Wednesday 2 August 2017

7-2017 The Final Night of Heiva

Hi from Clare,           7-2017 The Final Night of Heiva                 Monday 31st July 2017


DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY
As mentioned in our last Blog, we had tickets for Saturday night, the last dance concert of the Heiva Festival 2017. We saw four dance performances, that is the second and third place winners in two different categories. Each performance lasted one hour and all four were excellent. I managed to sneak a few photos for you but it was difficult to photograph the moving dancers without blurring.


The Friday evening concert showcased the first place dance winners and the first place singing winners in both categories. As luck would have it we saw the winning dance troupe competing on the first night we attended a concert. We came away that night thinking surely they would win. We had no way of knowing the standard, all we were acknowledging was their excellence.


We didn’t attend the Sports Day but some of our friends said the javelin throwing was terrific. The target was a coconut some distance away up on a pole and the coconut was banded like a dart board. The bulls eye was the top of the coconut. They also had a stone lifting competition and the winner lifted 160 kilos. My friend said he lifted it up onto his shoulders without problems. She also commented that his muscley body was a very nice bit of Eye Candy.


So the Heiva Festival has been a wonderful experience for us. We are grateful to have had the opportunity to see the Polynesian people celebrating their Maohi culture. They are gifted with a wonderful sense of rhythm and theatre. Much to our disappointment the nightly drumming practice in the anchorage has stopped, all is quiet. Elvis has left the building, so to speak. However early next year they will start practising again to achieve excellence for the 136th Heiva Festival in July.




BACK TO REALITY
So hopefully today is Andrew’s last dental appointment to have his crown fitted to a back tooth on his right lower jaw. Last week after the temporary was fitted Andrew was experiencing pain on the left side of his face. He emailed the dentist who saw him that day during her lunch hour. She x Rayed the left side of his face, determined that there was nothing wrong with his teeth and said he most probably had an infection in his sinus. She then gave Andrew a script for an antibiotic which has fixed the problem. This emergency consultation including the x Ray cost $50; pretty impressive.

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED
The dentist is situated in the city of Papeete and we are anchored some five miles away at the Tahiti Yacht Club. We can go to the city by dinghy if the water is not too rough. A few weeks ago I was wearing a pedometer on one such trip. The dinghy was bouncing up and down and by the end of the trip according to my pedometer I had walked eight thousand steps. However today, because the water is rough, Andrew has borrowed a bicycle from our Aussie mate Roger on Ednbal. He did the same last week and said he only got yelled at once by another cyclist sharing the same footpath. The roadway is far too hectic, they don’t have many traffic lights but plenty of pedestrian crossings. The motorists are very good and put their hazard lights on to acknowledge that you are entering the crossing and that they will stop. In the beginning for us it was a leap of faith but it works well and with must less interruption to the traffic flow. The public bus is another story, it has no timetable. It arrives when it arrives and leaves the terminus when it is full. You may wait five minutes but you may wait half an hour. There are no buses Saturday afternoon, Sunday or any day after dark. This sounds like a very laid back Polynesian approach to me:).

SO WHAT’S NEXT
We have a pot luck dinner ashore tonight with the other boats in the anchorage. It has been quite windy for the past two days and so most of us have stayed on our boats. It will be nice to go ashore and have a bit of a break.

As soon as the winds drops we will set off to Moorea and explore the eastern end of the island. We are looking forward to getting away from the city and finding a peaceful bay. We are all primed and ready to polish the boat. All we need is no interruptions.


Love Candy xx