More rain overnight but the morning arrived with decreasing cloud, warmer temperatures and light breeze. Today promised more than any of the preceding days. Island paradise at last. Which inspired today's title. Yes my encyclopaedic reader it is another Kinks song, but I'm trying to inspire the younger generation to expand their music repertoire. They were such a great band and a part of the British rock invasion of the 60s.
The day commenced as it should with breakfast delivered to our room, but I said I would commence this blog with a review of dinner. Happy Easter my dear reader I hope the Easter Bunny was kind to you ... if that's your thing of course.
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| The Yacht Club from across the marina |
The restaurant itself is all dark timber and mood lighting with expansive views over the water. The tables are enormous triangular pieces that are way too big for two people. This arrangement, however, means you are well separated from other diners and do not have to yell to be heard. You may think that means you cannot hear the other diners' conversations, but the couple to our left were engaged in an animated discussion, regularly punctuated by expletives and absences from the table in between courses. And they were smokers. That's allowed, but no thongs. It is still legal, although snorting cocaine is not. This, I discovered in the toilets, didn't appear to worry the middle-aged (OK he was younger than me) guy from another nearby table. But again, no thongs, so it was OK.
Our waitress was lovely and decidedly nervous and moved through the learned-by-heart patter as if she was reciting her mother's death notice in public for the first time. The 8 course degustation was served with matching wines and there were some interesting choices. A pinot noir with the bitter chocolate dessert. I get the reasoning, but it just didn't work. You got the feeling they were trying just a little bit too hard when compared with the simplicity of the fare at Beach Club. The latter was the winner in my humble opinion.
Back to today. What a stunner as far as the weather goes. Sunshine. A bit of fast moving cloud. No rain. I repeat, no rain. That was a first. Despite the unusual weather pattern, we followed our routine. Breakfast followed by activity, but today the activity included a swim. Well, a wade and a float. There are some serious obstacles beneath the surface of the water. Had we not wandered the shore at low tide we would have been unaware of the rocks that lurk beneath the blue-green water.
Interestingly, there is a shelf of conglomerate that sits just below the high tide line. There is also a significant amount of rock and pebble that gets moved around by the dominant current. Beyond this, there are rocks encrusted with razor sharp oyster shells. The water is too clouded for snorkelling and I certainly wouldn't wade in there without reef shoes. The colour of the water reminds me of a glacial lake. As you know my scientific reader, that colour is made up of rock particles that have been ground up by the passage of the glacier. Given the lack of visibility in this water, is it also dense with fine particles of ground rock?
Enough thinking, it is holiday time. Wearing our reef shoes, we made access and egress from the water look easy by comparison to some other visitors to the island. They walked, they hesitated, they stepped forward, they danced back, they moved sideways, they slipped, they fell, but they made their way into the water. We walked in and walked out.
While we were waiting to dry off a little two tweenies and their gravelled-voiced mother arrived from further down the beach. Mother looked around, read the "Beach Club visitors only" sign and sat down on a day bed in the shade. The girls then made use of one of the hammocks. They did NOT belong here dear reader. They were children under the age of 18 and were therefore NOT staying at our adults ONLY resort. Sadly the lights and sirens I had hoped for did not eventuate, nor did armed guards rise up from the sand and gun them down. In fact, nothing happened at all and after a few minutes the tweenies became bored and departed with mum in tow.
After drying off and seeing the interlopers off our property we strolled to the eastern end of the beach and back again and thence to the resort pool to wash off the salt.
After all that exercise it was time for lunch. Not such an easy choice. This is HI - the island of restaurants that DO NOT do lunch. We are SERIOUS restaurants, we ONLY do dinner. Well, we are on holidays and like to be lazy and enjoy a long lunch, so, you won't be enjoying our cash.
We walked into Restaurant Manta Ray. I know, more exercise. And scored a table on the water. Unlike our favourite restaurant at Amoudie Bay on What-is-this-WHS-you-speak-of?-Santorini where a painted white line was all that stopped us from tipping off our chairs into the water, a sturdy railed fence lined the restaurant deck to keep tipsy patrons from coming to grief on the rocks below.
Not long after the place was packed and people were waiting for water-view tables. It is an Italian-style restaurant, not pretentious, with quick turn-over, if desired, or a long lunch if that is what you are after. We ordered sourdough and tiger prawns to begin and enjoyed them them with a bottle of Yarra Valley chardy. Could we have a break between courses? Of course, let me know when you want the mains started ... how cool is that?
