm not going to kill it, but scrape it off. It immediately scuttled back under the leaf house.


After exploring the island by foot and snorkelling we decided to use the kayaks...we didn't get that far...Mmmm.


We quickly discovered that they were great to sunbathe on.


The water was very shallow for miles it seemed.


The tiny island in the middle of the three island behind me is the one that we visited for a day. We wondered if we could paddle to it...but realised we would probably fry on our tupper-ware kayaks.






Swim Wiji, Swim! Lol, we had a happy time of throwing ourselves in and trying to get back up on the kayaks without capsizing them...how energetic of us!


Outrageous.




Again, again Wiji!


The view from the leaf house and Wiji returning from asking Dudley the chief to include us for dinner. Dudley really was on 'Island Time'.


A familiar face...Wiji reading away. We both really did read some chod here and ditched those books as far too embarrassing to swap.


'Tea in a pot?' What? Wiji couldn't get enough of putting the kettle on, can you believe it?
We had a cheesy Paw-paw tree right outside the kitchen window...arrrggghh!


The construction of the Melanesian leaf house was really beautiful and satisfied all my texture needs!






Nipping off with a beer to catch the sunset on the far left side of the island, was also a great time to see the locals paddling home.








The yacht in the distance. This yacht was painted purple and green, by hand unfortunately, (now we really understand why they look better navy and white). We saw the owner once, the only time he came ashore. Joe said to him in the bar, 'who the fuck are you?' Quality. He looked really dishevelled. We doubt very much Tim, that in this instance he even had a DVD player. We guessed that he was more likely to have a lot of super noodles. The local bar man seemed to think it was strange that he spent so much time alone on a boat. Lol. We didn't disagree.








Wherever we are, with the exception of Ouvea really, there are cockerels. These dozy beasts spent all day fighting each other and crowing at all hours below our leaf house, then they all roosted together in the bougainvillea bush in the early evening. It was right by the restaurant window. Silly billies!


Get up! At night, reading by the head torch (there was no leccy after 9pm). We could see no end of insects throwing themselves at the mosquito net and clattering around.


On our final day Joe drove us back to Munda and Agnes lodge. We were really sad to leave (of course). Joe was a really hilarious host. He always had a twinkle and a smile in his eyes. Here he had just said to us 'I'm running in the motor of my new boat, so I will be driving flat out'. Oh really? Whatever.


He wished us well on our travels. I felt very envious, 30 years on lola the island that Lisa's granddad had brought from the locals, and they leased from her mother. He really had left the rat race and had a sense of humour and an ability to accommodate his guests with out being over the top. It was super laid back, but then so was he.