Photos taken at Tahanea Atoll

The one inhabited house on the Atoll

We had to move to a more peaceful location protected from the swell by the reef. 

We slowly negotiated our way between the coral heads to enable us to drop our anchor in a depth of four metres,

precisely into a patch of sand, trying not to damage any of the wonderful coral structures beneath Fai Tira.

After only a couple of minutes in the water a large Black Tipped Shark swam underneath me, and then another and another, Wow.

 I headed into the shallower depths to be confronted by a three foot conger eel who swam straight towards me bared its teeth and then swam into a hole in the coral.

We all commented on the fact that we didn’t ever think we would have the nerve to jump in the sea with four to five foot sharks swimming just feet away from you.  Are we MAD!!!  Not in the least.  I only felt threatened once, when all three of the BIG ones came to take a closer look.  I pointed my camera at them and they glided away, such sleek wonderful creatures.  

We strolled along the seaward side of the Atoll inspecting all the Flotsam and Jetsam that had washed up on the beach. 

I was quite surprised that we only found three flip flops.

We were followed along the beach by three beautiful white birds that were so inquisitive of us they flew along just above our heads. 

I think they were a species of Turn.

Also on this Atoll is the rare Touamutu Sand Piper with less than only one hundred in existence.  We think we may have spotted a pair.  Does that make us Twitchers?

We returned to the tender via the inside beach of the Atoll. 

What a contrast, no rubbish of any kind and the astounding turquoise sea with Fai Tira still doing its upmost to blending in.

The evening saw us on the beach for Sundowners, we lit a big fire made up of drift wood and we drank crap boxed wine, whilst eating nibbles.

We did all this while we watched the sun disappear in a blaze of glory over the horizon.

We were all so sad to leave our private piece of paradise.