Huahine

Our favourite island so far has been Huahine. It's one of the leeward islands, Iles sous le Vent,
about ninety miles west from Tahiti/Moorea. The distance meant an overnight passage which was uneventful, the best kind. We wanted to arrive at dawn to ensure a daylight entry through the pass. Our approach was across the top of the island, along the north shore, to avoid the reefs that stretch far offshore on the southwest  side. Apparently, four/five boats a year are lost along that stretch and we wanted to be sure and avoid the same fate. As it was, we arrived a little earlier than planned, around four a.m., but, slowed down, had breakfast and just jogged along until daylight arrived at six. There was quite a bit of turbulence going into the pass, but, not enough to worry about and it was fine. Most boats stop at Fare, the main town, but, we continued on, inside the lagoon, south to Avea Bay. It seemed to take forever to get there as we had a 1+ knot negative current along the way. The Bay didn't seem like much on arrival, scenery-wise, but, it turned out to be a great anchorage. We stayed there for five days and enjoyed it very much. We're late in the season and there weren't many other boats. The ones that did come in were mainly charter boats that never stayed more than a night. We anchored in about ten metres, just off a shelf. The rays like to swim along the edge of the shelf dropoffs and we saw two enormous ones there.

We're still learning the layout of tropical reefs and lagoons as we've never been in this type of environment before. Generally, the 'high islands' we've visited so far are sunken volcanoes. There is a protruding rim that protects an inner lagoon from the full power of the ocean. The waves crashing over the reef can be enormous and create a constant background roar.

Yet, the protection afforded the inner lagoon is complete. You can be anchored in shallow, calm, transparent water just inside the line of raging sea with only a bit of ocean swell if you're anchored near a pass.

We saw a lot of boats anchored very close to the reef edge, on the shallow shelf. That felt a little too exposed for us and we preferred the deeper water.

The island is very rural and agricultural with one main town and a few small villages. Avea Bay has the best beach on the island and a very nice little hotel, Relais Mahana. Next door was Chez Tara, a laid-back beach restaurant that is written up in Lonely Planet as 'one of Huahine's  undiscovered gems'.  Their specialty is 'legendary ma'a Tahiti', traditional Polynesian food, wrapped in leaves and cooked over embers in an underground pit. It's only offered on Sunday. You're told to arrive at eleven a.m. for the opening of the oven and a photo op. Then, the food is prepared and served at noon. In addition to the tourists, there were many locals as customers, servers and musicians, most in traditional garb. Notice this woman is wearing black pearl earrings. Pearls are big business in these islands.

After queuing up, the food was served to you, a little bit of everything.

It maybe didn't look so appetizing, but, it tasted good!

Surprisingly, there was a Europcar outlet at the Relais Mahana hotel and we rented a car for four hours, definitely long enough to tour the 60km ring road and see the sights. Very close by was the Marae Anini with its weathered, coral slab walls. A marae is a traditional temple. These marae with their coral walls and altars were very different from the modern marae we saw in NZ.

Further along, we were impressed with the archaeological site at Maeva. This used to be the seat of royal power on the island and has a concentration of pre-European marae.

There is an excellent little museum built in the style of an open traditional house.

Down the road from the museum was the public toilet. In the middle of a sun-scorched field, expectations were very low and the usual horrible public toilet was envisioned. It was a delight to find a clean, tiled, flushing toilet facility, no graffiti and in the entrance there was a fabulous, fresh, floral arrangement. Toilet pictures don't normally feature in this journal, but, it was a tribute to the island community and so surprising and unexpected I had to include it!