Society Islands Part 1 – Tahiti & Bora Bora (Jul/Aug 2018)

Moorea

Papeete on Tahiti was our first town since Panama. Some people say it is loud and noisy but for a change we liked it. Especially the lively market hall and the square with the roulottes restaurants, where you could get all kind of different street food for little money.

It was a pleasure for us to welcome Loni again and of course Jaël and Amina where very excited to see her. They enjoyed strolling around with her in the beautiful park along the waterside and of course had to try out all the playgrounds. We haven’t come across any playground since Panama – if you don’t count the beautiful beaches with hermit crabs and a thousand other things to discover. Being in a big marina after sailing several months in remote places means also having a big to-do-list waiting to be done. So while the kids were enjoying Papeete’s playgrounds we were busy working us through our list.

Early Sunday morning at the market – queue for roast pork

Street art in Papeete

We managed to get some tickets for the last day at the Heiva which is Tahiti’s biggest festival. Amina fell asleep after a while but Jaël enjoyed the show together with Alyssa and her sisters from CHASING STARS. We were deeply impressed by the dance performances and the beautiful costumes.

Just when we were done with all our jobs we heard that the diving boat FRENCH POLINESIA MASTER will come to Papeete the next day. Our former crew Marine worked there as a dive master and so we decided to stay and meet her for probably the last time. Mauro was also in Papeete so we invited both for a farewell dinner on Mirabella. It was a good evening and the kids really enjoyed to see them both again.

Next day we finally set sails for Moorea which was only about a 3 hours sail away. As it was her day off Marine decided to join us and return to Tahiti with the evening ferry.

The Society Islands are the ideal combination of Marquesas and Tuamotus. They have beautiful green hills and mountains like the Marquesas and lagoons with turquoise clear water and palm trees like the Tuamotus. Moorea’s scenery is stunning and together with CHASING STARS we enjoyed the beautiful pineapple plantation walk. I never tasted pineapple as good as the ones I bought in Moorea. They were simply delicious. Next day we visited the Rotui juice factory which was also for the kids very interesting to see.

We lifted the anchor and joined INFINITY at the Tiki anchorage near the place where you could pet the sting rays.

After beeing almost four weeks with us Loni had to fly back home. It was so nice to have her again with us on Mirabella. We all enjoyed her company. She took the ferry to Papeete and we left Moorea for Raiatea, where ROGUE was already waiting for us.

In Raiatea we made a river tour with our dinghy together with Josh and the ROGUE boys. A local guy overtook us in a kajak and asked if we would like to buy some fruit. He asked us to follow him and gave us a tour through the whole plantation. He showed us all sort of different fruits, climbed up the trees to pick them and let us taste. It was so interesting and you could see that he was really proud of it. On our way back it was pouring and we were completely wet when we got back on our boat. What a beautiful excursion!

Later that afternoon the weather cleared up and we changed to a beautiful anchorage in the shelter of a small uninhabited palm tree island. It was an idyllic place for a swim the next morning. We continued North and anchored in Taha’a close to a beautiful coral garden where we could snorkel with the current. A perfect snorkel spot for the kids and we had a lot of fun together with CHASING STARS and ROGUE.

https://videopress.com/v/eo8cMfgf

The next day we were invited to Mana’s Birthday party, a nice guy André met on his jogging tour, while we were visiting a pearlfarm and a rhum distillerie. Mana celebrated his birthday on the small island were we were ancored nearby. He surprised us all with a spectacular firedance!

No doubt Bora Bora’s scenery is stunning ! It wasn’t all for us though. One secluded resort after another and all was a bit of a closed society. When André wanted to check out one of the resort to have a drink at the bar he was politely but firmly asked to move on…