Many Islands Many Sharks

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Bonjour tout le monde! We're in the Archipel de la Société, where Polynesians ride bikes whilst clutching baguettes, eat croque monsieur, play pétanque and listen to accordian music (well, sometimes...). The laissez faire attitude comes naturally to Polynesians so it seems to be quite a good match. Indeed the Polynesians here voted to maintain their association with France in a referendum in 1958 (mind you, that was five years before the French started detonating nuclear bombs in the Archipel de Tuamotos). As far as the French are concerned Polynesie Française is another part of France itself and a fair number have decided to follow Gauguin and start a new life out here in the cyclone zone.

One thing that immediately strikes you about French Polynesia is that there are flowers everywhere. Many of the locals wear them behind their ears all the time. This is not as innocent an habit as may seem as here the wearing of flowers is coded flirtation. A flower behind the left ear broadcasts that you're taken and one behind the right means that you're single. A flower behind both ears eludes to the fact that whilst you are engaged in a relationship, that's not going to stop you from looking for rumpy pumpy elsewhere! When the flowers are backwards we really start getting into some kinky stuff!

In our last blog we reported on sundrenched islands with sparkelling lagoons and white sandy beaches. That's probably the last thing that you want to hear about on a dismal February Monday morning in North Finchley so you'll no doubt be pleased to hear that the weather gods have recently decided to smite us again. Storms have whipped in from the east on the back of the trade winds. First the sky would begin to bruise and brood and the wind would pick up, heralding the impending deluge. You would then have about 45 seconds to take cover before the downpour. If you dare to even cross the road you'd look like someone had tipped a bucket of water over your head. It's warm rain though and like the plucky Brits we are we've been out on bikes stubbornly pedalling through the monsoon.

During the lulls in the metereological spitefulness we have been out visiting the Archipeligo. This is a place to island hop, so hop we have, visiting Tahiti, Mo'orea, Huahine, Ra'iatea, Bora Bora and Maupiti. The flight from Tahiti to Mo'orea doesn't really constitute a hop, skip nor a jump though. We timed the entire flight at six minutes, which is hardly even a wiggle. Surely one of the most ridiclously short commercial flights in the world!

Mo'orea is a truely beautiful island. The whole island an extinct volcano (as are many islands here unless they are just coral atolls) whose interior crags are richly carpeted with greenery. Anything that's not absolutely vertical is dense in tropical flora. Near the centre of the island are numerous marae, sacred sites of the ancient Polynesians. They have raised platforms much like the ahu on Rapa Nui. However, the great and the good of each settlement from times past are represented by sizeable stone slabs which rest on the side of the ahu or small carved figures called tiki. The similarities with the practices on Rapa Nui are obvious, they just took it all a bit more seriously!

As elsewhere in Polynesia it is the ocean that povides the biggest kicks. Mo'orea has a stunning lagoon that shimmers emerald brilliance. The fish sport a myriad of technicolour garb - Parrotfish of turquoise and yellow; yellow, orange, black and white butterflyfish; blue green chromis; red squirrelfish and soldierfish; silver trevally with electric blue fins. You don't even need to snorkel, you can just watch them in the lagoon from the shore. However, the biggest crowd pleasers are outside the reef - sharks, and lots of them too! So with a little trepidation the more hairbrained one of the pair donned a weight belt and sunk to the bottom of the sea. It only took 15 minutes to find one. The guide made the international sharky sharky sign and pointed out a sandy grotto and we spotted a sizeable white-tip reef shark. It took one look at us and lazily wheeled off in the opposite direction. It came back for a fly by - obviously a little curious - before jetting off into the blue. We then saw a common black-tip who cruised around us at a distance. Just as impressive was the spotted eagle ray that was feeding in the sandy troughs between the coral, whipping up sand with its big pointed wings. We swam a while with a hawksbill turtle who was not in the least bit phased that its companions were air belching terrestrials. It's quite amazing to see so much in just one dive.

Bora Bora is an A-list hangout. We thought that it might have been overhyped but there is good reason for its celebrity status. Although it's a touristy big hotel island spurned by the locals, its velvet green pinnacles are surrounded by a huge lagoon of saphire and aquamarine, which is dotted with white sand motu. The island oozes natural bling. The foolish one sank to the seabed once more, this time to swim with about 20 grey sharks. They grow to about 2.5m in length so it was somewhat nerve jangling to backwards roll off a boat when you can see them massing below. Your head says no but your heart says yes! What is even more worrying is watching a group of six swim right at you, their piercing yellow eyes sizing you up. It was an impressive sight watching an ultimate predator in its element. One of them had a hook and some line attached to its mouth. We hoped that it hadn't worked out that it was one of our kind that put it there. The sharks were accompanied by suckerfish, which look like tiny mini sharks with a flat head. They ride along with the sharks under their bellies. One such creature got a little confused and tried to make friends, rubbing up to Tom like a cat that wants feeding.

The Manta Rays at Teavanui pass were an awesome sight. At a guess they were 8 or 9 ft across. Rays like sand so the visibility was poor. This added to their unearthly appearance as they glide out of the gloom at 30m under, looking like spacecrafts from a Starwars movie. Most hit the airbrakes (or waterbrakes maybe) when they spied us but some sailed past within a metre or so, rippling their enormous wings.

Suse did her bit too, gamely swimming with stingrays and black-tip reef sharks in the lagoon. The stingrays at Bora Bora are quite happy to dance around your feet and jump onto your chest. Having a stingray gummily suck your hip is a weird experience and probably one that doesn't merit repitition.

Our last few days were spent on Maupiti, a mini Bora Bora - volcanic centre surrounded by a large lagoon and outlying motus. However, its reef is treacherous and it has been the site of numerous shipwrecks. This has kept development at a minimum and means that it's a relaxed haven in comparison with its illustrious neighbour. Maupiti is stuck in dreamtime Pacific bliss. Days merge and time falls away. You wouldn't be surprised to see HMS Bounty cruise past.

Throughout our stay the owner's three legged dog, Hinano, followed us everywhere, enjoying the chance for free walkies. 'Hinano' is the name of a brand of Tahitian beer so it's equivalent to calling your dog Tennents Super.

There were only a handful of people on the motu on which we stayed so seeing other people was quite an event and in the end it became surprising to see anyone else around. We spent some time with a local couple from Ra'iatea, Turama and Tyrone, who were on their holidays (you'd expect them to go somewhere cold surely!). Their easy going outlook on life sums up Polynesia for us - serene.

We will soon be hitting the shores of NZ, which is also within Polynesia - which apparently means many islands (isn't that the truth!). Although we won't be paddling there in a double hull canoe it seems appropriate that will be coming from the Cooks and the Society Islands, from whence the Great Migration set off to the land of the long white cloud.

Manuia!
Ia ora no

T&S

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