The sourdough, oil and roasted garlic was lovely and the prawns and pesto were very tasty. We sat and chatted and watched the planes landing and the boats bobbing in their moorings. As the tide receded it revealed crabs on the rocks and some large fish swimming past as lazily as we were eating lunch. Then we asked for the mains, which were delivered promptly, linguine with prawns and chilli. Just yum. Paired nicely with a bottle of rosé from Adelaide Hills. The service, the view, the food; everything was first class and all within view of the ostentatious yacht club. We could have eaten here all week for what we spent on dinner last night. And I was wearing thongs!
Back to the Beach Club for a siesta, some reading, some blogging, some champagne and the slow holiday drift from late afternoon into evening.
Until tomorrow.
If I can muster the energy.
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| Nice view from IGA |
Back to today. What a stunner as far as the weather goes. Sunshine. A bit of fast moving cloud. No rain. I repeat, no rain. That was a first. Despite the unusual weather pattern, we followed our routine. Breakfast followed by activity, but today the activity included a swim. Well, a wade and a float. There are some serious obstacles beneath the surface of the water. Had we not wandered the shore at low tide we would have been unaware of the rocks that lurk beneath the blue-green water.
Interestingly, there is a shelf of conglomerate that sits just below the high tide line. There is also a significant amount of rock and pebble that gets moved around by the dominant current. Beyond this, there are rocks encrusted with razor sharp oyster shells. The water is too clouded for snorkelling and I certainly wouldn't wade in there without reef shoes. The colour of the water reminds me of a glacial lake. As you know my scientific reader, that colour is made up of rock particles that have been ground up by the passage of the glacier. Given the lack of visibility in this water, is it also dense with fine particles of ground rock?
 |
| Lunch time view |
While we were waiting to dry off a little two tweenies and their gravelled-voiced mother arrived from further down the beach. Mother looked around, read the "Beach Club visitors only" sign and sat down on a day bed in the shade. The girls then made use of one of the hammocks. They did NOT belong here dear reader. They were children under the age of 18 and were therefore NOT staying at our adults ONLY resort. Sadly the lights and sirens I had hoped for did not eventuate, nor did armed guards rise up from the sand and gun them down. In fact, nothing happened at all and after a few minutes the tweenies became bored and departed with mum in tow.
After drying off and seeing the interlopers off our property we strolled to the eastern end of the beach and back again and thence to the resort pool to wash off the salt.
After all that exercise it was time for lunch. Not such an easy choice. This is HI - the island of restaurants that DO NOT do lunch. We are SERIOUS restaurants, we ONLY do dinner. Well, we are on holidays and like to be lazy and enjoy a long lunch, so, you won't be enjoying our cash.
 |
| From the deck at Manta Ray |
We walked into Restaurant Manta Ray. I know, more exercise. And scored a table on the water. Unlike our favourite restaurant at Amoudie Bay on What-is-this-WHS-you-speak-of?-Santorini where a painted white line was all that stopped us from tipping off our chairs into the water, a sturdy railed fence lined the restaurant deck to keep tipsy patrons from coming to grief on the rocks below.
Not long after the place was packed and people were waiting for water-view tables. It is an Italian-style restaurant, not pretentious, with quick turn-over, if desired, or a long lunch if that is what you are after. We ordered sourdough and tiger prawns to begin and enjoyed them them with a bottle of Yarra Valley chardy. Could we have a break between courses? Of course, let me know when you want the mains started ... how cool is that?
The sourdough, oil and roasted garlic was lovely and the prawns and pesto were very tasty. We sat and chatted and watched the planes landing and the boats bobbing in their moorings. As the tide receded it revealed crabs on the rocks and some large fish swimming past as lazily as we were eating lunch. Then we asked for the mains, which were delivered promptly, linguine with prawns and chilli. Just yum. Paired nicely with a bottle of rosé from Adelaide Hills. The service, the view, the food; everything was first class and all within view of the ostentatious yacht club. We could have eaten here all week for what we spent on dinner last night. And I was wearing thongs!
Back to the Beach Club for a siesta, some reading, some blogging, some champagne and the slow holiday drift from late afternoon into evening.
Until tomorrow.
If I can muster the energy.
