As much as we enjoyed our time on Huahine, there were many other enchanting islands to discover. We set out back towards Tahaa (but this time on the other side of the island) and positioned ourselves for a trek over to Bora-Bora. On the way out of Huahine, we scrambled for our cameras in attempt to capture some of the epic waves pounding the outer reefs of the pass.
Yup- that’s a barrel and just about the point Ryan was wishing he had a gun to shoot himself for not bringing along a board:
A shot of the left:
As if the waves weren’t enough, we were escorted out of the pass by these friendly guys!
Hanging around the boat as we make our way to Tahaa:
Check out the color of this water!
Huahine was the perfect place to explore and to stretch our sea legs. Shore excursions ran throughout most of the morning hours, time was spent on land walking the pristine white beaches, alone, deserted, and reveling in the peace of isolation. This was truly paradise. 
It’s not everyday you get to stroll a beach like this as the sun settles itself in the sky:
Huahine quickly became one of our favorite islands, reminding us what Hawaii might have been like 50 or 100 years ago. When you see a place like this you wish will all your might that it will remain unchanged, and protected just as it has for the last few million years.
With steep mountains descending into protected bays of azure blue and emerald green colors, this island became the perfect host for our “Under the Sea” adventures. Not only were the fish in the water colorfully animated and captivating, but the fish back on the boat were just as entertaining and wild!
Who knew there were wild flamingo’s and movie stars like “Nemo” in the South Pacific?
We were surprised by the amount of sea algae too!
A few of the fish got greedy and banded together to become what was known as the Pirates of the Pacific:
These pirates were dangerous, slinging dou-dou rum and pillaging for Tahiti Drink. Their wild leader Captain Ry was a savage and had that crazy look in his eye:
He was famous for capturing the last Tahitian mermaid…
and sacrificing her to the hungry fishes:
Oh man, the animals really got wild after their feast and started dancing and performing odd cleansing rituals:
The party continued well into sunset..
Finally exhaustion took over and the sleepy fishes dosed off under the rising moon:
Tahiti Drink, Tahiti Drink, how much I love thee!
Sliding down my throat, you make me feel giddy.
Some of us dance, some trip and fall,
But no matter what you’re my new love above all!
How dare we try your distant cousins, you’re the only drink for us.
Dou-Dou Rum tastes as bad as it sounds, Royal Punch was a bust.
Never again will I stray from your beauty,
Tahiti Drink we demand, Tahiti Drink we must!
…and some of us really did fall. Poor Kelly learned that walking around a boat isn’t always easy after a few round of beautiful, sweet, Tahiti Drink. Watch out for those port hatches!
I don’t blame her though, how could you take your eyes off this gorgeous sunset?!
or this hunk of a man!
And if you think the sunsets were amazing, check out this sunrise the very next morning! We were doubly awed by the gorgeous rainbow throughout — perhaps a promise that we would have no more rain on this trip?!
We just couldn’t take all the beauty of Tahaa any longer and so we set off for Huahine (pronounced Wahine like “woman” in Hawaii). I had my very first go at navigating through the pass and into open waters!
Our spirits lifted and our excitement once again began to stir as we flew away from the dark- dark clouds of Papeete and into the sunshine of Raiatea. A quick 5 minute drive from the airport and we were dropped off at the Tahiti Yacht Charters dock, staring at our beautiful (and brand new) catamaran. She was a beauty and we all just stood, admiring her, I think I even saw Ryan’s jaw drop a little, drool dribbling down his chin (very reminiscent of our flight from LA to Tahiti).
Finally, we had made it-our fun can begin! I immediately pictured all the wonderful moments I was about to experience as dinghy captain, all the rum and cokes I would enjoy, the many nights I would spend gazing at post card worthy sunsets. Then with the crack of lightening (ok- not really but it added to the drama), reality set in and the rain began to pelt us. NOOOOOOOOO not again! We left you in Papeete, don’t follow us here damnit!
Despite the rain there was much to be done before sailing off into what we hoped would turn into a glorious, post storm sunset. Mike, Winnie and Ryan stayed at the dock with the boat going over charts, and procedural boat check outs while the rest of us hailed a taxi and headed to town. We were given the task of provisioning our floating home with whatever sumptuous French cuisine we could find. After much searching and pondering (damn that mustard aisle Seth) we were on our way back to the dock and ready to unload.
