Archive for September 23rd, 2008

Monday, September 15
Woke up today and decided for the first time at the resort to have breakfast in the restaurant. As the waiter led us to our table, the buffet spread that was laid out looked quite tasty. However, once we got coffee and went up to fill our plates we realized that the selection was very much lacking in comparison to the incredible breakfast buffets we got used to at the Pearl Resort in Moorea! A few of the choices were tuna & pineapple in a curry/coconut milk sauce (for breakfast?), powdered scrambled eggs that were obviously not mixed very well, and quite a selection of fresh fruits – except there were all kinds of fruit flies completely covering them. Disgusting! The only thing that I found appealing was the croissants with Nutella. Now that’s good! Suffice to say, neither Katherine nor I ate very much for breakfast today.

Originally we were going to rent a little boat taxi (personal use) and putter around in the bay by ourselves. However, it was very windy and another couple we met the day before wasn’t able get out on the lagoon for the same reason; the wind. So we bagged the self-guided boat rental and called Moana Adventure Tours to see what they had available. The company hooked us up with a local guide, Teva (Tay-va). Teva picked us up around 1:30pm and we were off. He took down to the south end of the lagoon near Matira Beach, where we enjoyed some incredible snorkeling in a designated no fishing area. Also onboard the boat was a pail of dead fish to lure and feed the fish. Katherine and I put on our snorkel gear and hit the water. Teva threw a couple of feed fish in and within seconds there were just tons of fish around us. We were literally surrounded; it was pretty amazing! There were so many different species and one noticeably large green-blue fish with huge lips and pretty big teeth. We come to find out it was a Trigger fish. Boy, it was ugly! Teva instructed me to hold 2 of the dead fish from the bucket in my hand to feed the fish swimming with us. I did and the fish were just coming up to my hand and eating the feed right from it. Once I saw the Trigger fish spot lunch in my hand and start heading my way, I let go of the feed and it was free-for-all. The Trigger fish swam right up close to us and took a large bite out of the feed (about half of the fish)!

We climbed back in the boat and Teva told us it was time to go swim with the Stingrays. Excuse me…the Stingrays? I told him no way and that “he” could swim with them while I watched. A short ride over to the reef and between the motu (island) we were in about 3 feet of water when we noticed a large dark area. As we approached, the dark area was dispersing and swimming around! “Found the stingrays!” Teva said. We anchor and he instructs us to climb into the water. Katherine and I look at each other and shake our heads “No way!” Teva gets in the water and shows us there is nothing to worry about but I’m still not doing it. Katherine decides to go in and stand next to Teva. The rays were huge – with a few that were at least a 3ft span across! These were natural stingrays in the open water – no fences, no aquarium pens, nothing; live marine life in their surroundings.

It was amazing! The only thing I can liken this too is when you go away for 3-4 days and return home to your pet dog. The dog is soooo happy to see you when you walk through that door. These stingrays just kept swimming up on our chests to our faces. I have never seen or done anything like this! It was pretty amazing. Next Teva took us outside the lagoon into the ocean. We traveled along the coral reefs for a bit and then jetted out to deeper waters (approximately 50-60 feet deep). Here, we swam with the numerous sharks; black-tipped reef sharks and lemon sharks. The two tips for swimming with sharks that Teva gave us? Black-tipped reef sharks are scavengers and eat dead matter and lemon sharks are bottom-feeders. Thus both are harmless to humans with the black-tipped reef sharks being somewhat curious beasts. Teva tossed out some more dead fish (food) to draw the sharks to the boat. I jumped in the water and held on to the boat ladder (just to be on the safe side) until I felt more comfortable among my new friends. I started to swim away from the boat and Katherine climbed in the crystal-clear, deep water. It took her a bit to get in the water since she does not like the fact that she cannot she the bottom floor in deep water. Ah-hah, but that was not the case here! As mentioned, the water was so clear that it literally looked like the coral covered ocean floor was only 4 feet deep.

After hanging with the sharks Teva fired up the boat and we headed back into the lagoon and to view the WWII cannons & bunker from the water. Let me tell you, these cannons are HUGE! There were four cannons placed strategically around the island just in case the Japanese decided to try another sneak attack on the US. Thus, the US government stationed GIs there during the war. I took a few pictures and we then anchored on a natural forming sandbar in the lagoon. Two times during the year the water current washes the fine white sand in a spot that creates a sandbar. Teva mentioned that a few of the resorts will set up tables for a sunset dinner on the sandbar at a hefty price of $850 FPC ($1000+ USD). Wowsers! At this point in the day, we still had about an hour left and Teva asked us if we had any special requests. Quite honestly, the day was great but there was one thing we did want to do…we had a beach wine table set. Therefore, we wanted to have Teva take us to a somewhat private beach where we could enjoy a bottle of red wine while watching the sunset. And, Teva didn’t disappoint us! He knew the perfect spot. We anchored the boat and setup our wine travel kit, de-corked the bottle, and enjoyed some great French wine! Teva shared stories with us about his life and life in Bora Bora and we shared our lives and travels with him. He was a very interesting man and would highly recommend him as a tour guide again! He truly made our day spectacular.

On our bike ride the other day we passed a small restaurant, Kaiva Hut that we actually stopped at to get a drink only to find out that they were not open until dinner time. It looked like a cool place to dine and we had seen good reviews on it, so after getting ready for dinner & riding the ferry to Vaitape we caught the restaurant shuttle. You really have to love the fact that Polynesians will come and pick up tourists and bring them to their restaurant for dinner (business in their eyes)!

Once at Kaiva Hut, we were seated at the 12-table, quaint, sand floor restaurant. I personally loved the sand floor and proceeded to kick off my flip flops! We started the evening as we had all previous dinners with a great bottle of red wine. We, along with the French, love our red wine! Kaiva Hut is the kind of place where tables do not turn over for new customers. Walk-in customers would be hard pressed to get a table in an evening. This place is always busy according to the reviews we read. We enjoyed meeting the owner and chatting with him along with our transvestite wait-person. I ordered the Ahi Tuna and neither of us remember what Katherine ordered, but both dishes were fabulous and thoroughly enjoyed. As one of the last tables to leave, we had to wait a bit for the restaurant “taxi” to return from dropping off other passengers.

Another incredible day and our last night here…ooohhhhhh, dang-it!