Rowan had calls from 5am, he thought a butt dial from his dad at 1am was his 5am call, he leapt out of bed like a startled stag! He managed to get a few more hours sleep. With three calls done we headed to the hotel where we had hired a car for the day. Rowan had one more call at 11am that he organised and had planned to do it using his Airolo app- an International cardless sim that has done us so well in Colombia, Panama and Africa. But as luck would have it, it appears the company went under in the last couple of days and is no longer operating. This meant our first mission was to go and buy a local sim card, the car hire lady said the only place we would get one is in Fare the main town of Huahine. which is of course the opposite end to where we are. We hadn’t gone far on the picturesque coastal road when we spotted a little store with a Vini sign (local network provider), Rowan went in there and I popped next door to a little shop selling mangoes and fabrics. I found a lovely Polynesian dress with a wonderful print. We had dressed for the rain predicted today, but forgot how humid it would be, so I was delighted to transfer into my new dress. All the time rushing knowing Rowan was on a mission. Of course the store had no sim cards so we sped off to Fare. It was the most stunning road winding along the coast. The dense vegetation is phenomenal, with unusual rock formations from the volcanoes, and high peaks covered in cloud. There are no roads inland as the terrain is too steep, the coastal road is their main road, they seem to be incredibly proud of their roadside verges, all planted up and kept immaculately. Huahine is actually two islands close together, we crossed a bridge onto the northern island and made our way to Fare.
Friendly greeting at the dinghy dock
Map of Huahine, Red cross is where PolePole is (actually just over in the dark blue water)
Dense vegetation and crazy blue water
Some of the strange landscapes
We found the Post Office where we could buy a Sim card, the queue was long and moving at a snail pace, and time was running out, luckily someone told Rowan where he could get one at a shop, there the wonderfully helpful assistant got Rowan all set up on a local sim. They are such friendly helpful people, really charming. We drove to an archaeological site at Maeva, where Rowan was satisfactorily able to take his call in the shade of a big old tree. The museum had a few interesting bits, pre European era, and then the usual shenanigans between the Brits and French for ruling power! Sounds just like the Caribbean. Outside were some old stone foundations and layouts with their ceremonial raised areas made out of volcanic rock. Sadly not much info, but fascinating to walk around. Also fascinating were the hundreds of little red crabs living in the holes in the mud. These shy creatures just have one massive red claw and a tiny black body with iridescent blue spots.
The museum, shoes off for the grass mat flooring
Side of the museum with ceremonial stones nearly in the water
The ancient layout
Big fishing area
The tiny crabs with a single big red claw
More crabs
Petroglyphs if you look hard
From there we went around the top of the island and took a little detour, on the way we stopped at a gallery selling a very welcome, delicious local vanilla ice cream. It was the gallery of an elderly American lady artist from Rhode Island, she has married a local and has lived here for the last 30 years. She was very disparaging about her man, even though she had a lot of paintings of him. You have to admire her living out here. We went to the end of the road where coral gardens were marked on the map, what we found was an abandoned resort (maybe called Coral Gardens) on a spectacular spit of beach. The colour of the water was unbelievable.
Somebody wanted my ice cream, Me in my new dress
Gorgeous beach
Rowan imitating the tiki at the abandoned resort
We continued on our way until we got to a pearl farm that we had been told about. We had to get a ferry boat out to the Pearl farm which was out in the middle of the lagoon. It was well done, the local assistant spoke very good English and did a very good talk on the whole farming process. Rowan without too much persuasion managed to convince me to buy some peacock blue pearl earrings. Dark pearls with a subtle blue/green tint. JUst something you have to get here!
The boat ride out to the pearl farm
The water around the pearl farm
They took a photo of us through a huge gnarly old bit of wood
We slowly made our way back crossing onto the southern island, we successfully circumnavigated the whole island with a few stops to admire the scenery. The windward side was much wilder and less populated. It really is a charming island. We were back on PolePole for an afternoon cup of tea which I was gagging for.
The only road inland, a steep up and over through dense vegetation, but always with immaculate verges and no litter at all
Misty peaks
Rain on the windward side
View from a clifftop, with different colour blues
More ceremonial stones
The passage out to sea where surfers were catching enormous waves – clearly a surfer’s tick off spot
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