16:37S 152:30W Tahiti, to Tahaa, The Society Islands

Seaflute
Wed 16 Aug 2017 04:44
We were all so excited to be heading for Tahiti and civilisation, having
booked into a marina in Papeete, the main town, meant electricity, water,
restaurants and just a step onto the pontoon without getting your knickers
wet! David impressed everyone by squeezing Sea Flute into the tightest spot
imaginable so we could be moored side to, very impressive. We watched
seasoned sailors scratching their heads as they stopped to look and ponder
how it had been done. After giving her a wash and brush up, our first stop,
Carrefour, Wow! After scrabbling around for months to find fresh fruit and
vegetables (we hadn't seen a tomato in weeks) here was Aladdin's cave with
everything you could think of. To be honest it was a bit of a culture shock,
after walking alongside a busy dual carriageway to get there and with so
many people around it felt very weird. After all, we had spent months
visiting Islands with very little or no population, with restricted
provisioning. We didn't buy too much as David and I would be leaving for
home to see everyone and the newest addition to the Pedley clan, Charlie.
Tom and Rachael would stay and look after Sea Flute, and Rachael's parents
flew out to spend some time with them on board.
We had such a wonderful time at home with friends and family, when it was
time to leave I felt very torn, little Charlie's fault I think. It was
lovely to bring Jack back with us though, as he had decided to join us till
New Zealand which made me very happy.
By the time we returned, the boat sitters were ready to move on to our next
destination, but we, on the other hand hadn't seen any of Tahiti, so we
stayed a few more days to do some sightseeing. The second day after we
returned, Jack awoke with terrible abdominal pain. A trip to the Doctor at
Carrefour then had us speeding to the nearest hospital! Luckily they had
seen a few cases like this over the last few weeks and assured us it was a
bug. After they had medicated him and made him comfortable we were sent on
our way armed with a bag of drugs. Thankfully he felt much better the next
day, we hired a car so we could drive to all the designated spots around the
Island. My favourite was Teahupoo, where they hold the world surfing
championships. We haggled with a man on the beach who organised for one of
the surf boats to take us out to look at the 'tube' from close quarters. As
we were motoring out and the wave got bigger and bigger, I realised we had
no life jackets on. Our very experienced guide manoeuvred the boat right at
the end of the wave where we could look down the tube at the surfers who
were good or daring enough to do it. My mind went into maternal mode. If the
motor conked out we would be dashed onto the reef or washed up onto the
beach! All the boys were very good swimmers and would probably be okay, I
reasoned, I on the other hand was not, so I quickly switched to survival
mode instead. I needn't have worried, our guide had been doing this for
years and hadn't lost anyone. Yet..
Tahiti in itself was quite disappointing really, Don't get me wrong it is
very beautiful in places, but the Island we had all imagined it to be, with
gorgeous white sandy beaches did not exist as their weren't any to be found.
Next stop Moorea, just an hours sail away but a world away from Tahiti.
Beautiful white sand beaches, lush green interior and small quaint villages.
We all loved it here. We had spinner dolphins in the bay where we were
anchored and turtles popping up around the boat. One day we took an ATV quad
bike tour of the island with some of our Oyster friends, we had such a great
time driving through the interior and the views from the top of the island
were spectacular. The obligatory Oyster party was to be held here at the
Bali Hai resort in Cooks bay. We gathered there with all but three of the
other Oyster yachts and had a wonderful few days. There were traditional
craft demonstrations, games, local craft stalls and some wonderful
traditional singing and dancing, not to mention lots of eating and drinking.
Dave, Tom, Jack and I competed in the Outrigger canoe races, where we came
second only to the young, male, muscle bound crew of the largest Oyster in
the fleet! Everyone was cheering for us, so I feel that actually we were the
winners. At the end of the day we were presented with a lovely wooden model
of a traditional Outrigger canoe and a shell engraved with the Oyster rally
dates.
On the 4th of July we were invited to an Independence Day celebration by our
American friends on two of the larger Oyster Yachts, they were rafted
together to make one large platform. Needless to say we had an amazing
barbeque and an inordinate amount of liquor was consumed! A hike up to the
top of Belvedere with the 'Tiggy's'and a birthday party for our other friend
Jeannette at the Moorea Yacht Club, were some of the other highlights of
Moorea. Not to mention purchasing some more of the famous black pearls for
me.
The most amazing and exciting things I enjoy, is seeing the wildlife and we
had been told about an area where you could swim with stingrays and black
tip reef sharks at close quarters. Here they were used to being fed and the
Rays would literally swim up your body to see if you had any food. They are
so soft to the touch and really didn't mind being handled. The sharks on the
other hand, some of them much bigger than me, stayed on the periphery and
would just swim around looking for food that had been dropped, I certainly
wouldn't have wanted to try and hand feed them! One day while we were there
we stayed away from the main area, just near the sand drop off into deep
water. As I was snorkelling and excitedly watching two reef sharks swim,
just a few feet in front of me, an enormous Daddy shark swam directly below
me, so close I could have scratched the back of its head. I left the water
vertically like a Polaris missile! I think I made quite a splash when I
landed and got a few funny looks from some of the other snorkelers nearby.
On the way back to the boat we were able to locate the underwater 'Tikki's',
stone carvings, some old and some new.

Sadly, our time in Moorea all too soon came to an end, but next stop,
Huahine. Another stunning little island, another gaggle of Oysters to
celebrate the birthdays of Joe on Boysterous, Rob on Talaba and Tom on Vela,
with a combined age of 172! A raucous beach BBQ ensured a lazy day after,
with fuzzy heads all round.
Huahine was also hosting one of the annual 'Heiva' competitions to find the
best traditional singing and dancing groups from all of the French
Polynesian Islands. The festive atmosphere was infectious and we spent a
wonderful evening watching as each group, sang and danced their hearts out.
There was a lot of hip shaking, (girls) and knee knocking (boys) to keep us
all entertained for hours. We took a half day tour of the Island in
an open backed Land Rover, visiting ancient Marae and a vanilla farm that
bizarrely, had champion fighting cockerels in their back garden. We visited
the sacred Eels, (some as thick as my thighs) with their blue eyes they
looked incredibly spooky as they thrashed and squirmed, fighting for the
food that our guide was feeding them. Bravely Tom stood in the water with
them but jumped as they chewed on his toes!
Next Island Raiatea, just a quick overnight stop to provision and for Jack
to look for some bearings for his skateboard as they had gone rusty, having
been stowed in the anchor locker. The main town seemed very run down and we
were happy to head for Tahaa a much smaller Island a few miles north. Here
was another contrast again, beautiful white sand beaches and turquoise blue
sea. We anchored outside the Tahaa spa resort, a very posh place where we
had dinner with some Oyster friends From Elise and Dalliance that evening.
The food was good (Cocktails were $26) but should have been amazing if the
prices were anything to go by! The next day we snorkelled through the coral
garden, a shallow pass where you get in one end and drift gently down to the
other. The amount of beautiful coral and colourful, curious fish was
amazing, needless to say we did it quite a few times finding different
routes through each time. The next day we anchored in a small bay to give us
some protection from the forecast winds and swell. Later on that night, on
our way back from a lovely evening with James, Tiggy, (Miss Tiggy) Vicky,
Joe and Katarina (Boysterous), Joe decided to take a little dip in the sea
as he fell off of our tender backwards! After initially being concerned and
checking he was alright, I couldn't help myself from laughing out loud
hysterically which soon spread, and then none of us could stop. A happy
ending to another great night!
Next stop Bora Bora, Bye for now Lindy xx

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