Pretty in Pink

Another very nice breakfast this morning, set us up well for our another day in and on the water.

Our trip began at 9:00 at the end of the hotel pier, 12 people from the hotel on the trip, fortunately the boat is big enough to fit us all in. The plan for the day is go around the neighbouring island – Tahaa – and stop at at a few places on the way.

First stop is a pearl farm. The farming process is explained to us and we’re shown examples of many sizes and qualities of pearls. Polynesian pearls are darker shades than normal: greys, greens and purples. They are very beautiful but is the process wholly ethical? I’m not convinced. An aged and lazy cat occupied two of the seats in the room where we’re shown the pearls. It showed no sign of wanting to give up its comfortable position for a few visitors.

After speeding along The coast of the island to the top end, we stopped at a channel between two motus for a snorkel. The current through the channel was strong and fast so we headed for the beach, walked to the top of the channel and drifted back. The water was beautifully clear and there were lots of fish and corals to see but the current was too strong to stop and look at anything. A few of us ended up with scratches from the coral because it was hard to stay in control. At the end of the underwater roller-coaster, we were offered the chance to start again. Most people declined and stayed in the shallows. There was still a lot to see here and it was much easier to stop and enjoy the view. I saw another four or five fish I hadn’t seen before – one had a long pink nose – but the highlight was a school of brightly coloured butterfly fish that swam round and round me – they seemed inquisitive, coming right up to my mask and camera – an amazing experience. One feisty little black fish wanted to nibble my feet.

Tahaa is much less developed than most of the islands in the area, there is one road around part of the coast. The interior is completely undeveloped. Any accommodation is right down on the water level. There is only one substantial hotel, a very upmarket Relais & Chateaux, as we passed a helicopter took off from its landing pad and headed off towards Bora Bora.

We stopped on a motu for lunch. The island is owned by an extended family who have divided it up amongst themselves. Some parts are inhabited all the time; some just for weekends; our part had a couple of cabins for overnight stays and some tables and chairs for lunch. The message about our vegetarian food hadn’t got through again so we had a choice of bread, rice and coconut cake. Lunch was leisurely, the rest of the group were mainly French so have a different approach to smoking at the table. We ate our rations quickly and went to look at the stingray hospital that nurses injured animals back to fitness. We spotted a strange rainbow coloured cloud above Tahaa. We’d never seen anything like it, neither had our captain, Julian. Wikipedia later told us it’s an irridescent cloud and not that unusual.

Final stop was a vanilla plantation. 99% of the world’s vanilla comes from Madagascar but Polynesia contributes a small part of the remaining 1%. I had my own guide in English who explained that yields had been falling over the past few years because of climate change. The vanilla flowers in winter when it’s sunny during the day and cool at night, without the flowers there are no beans. The changes in weather patterns have shortened the flowering season. Yields in the past have been as high as 300 tons per year, it’s now down to 16. Vanilla production is very labour intensive. The flowers are members of the orchid family and look very impressive but they have no smell so don’t attract bees and have to be polinated by hand. Once picked the pods are dried in the sun for 45 minutes a day then stored in wooden boxes. This is repeated daily for 3 months. Florence decided to stay on the boat and was entertained by local kids trying to outdo each other diving off the dock. I found a hibiscus flower with rich pink flowers and picked one to put behind Florence’s ear, to match the pink skirt she’s wearing today.

Back to the hotel around 4pm, time for our afternoon swim. We had been planning another bike ride but as we got ready there was a tropical downpour so we settled on a game of scrabble instead, the letters wouldn’t come out for me today and Florence won easily.

Finished the day with dinner and another bottle of Tahitian wine. There’s a lovely
pink wild ginger flower on the table.

7 thoughts on “Pretty in Pink”

  1. The colours are superb, the landscapes sublime, the fish are trippy… but its those fresh fruit breakfasts that have sold French Polynesia to me! I’m basking in all the light and colour from my flat in dark, damp London. jx

  2. Surely this must be as remote as remote can be on your trip? Loving the irredescent cloud. I’m sure Kate Bush sings about irresescent on A Sea of honey.

    1. Hard to say… The San Blas islands felt more remote even though they were only 30 minutes flight from Panama City, this is geographically remote – long way from a big city – but probably not as culturally remote as San Blas.

      Thanks for the KB reference.

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