Week 6 May 11th - 17th
Huahine
We left Moore at about 9 o’clock at night and arrived in Huahine at 8 o’clock the following morning.
When I woke up there was no breeze so the water was very calm. We were anchored in a little bay opposite the main town of Fare and we could see a restaurant on the waterfront. At lunchtime we ate there and everyone had shrimp curry (except me and Daddy who had Cheeseburgers as usual).
After lunch we had a look at the town and saw a few small shops, a supermarket and a hire car company, so we reserved a car for the following day. There was also a large dock with a couple of large freight containers that the local children were using for diving boards. The next morning we collected the hire car, leaving Mike to look after the boat ( I think he wanted a bit of peace and quiet) and set of on a tour of the island. Our first stop was at an archaeological site next to a big lake. The site had some totem poles and some big slabs of stones that were stuck into the ground and which we later found were used as back rests for chiefs.
Continuing our drive we saw a sign to a Pearl Farm, so we pulled over and took the taxi boat out to the middle of the lagoon where there was a hut on stilts waiting for us. Here they explained how the pearls are made. First they prise the two halves of the oyster a few centimetres apart and introduce a foreign body (which is usually a bead made from the shell of another oyster) and then they place the oyster back in the water where they are put in a net on a string for eighteen months to allow the pearl to grow. They are lucky if 50% of the oysters produce pearls.
After that we saw some blue eyed eels. The people believed that they gave fresh water to the island. When we got there we were looking for something very small, but they were actually about a metre long.
After looking at the blue eyed eels we went to Huahine Iti. It was very beautiful and we had lunch. Lunch was very nice, the restaurant was right on the beach and you could even go under the restaurant because it was on stilts.
After lunch we went back to town. On the way back we saw a waterfall. We also kept stopping at lookout points to take pictures of the lovely scenery. When we got back to town we went back to the boat and had a swim. Later we went in the car and got a pizza.
Early the next day Mike, Daddy, Daisy and I all went to have a look at the blue eyed eels again. On the way back from the eels we saw the waterfall again. After we got back to the boat we took the boat around the island, back to Huahine Iti, where we had lunch. We had to be very careful because there were lots of shallow patches in the channel, some of which weren’t on the chart. When we arrived we had a swim, later on we took the tender further round the coast and had a snorkel. While we were snorkelling we saw an octopus. It had hidden itself very well in a crack in the coral. For supper we went and had a nice meal at the restaurant.
14th MAY
The next day we carefully made our way back to our first anchorage in Huahine Nui. It took us about an hour. We stopped to have lunch and do emails before leaving for Taha’a. It took us about three hours to get to Taha’a. When we arrived we went through the pass in the reef and anchored in Faaha bay.
16th MAY
After school the next day we went snorkelling at the beach. It was really good snorkelling, first I saw a school of about 20 small barracuda, then we saw some Moray eels. One was a giant Moray, which can grow up to over 2 meters, and the other one was a wide mouth Moray. Mummy and Daddy also saw a green turtle in the deeper water.
Later on after we came back from snorkelling we moved anchorages. We are anchored next to Ilot Oramahama. An Ilot is the name the French give to a tiny island, the locals call it a motu. The Ilot is surrounded by shallow water which is about 2 meters deep, but at the edge of the shallow water there is a sudden drop off which goes down to forty meters. Soon after we had arrived we went and had a snorkel at the drop off. In the drop off I saw a shark. I couldn’t see what type though, but in the shallow water I saw some Tahitian stingrays. Later on we had supper on the boat.
The next day we went to the rest of the island. This is one of the few islands where you can go right around inside the reef. We were anchored where you could see Bora Bora in the distance and Taha’a close by. When we arrived we went to town in the tender to drop off the rubbish and get an ice-cream. On the way back from the shop we saw a shiny dragonfly darting over a stream. Later on we moved anchorages again into the protection of the island because the wind was getting up. From the anchorage we are now in we can see a church with white cement walls and a red tin roof.
The next day we went further up the East Coast of Taha’a to a small yacht club. Soon after we arrived Daddy and I went over to the yacht club to see if it was open, It wasn’t so we came back to the boat.