Fins

Can't you feel 'em circlin' honey?
Can't you feel 'em swimmin' around?
You got fins to the left, fins to the right,
and you're the only bait in town.

-Jimmy Buffett



Ok, so some of you may have figured out that the shark in the pic that we ended the last blog entry with was not very big. Probably "only" 2-1/2 feet long or so. Given that we took that picture and these ones from the safety of our bungalow porch, the sharks here began to not seem like such a big deal.



In fact, we saw so many of these little guys that the fear of sharks that (most) humans are born with had begun to fade the next day when we decided to hitch a ride out beyond the reef edge to do some snorkeling with a group of scuba folk.

The first stop was a pass into the atoll's lagoon widely known for large sharks and tuna. We hopped in, looked around nervously for 20 minutes or so, saw some schooling fish, and climbed back on the boat. When the scuba-ers joined us a few minutes later, they regaled us with tales of the 3, 12' sharks they'd seen down in the depths.

Yay! No need to worry - the big ones stay in the deep!

And so it was with no trepidation at all that we jumped back in for more snorkeling at the next stop, a little ways away from the pass. Besides, I thought, Mark's with me. He's had lots of experience snorkeling. He'll spot the sharks. I can just relax and enjoy myself!

Ya, so turns out when deciding who should take on the very important responsibility of shark-spotting, it probably should be the person who's got the better vision. That would not be Mark.

Within a minute of hitting the water, I happened to notice this shape emerging from the dark blue expanse we were surrounded by.



Hmm...I wonder what that is...



OK...maybe time to rip Mark's arm out of the socket and let him know his days as a shark spotter are over(if not all of his days, actually)! But not before I snapped just one more pic for the blog!



Despite (and maybe even because of) our open-water-snorkeling-with-sharks experience, I've become much more comfortable hanging out with these black-tipped reef sharks. Even though everyone says this type of shark "probably" would never challenge anything so big as a human, I'm still not so bold as to turn my back on one in the water. Or stand around for hours off the beach like the Italians at the resort here seemed to like to do.



Or to give my little kids lunch leftovers to throw to the sharks from the shore, like this lady did while we watched on in disbelief!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbIUAlwSoZM

But they were fun to chase around in the water below the bungalows with my underwater camera.

In the Tike-Tike-Tike-Tike-Tike Room

In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room
In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room
All the birds sing words and the flowers croon
In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room
Welcome to our tropical hideaway, you lucky people you!

- Disney



Tikehau is what's called an atoll. Not an island, but a ring of coral around a lagoon. It's really quite something to see from the air. We expected to be able to see from one side of the lagoon to the other once we were on the ground, but it was actually too wide for that.



Unfortunately, word got out that Linette pilfered a couple extra bottles of Manoi oil from the housekeeper's cart in Bora Bora. We've been assigned to this very special overwater bungalow at the new place.



It's a little more remote than we anticipated, but the resort did provide a kayak so we could get to and fro, weather permitting. That small dot off to the right is our room.



But seriously,(despite snagging the extra manoi) we've managed to score another lovely spot here on Tikehau (Tick-e-how).


















As with the other overwater bungalows, this one has a nice viewing glass built into the floor...























...a view from the shower that makes you want to linger...



...and the most enthusiastic welcoming committee yet...




















and...OMG, yes, that is a shark - crusin' by just off the porch!

In An Octopuses Garden

I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus' garden with you.

- The Beatles
















After 2 days of wishin and a’hope-ing for optimal snorkelling conditions, the Gods of Bora Bora rewarded us with our best weather yet – and on the day we had reservations for a “reef discovery” tour! The tour was billed as including four snorkelling stops, featuring coral gardens, lots of fish, manta rays, and eagle rays.

We were met at the hotel dock by a tan and handsome Frenchman in his sleek 8-passenger speed boat. It wasn’t long before the excitement began...2 manta rays (likely a mother and juvenile) in the shallow waters off Le Meridien Hotel.



Keeners that we are, we were out of the boat and drifting over the deep blue sea for several minutes before we realized that everyone else was still getting their gear on! Normally, that would’ve been no big deal but this spot was prime shark habitat. A healthy coral reef featuring a steep drop off to an open channel 40 to 60 feet deep! It was also home to a “cleaning station” for manta rays. These 6-12 feet wide, plankton-eating giants come each morning to have their mouths picked clean by small reef fish who have evolved specifically for this task. So there we were, floating and trying not think of what might be swimming around below us.

