Hi
from Clare, Thursday
22nd
September 2016
LET
THE FUN BEGIN
We
took the boat into the Papeete City Marina, Tahiti for the arrival of
our good friends Patrick and Cheryl who flew in from Australia on
12th
September. Since then our life has been a blur with a flurry of
activity quite uncharacteristic for us. Our friends arrived late at
night and after receiving our requested goodies from Oz plus other
gifts donated by Patrick and Cheryl our boat looked like present
opening time on Christmas morning.
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| Tahitian Dancers and the Polynesian Festival |
It
was very hot in the marina but we stayed for another night so we
could go to a dance spectacular at the Grand Theatre which was part
of Festival Polynesia. The dance groups came from Tahiti, Polynesia,
New Zealand, Easter Island and Hawaii. A very colourful and vibrant
event with the dancers performing on stage and also up and down the
aisles. This gave us a very close up view of their moves and
beautiful costumes. The dancers perspired so much we decided to have
a cool beer for them after the show. So off to the “local” in
company with cruising friends Sue and Rob on 'Athanor' and Cathy and
Woflgang on 'Plastik Plankton' for a cool drink and chat; a perfect
finish to the evening.
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| Steve "rocking the dock" |
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| Beer and the 1 metre long Pizas |
A
SUMMER HOLIDAY
The
following day we went back to the Taina Marina anchorage for final
provisioning and to enjoy some snorkelling in crystal clear water.
As you can imagine Patrick and Cheryl having come from Australia's
winter were very eager to experience 28 degree water and glorious
sunshine. That night we were invited to a dock party by American
friends Steve and Lili on 'Liward' whom we knew from the Polynesian
Magellan radio net. Steve is a very accomplished musician and is
well known for regularly 'rocking the dock' encouraging local
musicians to join in. It seems now that whenever Steve is in town
the word gets around and the locals arrive. It was Steve's 64th
Birthday and he provided Beer and Pizza and hours of good music. It
was a gorgeous evening with a warm breeze, a full moon, a star
studded sky and good company.
NIGHT
LIFE
The
following day we sailed twelve miles to Moorea and anchored in Cook's
Bay named after Captain Cook of course. This beautiful bay is
surrounded by huge mountains and tropical vegetation. We met up with
cruising friends Mark and Cheryl on 'French Curve' whom up until now
we had only spoken to on the radio net. They invited us to join them
ashore that evening for a dance show at the Bali Hai Resort. This
was held outdoors in the Resort's garden which was very pleasant on
such a warm evening. The performers invited the people from the
front row of the audience to join them in the dance. We were in the
second row so thankfully were not called upon to entertain the crowd
with our not so fluid hip shaking movements.
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| Stingray City |
 |
| Black tipped Reef sharks patrolling Stingray City |
A
NEW EXPERIENCE
We
took the boat around to the Tiki Anchorage named such as there are
some carved stone Tikis lying on the sea bed. We snorkelled on them
but the only fascination they held for me was how they got there in
the first place. The statues in themselves are a bit underwhelming.
Our purpose for being at this anchorage was its proximity to Stingray
City. This is a shallow area not far from the Intercontinental Hotel
where daily tripper boats bring tourists to hand fed sardines to the
Stingrays. Consequently they are very friendly and come quite close
to you. Black tip sharks circle around in great numbers but hold no
threat to the people in the water. It was a great experience to be
there in their world.
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| Bikers Patrick, Cheryl, Andrew and Clare |
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| A & C |
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| Cooks Bay from Belvedere Lookout |
A
HAIR RAISING EXPERIENCE
We
hired motor cycles for a day and toured around the island of Moorea
stopping at all the gazetted points of interest. Andrew did a great
job dinking me around as I'm a nervous passenger. Good thing he had
a helmet on and the wind in his face as this would have drowned out
most of my expletives. I kept thinking of how much skin we would
lose if we fell off but I am pleased to report there was no loss of
skin or face. We enjoyed Belvedere lookout with spectacular views of
the surrounding mountains and bays. Then Polynesian archaeological
sites with ancient platforms (paepae) dwellings and sacred places.
Further down the mountain was the Agricultural College which
reputably sells the best ice cream made from local fruits. Andrew
and I shared a scoop of vanilla and one of banana and Patrick and
Cheryl shared a passion fruit sorbet, both products were outstanding.
We later visited the Tropical Garden which apart from offering a
stunning view of the bay, it is a working farm growing many tropical
fruits, vegetables and flowering plants. It has a shop serving
exotic fruit juices and selling their bottled jams and chutneys. A
trip around the island wouldn't be complete without stopping at the
distillery and sampling some local liquor and mixers. We purchased
the local Tahiti Drink L' Exotique which is a rum and fruit juice mix
which we will drink at our leisure. Best we do this when safely back
on the boat.
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| Icecreammmm |
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| Driveway to the Tropical Garden |
A
DISAPPOINTMENT
Yesterday
we went for a dive with Top Dive which operates out of the
Intercontinental Hotel. The cost for a single dive was A$125 each
and for that we expected Top Dive to take us to a good dive location.
Our dive was inside the lagoon and we saw twenty three eagle rays
and not much else. There were very few fish even though the
Divemaster carried a chum box with him to attract the fish. The
ocean floor was all sand and rubble with lifeless coral and the
visibility poor. In contrast Patrick and Cheryl went snorkelling off
the back of our boat this morning and saw six eagle rays, a turtle
and plenty of colourful fish. This of course was free. I guess you
can't win them all.
SO
WHAT'S NEXT
We
feel we have covered the island of Moorea from its highest lookout to
the depths of its lagoon. Today we will have lunch out and take
advantage of the Cafe's Wifi to send this Blog. This evening we will
sail eighty odd miles to the island of Huahine and start another
adventure.
