Within minutes of dropping anchor a lady appeared in a dinghy from Fakarava yacht services offering laundry, wifi and bike hire.  Laundry we were very pleased to get done especially when Carol realised that the lady did it herself using two very smart front loading machines rather than the usual top loaders which give the sheets a bit of a shake and a vague rinse but that is about all.  It was the most fabulously expensive we have ever come across however at £40 per load washed, dried and folded!  That’s market forces for you.  The price range of laundry so far in our travels then is from £2.50 to £40 with all points in between.  We do our own on the boat as we go as well but it gobbles up water to do sheets properly.  At least swimming stuff, shorts and T-shirts are not much trouble to wash so laundry is hardly a huge issue and an infrequent requirement.

We suggested a group bike ride and everyone was up for that, so Moana Roa, Sud Oest, Malua and Tashi Delek set off along the very flat, very straight road with the lagoon on one side and the ocean on the other.  The road even had a cycle lane marked in places.  First stop was the airport then turn round and back over the same route to what we thought was a monument but up close turned out to be an unfinished concrete pyramid that may or may not once have been intended to be a lighthouse.

Left to right.  Laurie and Sonia, (Moana Roa).  Jonathon (Sud Oest) Carol and Mike. Emily and Kerry (Sud Oest).  Cara and Bo (Moana Roa).  Harry (Malua)  Travis (Moana Roa)

From there we followed the road back through town and out the other side to the house where the lady makes French patisserie at the weekend.  We expected a bit of pastry but found a selection of full-on French patisserie including strawberry mille feulle with fresh strawberries that are flown in from New Zealand.  Heaven, and all the more enjoyable because it was so unexpected.  As we completed our purchases her phone rang and the caller asked to purchase everything she had left for immediate collection so we were lucky to get there in time.