Our first stop post Moorea is Taha’a – or, more accurately, Motu Atger, off the island of Taha’a. Taha’a is a heart shaped island close to Raiatea. Motu Atger is a family owned Motu with a small family pension made up of a few bungalows. We are picked up in Uturoa, Raiatea’s main town and port, by the son who takes us on a 15min speedboat ride to the pension. The kids are already in love. And Thierry and I love just how remote this feels, we are immediately catapulted to Robinson Crusoe-esque island feeling, amplified by the fact that we are the only guests on this little stretch of sand. Practically upon arriving we meet John, one of the men who help out on the property, who just harpooned a massive “Bec de canard” lagoon fish for dinner. Now the kids are really in love. John proposes to teach them how to fish the next day, a promise he not only keeps but he also makes a perfectly sized fishing pole for each of them. The kids are delighted when they catch their first fish within minutes. Fishing soon becomes their favourite pastime on the Motu, and needless to say that Thierry and I are equally delighted by this new – unusually and delightfully quiet! – passion.
Thierry feels so inspired by this new off the grid ambiance, especially by the other, even smaller and more deserted Motu across from ours, that he ropes in Anjali to create a real treasure hunt including having to pass the dangerous pass by kayak! Anjali and Thierry thus spend a whole morning creating and hiding the clues, treasure map and all and the next day we all embark on the hunt, excitement buzzing. Vyas and I share a kayak and Thierry, Anjali and Nilay share one. The pass has a strong current, but fortunately not too many waves. I do find, however, that Thierry’s kayak looks strangely unbalanced. Which is quickly confirmed as the three of them capsize about 3/4 of the way across. Fortunately no-one panics and so, one snorkelling equipment lighter, they manage to swim across to the Motu Ceran, pulling the kayak (no idea how – it has an enormous crack and must already be half way full by now). The treasure hunt hasn’t even begun, but the adventure clearly yes!
We spend a great morning on the deserted Motu, hunting for clues including diving for giant seashells, climbing on trees and solving riddles. Captain Maori, the hunt’s designer is clearly very talented! We finish off our morning with a good splash in this truly gorgeous spot, and we only leave because our water runs out and we are starting to get very hungry. I propose to take the cracked kayak with the boys to ease off the weight but as we pull it into the water I already find it very heavy. We don’t get to row much but the current carries us off swiftly so that by the time that we realise that we are very quickly sinking, we are already quite far off shore, a hard swim for the twins against the current. But there is no time to come up with a plan because ploof, within seconds we are in the water, clamouring to get to Thierry’s kayak to hold on to something. We realise at this point that Nilay has quite a survival instinct – as soon as he smelt the incoming problem, he literally just jumped ship onto Thierry’s kayak, almost capsizing them with overweight too 🤣 Fortunately, a friendly family on their boat was nearby, witnessing our conundrum. They fished us out of the water and saved us from what would have been, in the best case scenario, a very challenging return swim across the pass. I unfortunately forgot his name, but certainly not his face – thank you!!
After all this excitement, we take things a bit easier. The kids meet Hamaï, a little girl visiting her family from Tahiti and they spend their days racing hermit crabs, creating a concert show for their band, the Crazy Cocos and excessively indulging on our host’s delicious Pain Coco (dangerously addictive!!)
Our hosts struggle to understand that we are happy to just stick around our Motu, but we are completely in the island vibe now, and in no rush to head off. All the more that the proximity of the Motu to the pass means that the fish are not only abundant but super active – I delight in jumping in every few hours to see Picasso triggerfish, parrot fish, barracudas, and and and. In fact, at every dip in, we discover at least one if not more, new fish.
As such, the days pass by incredibly fast and after nearly a week, it is time for us to head off to Huahine. But first, the Va’a competition, which kicks off the day that we leave on October 30th in Huahine. The rowers have to cross the open water to Raiatea, a feat that the first ones achieve within 7 gruelling hours. The following day they will continue to Tah’aa and then onwards to the final challenge to Bora Bora. We decide to leave our Motu early enough to witness the arrival of the first competitors in Raiatea, the town is already buzzing and we are happy to partake in the excitement. We buy some new snorkelling gear for Thierry, have some lunch and it’s already time to go to the teeny airport to await our flight to Huahine. We didn’t see much of Taha’a, but we thoroughly enjoyed the parts we did see. In any event, we will be back soon: Taha’a is our captain’s “coup de coeur” and he wants to show us his favourite spots as we kick off our 3 week “cruise”. Au revoir, truly!
