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Misto - Days 120-122: Around Raiatea



We came down from Baie Hurepiti on Tahaa to the town of Uturoa on Raiatea early on May 6 as we have learned the hard way that shops close at lunch time on Saturdays. We passed Skyelark going the opposite way and they suggested using a Dream Charters mooring ball. No sooner had we attached to one than a dream charters boat captain informed us that we could not use them on Saturday's as they were needed by the owners. So we went on into the town dock. In the prevailing fairly benign conditions, there was only a little swell pushing us onto the concrete dock and later in the day we were able to move to a different position where we were facing more into the wind and the swells. This was a great base for exploring the town and made it easy to visit the supermarket.

On Sunday morning we attended the service at the local Protestant Church. Clearly influenced by the London Missionary Society it strongly resembled a Methodist church and the minister was a lady. Despite the service being in Tahitian we were able to follow along with some of it on printed sheets. The singing was beautiful - different to the Marquesas but wonderful in its own right. There appeared to be 4 different choral groups in the church leading different parts of the service. That afternoon we set off for the south of Raiatea.

We were anxious to visit the Taputapuatea archeological site in Baie Opoa. This is the largest of these sites and was considered a central hub of religious activities. We picked up a mooring ball in the adjacent Hotopuu bay and dinghied around. It was certainly impressive in size and had undergone much restoration in the late 1960's. Reproductions of etchings done in the 1700's gave an impression of how the site would have looked when Captain Cook visited, when the wooden structures were present on the stone bases.

After spending the night here we continued in a clockwise direction around Raitea and stopped at Motu Naonao. It made a nice lunch stop but the snorkeling was not particularly special and with a building, unusual, northerly wind we left and completed our circumnavigation of Raitea. You can almost complete the circuit within the reef but you have to come out for about 5 nm on the west side of the island - unfortunately this meant we were ploughing directly into 15-20 knots of wind but the seas were not too bad. Re-entering the lagoon we hoped to find a mooring ball on the north west corner of the island but they were all taken so we returned to the town dock, to refuel, provision and depart for Bora Bora the next day.

Raiatea and Tahaa are dramatic, green islands surrounded by a calm and accessible lagoon. We enjoyed our time here but would probably choose to spend more time in Huahine over them if we were to visit again.

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