VOGUE.COM.AU – 199into two air-conditioned dining rooms by
a narrow central bar, with a shallow deck
wrapping around the building.
The deck is the place to be for lunch and
dinner: sitting outside with the steady
breeze you can watch the waves break on
the reef, a white haze stretching to the
distance showing where the whitecaps are
breaking the heaviest. Breakfast, if you
choose to take it at Motu instead of having
your butler deliver it to you on the terrace
of your villa, is best eaten with your back to
the ocean, though, as the rising sun floods
the dining room with a brilliant light that
will have you reaching for your sunglasses.
It doesn’t take long to realise that here it
would be all too easy to fall into a cosy
routine of lazily taking meals, swimming
and snoozing on the day bed next to my
personal plunge pool in the morning and
on the more sheltered day bed in the villa’s
shaded internal courtyard in the afternoon,
especially as meals and drinks are included
in the rates, but there are some great water
sports on offer, including parasailing,
water-skiing and jet-skiing. (And as a
guest of Finolhu Villas you have access to
Club Med Kani for kayaking and sailing,
among other activities.)
A more gentle option is a three-hour Blue
Lagoon snorkelling expedition, which
starts with a 20-minute ride by dive boat to
a speck of a sandbank in the middle of the
ocean. Jumping in the water I’m greeted
with a pervasive, familiar sound I haven’t
heard since snorkelling on the Great Barrier
Reef: the crackling of hundreds of fish ▲Above: a turtle, powder
blue tang and angelfish
spotted on a snorkelling
trip; a sun-striped lounge
on the island’s jetty. Below:
the pool and bar area can be
enjoyed both day and night.ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHS: MARK SARIBAN