Not only is Vava’u a cruiser’s paradise, the islands and barrier reef of this group make for some fantastic diving. One does feed into the other. In order to get to the dives sites you have to be able to traverse the water between the islands, which means hiring a dive boat or bringing your own. This keeps a limitation on how many people actually get to the sites which in turn keeps the dive areas in pristine condition.
Underwater Tonga was unique in that among all the islands we’ve seen, in Tonga the coral really steals the show. With colors including lime green, purple, red and every hue in between not to mention varying in size from the size of a hand to well larger than a human, the coral in Vava’u was a sight to behold. Most of it was close enough to the surface and received enough sunlight to really bring out the beauty lying just below the surface. The crystal clear water everywhere you went didn’t hurt either.
So, on another note of why the open ocean is dangerous, let’s talk about Cookiecutter Sharks. You may be saying to yourself “What in the world are you talking about!? Cookiecutter Sharks? Sharks that make cookies! AWESOME!” And we would agree except for what the sharks use a cookie dough…because that would be flesh.
The first time we ever heard of these vicious little suckers was when we were snorkeling with dolphins in Niue. Now, I don’t have any footage to show you of our snorkel trip, but it was awesome! We were in a couple of inflatable dinghies on our way to a dive, when a pod of Spinner dolphins started swimming off our bow. (Called “spinners” because of the amount of spins they perform on their jumps.) No matter how many times you’ve seen dolphins while underway, it’s still an amazing experience and what made this even better is that we were able to get in the water and be towed by the boat so we could swim with them. It was fantastic!
While we were in the water, I noticed a few of the dolphins had circular wounds on them in various places.
The first thing that came to my mind was that they had some sort of flesh eating disease (which worried me since I didn’t want to catch it!) Continue reading “Sharks That Make Cookies?!”
You know those “beach success pictures” that you see on marketing materials? Come on, you know what we’re talking about: the person in their swimsuit,
(obviously a very young attractive person because we all know only really hot people go to the beach…)
sitting on the beach with their laptop,
(like it’s normal to use your computer at the beach…)
Looking very excited because, as the picture implies, they have spent their day playing on the sand
(we’re sure it’s not in the water because their hair is always perfect)
and, “oh I’ll just hop on the internet real quick and check my investments…”
(Come on, how many beaches have internet access? And wouldn’t you be worried about sand getting in the laptop? Or oh I dunno, water? And by the way, how are you even able to see your screen in the blazing bright sunlight? Really, who brings their computer to the beach!?)
“…and oh my goodness I’m a millionaire and I didn’t do anything! You should be like me!”
Yes, that picture. Being as Greg has a history working in the training industry and has strived to actually help people, he has always had a certain amused infatuation for this type of picture. He loves the simple ridiculousness of it. There we were in Bora Bora and we just had to get our “beachside laptop millionaire” photo:
As you can see in the background of the picture, we stayed at yet another overwater bungalow during our time as “normal tourists.” We did want to have an authentic tourist experience, after all. There were a few interesting differences from our other bungalow experience: Continue reading “Bora Bora Bungalow Life”
Most of the guidebooks about Moorea will at least mention feeding the sting rays.
Typically, you would need to rent a boat or hire a tour guide to go do this but since our old friends on FLY AWEIGH pulled into port a few days ago they offered to give us all a lift out to the reef.
We expected to see some rays at a distance and toss them a few fish. The rays had other plans and were happy to educate us on how this whole thing actually worked. Continue reading “Feeding the Wildlife”
Outside of town we find the other inhabitants of the atoll: the wildlife.
Bored with getting schooled by 9 year old island ping-pong champions? Well then, your new playmate can be as close as the nearest coconut crab hole:
Some of you may not remember Greg’s previous encounters with the avian species but he has extensive diplomatic experience in “aggressive negations” with:
We would be remiss to mention the creatures of Rangiroa and omit the diving. Like Fakarava, Rangiroa is world-renown for its dive areas and the water is crystal clear. The difference is that Rangiroa is far more accessible (remember the daily flights) and also far more developed. As a result, there are a lot more divers that swim in Rangiroa’s lagoon and the fish are actually very accustomed to humans in the water. The fish actually swim towards the dingy instead of away from it and when we tied up and jumped into the water we found ourselves immediately swarmed by a cloud of butterfly fish!