The rest of the group (9 of us including the guide) eventually caught up to us. Shortly after, the guide spotted 3 manta in the dim depths below. We watched quietly as they glided along in a slow motion ballet along the white sandy bottom of the channel, and were awestruck when one of the larger rays decided to ascend to inspect Mark! The ray was within 3 feet of the surface and even closer to Mark. Of all the times (and there have been many this trip!) for my underwater camera not to work! ARRRRGH! I guess some memories just have to be lived.

The coral gardens here can be beautiful but also dangerous. Even the briefest contact can result in a nasty scrape, as 2 of our fellow tour people found out.


The density of fish here is just amazing! Thankfully the camera decided to play along later in the day.

















As if all of this wasn’t enough, our last stop was another drift snorkel. Et voila! We were treated to the vision of a school of eagle rays, which more resembled a flock of birds as they swooped and dipped along the channel floor, about 30 feet below us.



We reluctantly dragged our tired and sunburnt bottoms back on to the boat and endeared the kidney-jarring, wave crashing ride back to the hotel, all smiles. The scenery above the water was lovely too.

What an adventure, even sans sharks!

We finished our last day on Bora Bora with a hasty trip into the village of Viatape, across the water from our hotel. Linette finally found just the right pearl pendant. It wasn’t this one - which we fondly refer to as "not even if it would please you my darling" - LOL


Mark got a couple of T-shirts, which at this point in the laundry service he needed as much as he wanted.

Tomorrow we leave for the last leg of our journey – the atoll of Tikehau. We will have several fond memories of Bora Bora, including the ever changing view of the mountain...





...double rainbows...



...and getting absolutely drenched running back to our room last night! Although it’s been sunny here, it’s also been tremendously windy. That stormy night back on Moorea was a cake walk compared to here. Let’s hope Tikehau’s as peaceful as everyone says it should be.

Hula Girl at Heart

Photographs show she is lovely
Her bare feet are a work of art
Her fragrance speaks of frangipani
Yes she's still a hula girl at heart

- Jimmy Buffett



The trade winds did eventually blow us from Huahine to Bora Bora as planned. (They pretty much never let up the whole time we were there - but I'm getting ahead of myself!)

I fear we may have given the wrong impression of Huahine. It was very beautiful in it's own way. We've come to appreciate that more as we've continued to other islands and atolls. Here is the view from our porch during a sunny moment...
















...and at twilight



The shells and their inhabitants were plentiful and interesting...









As was the sea life, just offshore (a type of brown seaweed that seems to be everywhere here and a sea cucumber - there were literally hundreds of them!)























We really did enjoy our time there...

Hinano

It's the beer out here - you know...the local offering that's cheaper than water?

Mmmmmmm!

A 3 Hour Tour (well, maybe 4)

Just sit right back
And you'll hear a tale
A tale of a fateful trip,
That started from this tropic port,
Aboard this tiny ship.

- theme from Gilligan's Island


The weather grew progressively less worse so we felt increasingly somewhat confident enough to book a day-long lagoon excursion with a local family. We were picked up by a gregarious and (thank God) multi-lingual young Polynesian woman and driven to one of her family's two tour boats in the tiny village of Fare (fair-eh). When she wasn't laughing or singling along with her ukelele, she regailed us with native legends and interesting information about the island and its people. Her father played Skipper to her Gilligan.

Fortunately, the little boat was fast enough to outrun the black storm clouds that had been stalking us. We stopped for snorkelling and squeamishly watched our intrepid guide clambour down in to a draining ditch to feed chunks of raw fish to a swarm of three-foot long, blue-eyed sacred eels.





















Then it was on to a small pearl farming operation in the lagoon before we stopped for lunch at our host's coconut plantation house on the eastern-most muto.

The guest were enlisted to help set up and prepare lunch which included poisson cru. This is a local speciality dish consisting of small pieces of raw mahi-mahi mixed with lime juice, fresh squeezed coconut milk, salt, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Thank goodness, no cilantro. We had been avoiding this dish on the advice of our travel medicine doctor but it was so obviously fresh and exceptionally clean (and we were hungry!) so we took the plunge...and it was Deeeeeee-licious!


The hundreds of mullet fish swarming around our beachfront dining facility thought so too. Mostly they really seemed to like the look of Mark's meaty calves and thighs. Although eating with the fishes was cool, the highlight of the day was the drift snorkel we did after lunch. We hopped out of the boat about 200 meters off shore and let the current sweep us over coral heads and resident fish for about a kilometer. The water quite deep enough for sharks, but we didn't see any today.


Tomorrow we head for Bora Bora - and not a downpour too soon!