We start our cruise with a different view on Huahine. Gérard takes us to a secluded little bay that used to house a treehouse hotel in the 80s, beloved by locals and tourists at the time until a hurricane blew it away. Now it is an overgrown small stretch of beach, forlorn and idyllic. The island pays a military retiree as a guardian. He passes his time by making necklaces from acacia and offering them up in the coconut shooting contest he designed: a 5m bamboo pole with a coconut on top in which you are supposed to plant a bamboo spear. This turned into a somewhat fun challenge which we, of course, all failed badly. Except for Thierry who, on try 73, manages to plant the spear not in the coconut, but in the bamboo pole, a feat arguably worth at least an acacia crown, besides the necklace, but Paul, the guardian, will have none of it. It’s the coconut or nothing.
After some more idling around, and getting to know boat life, we head onwards to Taha’a, the island which we previously only admired from across our little motu. We sleep near the coral garden which turns out to be one of the snorkelling highlights of our trip. This is a pretty narrow strip of LOTS of corals, with a pretty strong current. Better go when the tide is up, because even with high tide, we have to watch our hands and feet, though cuts are somewhat inevitable. Besides the teeming fish, this spot is particularly beautiful thanks to all the colors of the corals – from blue to fuchsia, it seems that all hues of the rainbow are right here. The children particularly love to watch the sea anemone with all the little Nemos in them. The lack of control through the current is not for Vyas so he opts out of round 2 and 3 and instead decides to stay near the beach. Instead he gets to see a few stingrays upclose, all the more impressive with their extra long pointy stings.
The days pass quickly and soon it is already time to head off to Bora Bora. If we want any chance of getting to Maupiti, we will need to seize the window of opportunity that is about to open up. Having heard as much as we have about Bora Bora, we are curious to see for ourselves. The rolling landscape is indeed absolutely gorgeous, all the more mystical shrouded in the clouds bringing some rain. We go to explore the island on foot a bit, and fortunately hit the café just in time as a torrential downpour pulls in. The perfect excuse to try some of the most delicious ice cream we have and will have tasted on this trip! Coconut, mango or chocolate, they are simply heavenly! However, this turns into just a mini pitstop of a night, as Maupiti calls sooner than hoped. The next morning is Sunday and I beg Gérard for the chance to just hop on to the local market before we head off. Local market there turns out to be none, except for 2-3 stands selling coconut bread and Poisson cru. But just before reaching the jetty, I see a yellowish concoction which I had not seen previously – these are curried bénétiers. Bénétiers are the most beautiful shellfish, deeply encrusted into the rocks and corals in the most amazing fluorescent colors pink, blue, purple, silver, green…. It is a local delicacy it turns out and a tasty one at that!