Greg has been told by his shipmates that by learning to dive in French Polynesia he is “spoiled for life” on diving. Wait, there are places in the world where you don’t see at least 10 sharks per dive and have to beat off the cornucopia of rainbow fish with a stick?
When we look at those words up there and realize that we could be putting those letters together at random for all the good it does describing our location to you. We can tell you exactly where we are and at the same time tell you nothing at all. We’re working on getting a map up. Here, we’ll give you a little orientation. How about a satellite photograph of the atoll:
That help? Still no, huh? Let’s zoom out a bit:
Just in case you didn’t know, the blue stuff is water. We would like to point out that if you put the entire landmass of our planet into this one ocean, there would be STILL be room for a second Africa, give or take. Like we said, the scale of things out here is massive. “Needle in a haystack”? From now on we’ll be saying “it’s like trying to find an island in the Pacific.” People live on them. Granted, not a lot of people, but still.
And yet, here we are. It’s amazing that these places are REAL. There are places on the map that almost no one has ever heard of and these places are actually a lot closer than most of us realize… yet drastically separated by water, language, culture and a lack of regular air transport (you saw the major / only airport of the area). Coming from the States, it’s actually easier, cheaper and WAY faster to get to Sydney, which is still several thousand miles from us, than to get to this little atoll. The Pacific islands are weird that way.
The fact that you are way off in the middle of nowhere is always right there, right in your face. You get used to over time and you stop thinking about it. It’s amusing to think back on how we called Nuku Hiva “the big city” but it is the largest settlement we’ve encountered since leaving Mexico a few months ago. It wouldn’t even count as a village in the San Francisco Bay.
Greg has long been a proponent of the philosophy that humans can normalize just about anything, along as they are exposed to it enough. Isolation is the status quo out here, after all. Polynesians don’t wander around in a state of shock at their removal from the regular world; to them, this is the regular world. Over time, it becomes regular to us as well and we stop thinking about the fact that there are places in the world where it takes more than 20 minutes to walk from one coast to another. Then something little makes you think of it, like zooming out on the navigation computer while planning a route. Then it all comes rushing back, “Holy heck we’re over 1000 miles from the nearest continent!” It actually scares you a little bit as you think to yourself “how the heck did we get here on a sailboat!?”
Did you know that when Sharks get into large groups (say like 50 plus) they school, like fish?
So we learned something new today.
More of that in a minute, let’s get down to brass taxes: Brad Kellogg owes us $67.25.
For those of you who are not friends with us on Facebook, you should be. Mainly because that’s where most of the commentary for the blog happens each week. Why is this? Probably because thanks to the miracle of the friend finder, all our old smart aleck friends from our previous lives have connected with us and form some form of hybrid “metamind / advice giving / peanut gallery” thing.
So enters Brad, good friend from high school and expert at egging Greg on. Actually, good at egging anyone on. The guy’s got a gift. If he ends up a senator, I called it.
After my last post about the sharks, Brad comments to Greg: “5 bucks float with the sharks for 5 minutes, and I’ll toss in an extra quarter for each shark ya can count, double dog dare ya!”
Ok, I’m a worshipper of A Christmas story. I’ll even spot you the Triple Dog Dare.
(If you don’t understand the Christmas story reference, you OBVIOUSLY don’t watch TBS on Christmas…and your life is poorer for it 😉
Now, you may be saying to yourself, “Wait Greg, there was a MAX of 7 sharks in that video, assuming every new cut was with new sharks.” So that’s $6.50.
Yes, that. Here’s the rest of the 250 sharks we went swimming with (dive masters best estimate, not mine.) Oh, and the highly lethal stonefish which doesn’t count for an extra quarter but could kill you just as dead.
