I’ve been trying to work out how best to describe the atmosphere here, both in terms of the Hakura Huraa resort and of the people we’ve met along the way. Perhaps one way to do it is as a romantic veneer over the wilderness of the lagoon and it’s life.

The superabundance of hermit crabs can make you doubt your eyes at times. Bits of what you thought were landscape suddenly moving off or shifting position can be rather disconcerting, but you soon accept that life is everywhere here. Birds scurry and flap through the undergrowth while fruitbats flap lazily through the sky. Fish, rays, turtles and sharks glide beneath the walkways and water bungalows with no great concern about these hairless apes sharing their territory. Insect life is everywhere, from clouds of dragonflies to bees and ants of truly amazing size.

It is the structures and tools of mankind that look temporary and makeshift here. The drive and energy of people living and working here has taken on a very pragmatic nature in the meantime.

Beach furniture is not just for the tourists you know

What others might see as poverty and a lack of resources available in more developed nations is here an approach of cheerfully making the most out of what is available, patching and reworking as needed, and treating nothing, including each other, as disposable. Giving up is not an option, and their pride is entirely justified.