Rooms are made of traditional materials like sago and wild betel nut palm and are connected by wooden raised walkways above the forest.
When Blanche, who came here from Queensland after falling for the Solomons initially on a holiday in the mid-1990s, found this place in 2007 he bunkered down under tarps with one worker for three months, chasing goannas out of his outdoor kitchen.
Green turtles swim out the front of the lodge every day.
Then his family joined. Sons Darren and Nick helped with construction, while the rest of the family, consisting of Marg and daughter Kym, helped get the place up and running.
They found eager staff in a village on Santa Isabel 20 minutes away by boat. It’s where you’ll find the only other surfers on Santa Isabel, like seasoned surf guide, Jimmy, who never knew it was possible to ride the waves which broke all around his home until Pete and his family arrived.
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There are more than 10 possible wave sites within a few kilometres of the lodge, shared between a total of 14 surfers staying at any one time.
Most of it breaks on offshore coral reef, though it’s not as sharp and dangerous as what you’ll find further east in Fiji, or French Polynesia or Samoa. There are even a couple of family-friendly waves breaking over a seagrass bottom close to Jimmy’s village. The water is impossibly clear everywhere, and some days dolphins join us on the ride in and out.
Bungalows are built from traditional materials.
There’s no commercial fishing for hundreds of kilometres, so anyone’s likely to catch a big fish just by throwing in a line. Guests vie for a spot on the wall of the Papatura Blue Water Fishing Club where the best catches get written up in chalk. Guests troll for Spanish mackerel, yellow-fin tuna and other pelagic species, though the rivers here are just as bountiful, full of spot tail bass and Mangrove Jack.
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There’s diving too: everything from learn-to-dive courses straight off the beach, to boat dives over World War II wrecks and along coral walls that plunge down kilometres, attracting all sorts of marine species. Boats leave each morning with surfers, fishermen and divers.
But some days I prefer not to rush my breakfast, then I hang back and snorkel with the green turtles in the sea grass out front, or wander through the rainforest to cool down in freshwater cascades, just beyond Pete and Marg’s home.
“When I go, I want someone to spread my ashes out there over the reef,” he says pointing out from the lodge. “I never want to leave this place.”
Pete Blanche sitting at his favourite spot overlooking the water.
The details
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Fly
Solomon Airlines fly five times a week from Brisbane to Honiara, with connections to Suavanao, eight minutes by boat from Papatura Retreat, see flysolomons.com
Stay
Stay in a range of lodges and bungalows, seven-night land only packages (surfing and fishing are add-ons) including all meals, transfers to airport and non-motorised water activities from $1450 a person, see papatura.com
The writer travelled courtesy of Tourism Solomons.