Rockwater Resort

Carved from white coral and black river rock, the rooms at Rockwater sit on cliffs above Ipak Bay on Tanna's north-west coast. The stone was quarried locally, the timber cut from registered plantation forests, and the roughly 30,000 bricks laid by hand. Each room looks straight out over the water. Beds are dressed simply, with fans rather than air conditioning in most spaces, and bathrooms fitted with tubs, showers and locally made soap. Glass doors and screened openings pull in the sea breeze instead of relying on electricity, a passive-cooling approach built into the thermal mass of the walls. Below the cliffs, a stretch of reef has been under a total fishing ban since 2015, agreed with the traditional landowners of Ipak Bay. You can snorkel it directly from the shore, moving from a shallow, fragile inner coral garden out toward a tougher reef crest built for open swell. The resort's own bamboo, grown on site, is cut and shaped into drinking straws by hand. Meals draw on organic eggs, home-made jams and coconut oil pressed on the island, served in a dining room built from the same stone as the guest wings. Getting there means a 20-minute drive by four-wheel drive from the airstrip, arranged as part of the stay. Cyclone season runs roughly December to April, and the resort was built to withstand it.