Now we were in the water for about 45 minutes but since there was no repeating stipulation on the bet, I won’t advocate for the $605.25 I could potentially claim. 😉
The South Pass was not all just highly lethal sea creatures. I mean really, 250 sharks aren’t just going to hang around unless there’s food nearby and wow, was there. A smorgasbord of every color and type of tropical reef fish, coral, you name it. Amazing does not describe what we saw: this video hardly gives you a taste of the varied and beautiful sea life that surrounded us every time we got in the water.
(PS – thanks to Serge & the guys from Fatu Hiva for the awesome music!)
Ok it’s, uh, pretty and all. Really, really pretty but what do you DO there?
Well all throughout the village and along the islands are coconut crabs. Which are crabs. That eat coconut. They also live in little burrowed holes in the beach sand and the islanders are good at catching them for supper.
If catching your next meal gets old and/or frustrating (fast little buggers) you can always go for a swim. Remember how I said Kauehi had clear water? Yeah, and lagoons are breeding grounds for everything from tropical fish to coral to the most colorful clams I have ever seen.
If the lagoon gets old, you can wander down the road (“the” as in singular. As in the only one on the island) to the other beach. It’s not like it’s a long walk.
Since the island is an atoll surrounding a lagoon, it has beaches on both sides. The “inside” beach has sand but no waves. The outside beaches, which face out to the ocean, would be really great for surfing or boogie boarding except for one tiny detail.
**20100510A – archive – Kahuei beach**
Allan is really excited because he has dragged his board, sails and gear all the way from California in order to go windsurfing in the Tuamotu. The barrier reef islands provide a good shelter from the ocean waves but are also low enough to the water to allow the wind to blow full force over the lagoons. Big wind but no large waves creates an ideal windsurfing environment.
I know I said this before back in Mexico but it bears repeating. Allan loaded all of this gear onto his sailboat. He then proceeded to sail his boat from California to the middle of the South Pacific. We have been sailing for months now to get here. So we sail here, on a sailboat, using the wind to sail our sailboat to this lagoon and the thing Allan wants to do here? After all that? He wants to go sailing on a smaller sailboat…
…really?
He insists it’s different. It goes faster or something. Me, I know addiction when I see it.
(Continued from previous post… Tahuata, French Polynesia)
As we continued to travel north along the island to our next anchorage, Hanatefau, reportedly the 3rd prettiest in Polynesia, we saw some spectacular waterspouts along the shoreline.
Upon arriving we found that the anchorage was indeed gorgeous. Beautiful living reefs no more than 10 feet below the surface on each side of the anchorage, a pristine white sandy beach, crystal clear water with 30-50 feet of visibility, and gorgeous sunshine. A Manta Ray swam right past our stern. It was amazing. Tiff started off the day helping out a fellow cruiser by free diving 30 feet straight down to get a dropped piece of equipment, which is a rather impressive feat. (Actually, I started it by swimming some banana bread over to Rod and Elisabeth on Proximity, and when I swam back, I saw the Manta Ray fly past our boat! ~Tiff)
As thanks for helping them out, Michael and Gloria of Paikea Mist, a beautiful Beneteau Custom 50, (www.PaikeaMist.com) invited us out to go snorkeling with them. Now, again, I am still learning how to use this camera well underwater. That being said, there are some absolutely amazing parts of sea life just wandering around a few feet below the surface. This is a taste of what I saw:
Unfortunately for us with this much unrestrained beauty below us, perfect warm, clear water all around us and a baking sun above us, it is quite easy to lose track of time. We did just that, much to both of our extreme regret.
Let me tell you, it hurts. It hurts a lot. A LOT! I took a shower, used a wash rag and some warm water by accident two days later and was laid out on the bed for a good hour writhing in pain as it felt like someone was jamming broken glass into my spine. It took two ice packs and not moving much for the rest of the day to bring me back to a degree of normalcy. Needless to say, a bottle of waterproof sunscreen has been permanently added to my ashore backpack. But such are the risks for living in paradise.
Needless to say the tiny island of Tahuata was supremely amazing, well beyond any of our expectations or even our imaginations.
