6 Gone : Polynesia

In Moorea, like all good tourists, we obviously enjoyed watching the spectacle of the rays, or playing chicken with the sharks (after having checked that they were the black-tip variety)! I got a great fright one time when snorkelling with what I assumed were black-tips and then discovering that they weren’t! At Tikehau, we lived out our Robinson Crusoe dream by building a great big fire on the beach where we cooked potatoes in the ashes, marshmallows, and the fish that had been freshly caught in the lagoon by the captain of Infinity. I could only watch and admire, as my harpoon was a little short for this sort of hunting. What more could anyone ask for? Happy to be alone in the world! After arriving at the flat island of Rangiroa, a bike ride around the accessible area of the island was in order. We then went to eat at Obelix’s, which is a colourful food truck. That’s not all that we did, but the time flies much too quickly and we have a rendez-vous in Fakarava, where we will pick up the vice-captain’s little sister and her family. Fakarava is a long island, and flat like Rangiroa, so it was another chance to rent some bikes and go exploring. The reward for this is the lunch stop. We stopped at a restaurant at the water’s edge and took over one of the huts. We tried to be as discreet as possible, despite the attractions of a coconut palm lined beach and other wonderful distractions for our tribe. We explained ...