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Misto - Days 116-119: Huahine and Taaha



After a couple of nights in Baie d'Avea in the South of Huahine we reluctantly decided to head north. We stopped in Baie Haapu on a mooring ball for lunch. This is a beautiful, secluded bay with a small village and we went ashore and walked around a little. Water is available if you need it and we were assured by a lady at the town hall that the general store had beer if we wanted it. We then continued north to a mooring ball just outside Port Bourayne. This is a rather strange name for a fabulous loch-like bay surrounded by steep, verdant hills. We were met by a local man in his canoe and he gave us directions to a look out point. But we decided to start with a tour of Port Bourayne by dinghy and we went as far as the bridge that separates the north and south portions of Huahine, before circling right around the bay and back to Misto. It was stunningly beautiful, secluded and quiet. We then took a walk up to the viewpoint, getting lost along the way when we missed a left turn. The last part was a rock scramble where once there had been some sort of ladder structure but the view from the top was rewarding.

The following day we continued up to the town of Fare where we met up with several WARC boats, enjoyed dinner at the Yacht Club Restaurant and an afternoon tour with Safari Land tours. This tour included a complete circuit of the island, a visit to a pearl farm and pottery, feeding the sacred blue-eyed eels and visiting more archeological sites. I was particularly interested in the pottery as the mud from the lagoon is used to create a unique blue glaze found nowhere else. Of course I bought a piece, and also met the potter - who doubled as the driver of the boat used to get to the pearl farm which is situated in the middle of water on stilts.

We were reluctant to leave Huanhine as we had really enjoyed our time there. It is probably the least well developed of the Society Islands and the shimmering blues of the ocean and lagoon seemed brighter than elsewhere with the verdant greens of the land creating the perfect backdrop.

The on May 4 we set off towards Raitea and Taaha. This unique land mass has two islands encircled by a single coral reef, which means that originally two volcanoes formed the two land masses which were also joined together in the distant past. We enjoyed a brisk sail over from Huanhine with the wind peaking at about 22 knots. We entered the Toahotu pass and went to the village of Haamene on Taaha where we picked up a mooring ball. Th village had sounded quaint in the books we have, but we found it disappointing with many modern structures and little to commend it. We left early the next morning and proceeded to circumnavigate Taaha inside the reef. We stopped at the Coral Gardens to snorkel. This is a unique experience in between two motus where you drift snorkel. The water is shallow and the fish, who are used to being fed, congregate round you in their hundreds. It was like being in a very crowded aquarium where all the fish want to get up close and personal!

We then proceeded to Baie Hurepiti where we had booked a tour with Vanilla Tours. This was probably the most exceptional tour that we have taken to date. 30 years ago Alain Plantier and his family came from France on a small boat, with no electronics or mod cons, and settled on Taaha where they built traditional dwellings and have cultivated beautiful gardens. Alain started doing ethno botanical tours many years ago and three years ago passed the reins over to his son Noah, who is actually an aerospace engineer by training! Noah's knowledge of the plants and culture of the island is deep and unique. We not only visited a vanilla plantation, but completed a circular tour of the island, stopping repeatedly to look at plants and learn about their uses, and also visited a rum distillery that also makes various natural oils. We finished by sampling local fruits and enjoyed a sundowner of fresh fruit juice on his terrace before returning to Misto. We had a great time and when Noah asked if we had a WARC flag that he could purchase to fly on his dock, we donated ours to him.

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