The kids arrived to Papeete Sunday. We were fortunate to see the end of a rain delayed Heiva festival dance Sunday evening with Sydney and Jesse prior to Elizabeth and Alex’s arrival. Monday morning we made a run to the Carrefour and spent some time at the Public Market picking up produce and miscellaneous items. Unfortunately, we got carried away purchasing exotic items including duck rillette, canned confit, cured meats and cheeses and forgot to get enough “normal” food so need to re-provision soon.
Monday afternoon we sailed to Moorea where we had another fabulous dinner at the Moorea Beach Cafe. Tuesday we shopped for sarongs, went to Allo Pizza (best pizza in French Polynesia), and swam. On Wednesday we went for an ATV tour around the island and had an absolute blast. That evening we had a quick dinner prior to departing for Riatea. It was about a 14 hour sail with what appear to be typical swells here so not as pleasant as I had hoped it might be for the kids’ first big sail, but that is behind us now. We took the dinghy up a river, met a local plantation owner named James and had a little fruit and vanilla tour. We had coconut water, coconut snacks, and brought back Papaya, some flowers, and bananas. We played Pandemic when we got back on the boat, had an early dinner, and to bed. We were all tired from the previous night’s sailing.
Today we continued on to Taha’a. A lovely island where we anchored near the Taha’a resort. We had hoped to have a meal there because it was highly recommended to us, but they refused to serve us. It was irritating because they were very vague about reservations, being full (the restaurant was empty), said we could have a drink and then “maybe” lunch, but then wouldn’t serve us lunch or let us make a reservation for dinner, lunch tomorrow, or anytime in the future. All very strange and somewhat humbling. I don’t know if we were looking extremely motley or what, but we were so excited about the meal. Oh well.
The sunset was probably more beautiful from our boat and I’m sure our last bit of bok choy and steaks with foie gras (another brilliant purchase) will be quite delicious.
Tomorrow we hope to do a drift snorkel towing our dinghy behind us in the coral gardens that are supposed to be marvelous.
