I was determined to lie by a pool in the sun and have my dreamed-of tropical getaway, and our late checkout time of 11am allowed me this luxury, so I settled in to a sun lounger with my Jack Reacher and all the things needed for sun baking (hat, reading glasses, water bottle, towel, sunscreen) and spent a few glorious hours before packing up our stuff and checking out of the Hotel Koulnoue.

We took our time driving back over the spine of the island, this time taking a different road which ended up in Bourrail. The road was fun and windy. Lots of lush green foliage with tight corners, twists and turns, and nowhere to stop for lunch.

Arriving in the little town of Bourrail we checked out the museum there and used their toilet, then pulled over on the main road just outside the town to have our baguette picnic lunch. Not long after we laid out our meagre food supply, we found one of the baguettes covered in ants. We had to throw that one out.

As we got to Boulouparis, the heavens opened and it bucketed down with rain. We turned off the main drag to search for our next overnight accommodation which was called “La Case, un espace qui invite a l’essential!” Yes, the name of the place even has the exclamation mark at the end! Translated it means:  The box, a space that invites the essential!  The reviews on booking.com were very good, using words like “unique”, “a delight” and the description calls it “a traditional modest and atypical Case with its Fare corner”.

We were very surprised to find the accommodation in a suburban backyard. The suburb itself felt like a purpose-built suburb in the outskirts of Sydney with large fenced properties. There was nothing traditional about the area, rather it seemed like an expat homeworld.

The couple first built the bungalow we were to stay in before building the house. It was a strange set up – no signage for the accommodation, just a big sign listing all their business ventures – Martial Arts, origami and a long list of other things. If I didn’t have the “lot” number we would never have found it. But as we hovered near the driveway, Satomi, the host, appeared with an umbrella and beckoned us in.

The bungalow was beautiful with a mosquito net draped over a central, low to floor bed. There was a separate kitchen, compost toilet and weird blow up jacuzzi – the Fare corner mentioned in the description.

I had taken up the offer of a home cooked meal which was served to us in the Fare by the hosts, Jannick and Satomi. It was extremely good – a coconut chicken curry, rice, salad, and a passionfruit mousse for dessert. Many of the ingredients were sourced from their garden, which we were given a tour of earlier.

The next day, we were given an incredible breakfast as part of the B&B experience, and then set out to explore the area.

There was not a whole lot to see and the intermittent rain made us retreat to our bungalow and read our books for a lot of the time. We visited a distillery in Boulouparis that Jannick had told us about, where he worked. For dinner, we found a place that was open! It was at a kind of yacht club where we had pizzas and beer.

When we got back we tried to have a little fire outside the bungalow, but the wet weather made it challenging. I personally found it strange camping out in a backyard and overlooking the couple’s kitchen. We noticed they kept blinds up so we couldn’t see in.

We left early the next morning for the airport in Noumea, windscreen wipers going wildly as we navigated through the dark in the pouring rain.

Read more travel stories – A square in Provence