Of course the rain had stopped while we were all indoors shopping; however, the moment that we needed to set to work unloading our tasty treats and getting ready to set sail, the skies opened back up. What was once a beautifully clean, brand new and shiny ship had quickly turned into a muddy, slippery, mess.
Well, “when life gives you lemons, add vodka.” Actually, it’s more like, “when Tahiti gives you doo-doo rum get drunk and sail anyway”. Thus-we motored our little hearts all the way to Taha’a and prayed for a little glimpse of sunshine.
Lucky for us, the skies cleared and we were able to enjoy a lazy snorkel around the Motu of Tahaa. Waiting for us back on the boat was a round of drinks that we promptly downed…now this is the vacation I was looking forward to!
Seth spent his evening perfecting his work on the “belly coaster”:
And finally, the sunset we had all been waiting for:
The Tahitian sunrise we were expecting to find when we woke up the next morning was nowhere to be found. Instead we were roused out of bed by the sound of rain tap tapping on our window er- rather thundering down on us. We quickly gathered up our belongings (thankful that we had only one bag between us) and jumped into our awaiting airport shuttle. Thinking that the worst was behind us and happy to be out of the rain, we realized that we were now smack in the middle of a holiday travel rush.
We were all initially excited to find that we would be in Tahiti for the Bastille day celebration, Tahiti’s largest annual celebration which can be thought of as traditional Polynesian olympics meets hula/singing contest. What we weren’t expecting was to be competing for inter island flights with the entire Tahitian population. At least there was some organization to the chaos, monitors flickered above each ticket counter displaying which island each line would be flying to. Perfect…we just stand in the line for Raiatea and we’ll be out of here in no time. Well, things didn’t quite work out so effortlessly. After standing in the appropriate line for about 20 minutes, the monitors suddenly switched. What was once the line for Raiatea was now Moorea, Moorea was now Bora-Bora and so on…
Now we’ve become “that family” again. 8 People, two luggage carts and many still in tie dye, pushing their way through the massive crowd, watching the clock tick down from 30 to 20 to 15 and now 10 minutes before our flight. Somehow the massive storm blowing outside gave us a bit of comfort, they wouldn’t really leave on time in a storm like this would they?
Just as quick as the herds of people appeared the line suddenly cleared. Apparently when the crowd grows to such a large number as what we experienced, all they care about is boarding the very next flight out. After standing in a line 50 people deep that moved two feet in the hour that we stood there, they actually managed to get the entire line clear for our flight in a matter of 10 minutes. With the storm still raging outside we wondered if we would ever actually make it to our boat. Beautiful 45′ catamaran, rum and coke, majestic sunset…I’m on my way!
Inter island travel was most definitely an adventure and one that solidifies our desire to travel by boat at every opportunity. It was an experience, running onto the tarmac covered by bright yellow umbrellas, up to your ankles in flood water- welcome to the tropics, welcome to Tahiti. Then again we were warned, our taxi driver informed us that Tahiti has only two seasons-wet and wetter. I can’t imagine what it looks like during the “wetter” season!
Our Tahitian adventure began very colorfully thanks to Jeff and Kelly and their new found tie-dye skills. We woke up to a note scribbled on cardboard which read, “Colors and swirls, tie-dye oh my- bitch put your shirt on or you won’t be going bye-bye”. We were about to become “that family”, you know the mob of overly excited travelers, obnoxiously clad in their matching outfits, trudging through the airport determined to share their exploding enthusiasm and cheer. That was us plus a dose of sunshine found within a bottle of champagne on the way to the airport. We were definitely off to a start…
Pre-gaming for the 20+ hours of flying ahead of us:
=
A photo so you can fully grasp how well we stood out amongst the crowd:
After an amusing flight on Southwest (here’s a shout out to our hilarious flight attendant- you will forever be remembered on our blog) we boarded our flight that would carry us some 3,000 miles across the Pacific. The fact that we were provided with a small “comfort” bag of socks, eye masks, headphones and stickers only added to our excitement- that and the fact that we had onboard trivia! Needless to say, we kept ourselves entertained for several hours before waking up and realizing we were in a different country.
Ryan taking full advantage of his Tahiti Nui socks, he’s always one for finding a way to entertain his easily bored wife:
and eye mask…
What seemed like an endless day of flying finally came to an end, we had arrived in Papeete! Our initial enthusiasm for reaching our destination was short lived once we realized that we would be waking up and taking yet another flight to Raiatea. The day wasn’t an entire bust, we found a local food market and gorged ourselves on French crepes and Apple Cider beer. YUM!