Huahine

Day 6 Huahine

Awoke to rain this morning. UGH. It’s not supposed to rain here, this is the dry season. But what can you do? We tendered not far from shore and met Marc, from Marc’s Motu Picnic and immediately climbed aboard our motorized outrigger canoe, complete with palm fronds and flowers decorating it.

Although overcast when we left, it wasn’t raining so off we went to our first snorkeling location complete with narration, and at times, being serenaded with Polynesian songs accompanied by a uukelele. It was very nice.

Our guide, Puka, said Huahine means: Hua = sex, hine = woman. And to prove that, showed us a mountain peak in the distance that is in the shape of a woman laying on her back. He then proceeded to show us what he said was one particular body part of an ancient God. (He said was his grandfather. LOL)

The island is very beautiful and the water was incredible despite the overcast skies. We continued on to the snorkel location. Well, let’s just say it didn’t go as planned. I had a severe leg cramp shortly after entering the water and immediately tried to move my leg to a position to relieve the cramp. Unfortunately, right below me was a coral head which took a bite out of my toe!  I didn’t even realize it until we were back on the canoe.

Here is a video from the snorkel. Pardon my thumb as I am just getting used to this new camera!

Then we saw a whale in the distance and chased it but it never resurfaced. Sigh.

Off to the pearl farm which is situated in the middle of the bay in a hut over the water. There was a very interesting presentation on how the pearl have a piece of oyster shell, from the Mississippi River grafted to the gonad along with another something I can’t remember the name of. They are then hung in nets in the water for 6 months. If the oyster has not rejected the graft, they are left alone for another 18 months until the pearl is harvested. The oysters that produced well are reused and a larger graft is put into the oyster. And they can only open the oyster a tiny bit to insert the graft AND it has to be done in a minute or the oyster dies.

We also learned the gonad produces a substance that coats the inside of the shells with Mother of Pearl. It was very fascinating. I wanted to buy something very badly—but it was the first place I visited on this trip. I hope I don’t regret it. We shall see.

At any rate, after that we headed towards Marc’s Motu for the luncheon and a drift snorkel. About ½ way there, you could see we were heading towards rain. Our guide handed out ponchos or rain coats to everyone. We were freezing cold as the wind picked up and of course the boat was travelling into the wind. We made it to the Motu, still cold but the rain had stopped. Believe it or not, (I have pictures) we were all huddled around the fire in the barbeque grill. The water was very warm but no one got back in because of how windy and cold it felt when you got out of the water.

My coral cut was doctored by our guide. He squeezed fresh lime onto it. Oh the pain. But he insisted, as did Marc, that if I did the same 2 more times today, by tomorrow it would be dried up and healed. I’m going to try it. I’ll keep you posted.

We were treated to a demonstration on how to make Poisson Cru. I’ve never eaten it before and I’m not a sushi fan so I was a bit skeptical. He started with raw Tuna they caught this morning. Over that he squeezed the juice of many limes as well as salt. He mixed that together so the tuna would start to ‘cook’. Then he added fresh vegetables—onions, shredded carrots, cucumbers and you could also add tomatoes and peppers. Then he demonstrated how to take a brown coconut and remove the husk and crack the nut to get the fresh coconut, which he then began to grate by hand. He had 6 cups of fresh coconut and he put a handful at a time into a cotton cloth. He then squeezed and twisted the cloth until all the liquid was extracted from the ground coconut. He did not put the ground coconut into the dish. Finally, he just mixed it all together and served it. OMG it was so delicious. They also had grilled chicken and grilled tuna as well as saffron rice and fresh vegetables. It was all very, very good.

There was a pareo tying demonstration. More standing around the fire and then it really started to rain. And, it was time for the long, cold, wet and windy trip back to the ship.

There were 10 very cold people anxiously awaiting a hot shower. My feet are still cold and I am wearing socks and shoes. Unreal. Fortunately, we had a great group of people in our boat and we had a very good time despite the less than perfect weather.

When I get home, I have some very interesting video of these strange fish that were right at the shore of the motu. When you first looked into the water you could not see them. They were a white color but had black markings. No idea what they were, but I called them Ghost Fish.