Exploring Rangiroa
Jackamy
Paul & Derry Harper
Sun 2 May 2010 19:51
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Sunday 2nd May
This is our third night at Rangiroa and we
still haven't warmed to the place. It is meant to be the tourist centre of the
Tuamotus but unless we are in the wrong place I just don't get it.
We are anchored at Tiputa Village which
is so quiet you could safely fire a gun along the main street and not hit
anyone, which is fine but it just doesn't have any atmosphere as
the whole area appears quite run down and untidy. Yesterday Amy and
myself opted to walk to the next village, Avatoru, with Blue Magic to see what
we could find as this has been described as modern and bustling by Tuamotu
standards. Paul was busy fitting our new VHF radio so he chose to stay on the
boat.
 Tiputa village and the high
street
 Birdies sat on
sticks
Things went from bad to worse! We rode in
the dinghys for around 35 minutes to shorten the walk as we knew it was a little
way to Avatoru but we under estimated just how far it was. We'd opted to go at
14.00 as we thought we'd have missed the midday sun but as we were walking
directly into the sun it was horrendous. The walk was long, hot and sweaty with
not a lot to look at to break it up. So when we bumped into some people 2 hours
later and asked how much further the village was only to be informed that we
were at the village we were not impressed. This village consisted of a shop that
was closed, a bank and a rather run down church to match all the run down
buildings. So we began the 5 mile walk back almost as soon as we got there!
Another thing that didn't help the situation was that we'd taken a petrol can
and a trolley as there was a petrol station en route but would you believe it,
it was closed! The trolley became a bit of an issue and Amy's mood worsened by
the minute!
Then when we returned to the boat in the
dark Paul had discovered that he was missing a vital part for the radio so
his mood wasn't indifferent to mine and Amy's - frustrated!
 Amy managed to take a break
from frowning to smile for the camera
 The church at
Avatoru
Thankfully we had a lovely meal ashore in
the evening which brightened everyone's mood. Chez Josephine is actually a
'pension' which is almost like a guesthouse, a small quaint family run
hotel if you like. Before the meal we spent time watching the black-tip reef
sharks swimming under the balcony which was lovely. There were two tables of 7,
one for us and one for the hotel residents. There is no menu so you
just pay a set price and you all eat the same starter, main and pudding which is
always a bit of a gamble but this time it paid off. The starter was raw
tuna on a bed of cabbage with a few chutneys, the main was curried mahi mahi
with sticky rice and the pudding was pineapple cake with creme anglais. We were
expecting something a little different though as the waiter described it as
"English Cream" which caused a few laughs! The whole meal and setting was lovely
so it made up for an 'interesting' day! The only bit of advice I'd give is to
check how much the set menu is before you actually eat!
After re-stocking this morning we went for a
snorkel by the pass. There are buoys there to tie up your dinghy and you drop
over the edge directly into shoals of fish a couple of metres above the coral -
fantastic! There were huge shoals of fish and hundreds of varieties too and we
even saw a few reef sharks. Amy miraculously managed to find one of the
beautiful porcelain shells that Fernando had given to Chrissy and myself when we
first arrived in Manihi, she only had to dive a couple of metres to retrieve it
so she's pleased with herself. The rest of the day has been spent doing odd jobs
and we've even managed to get a spot of sunbathing in which hasn't happened for
a long long time!
We're moving on from here first thing in the
morning around 07.30 and we're headed for Tikehau. We don't want to build our
hopes up too much but the guide book says it is "Almost too good to be
true"!
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