We were On Deck with Douglas this morning as the Pacific Princess cruised through Farerea Pass on the eastern side of Huahine and settled in its anchorage in Maroe Bay (see October 26th blog entry for a map). We were thrilled(!!!), as was everyone else, to see a brightly sunny morning. While we have not had the best of luck weather-wise in Papeete, on the islands themselves we're doing pretty well, despite the fact that we are firmly in the rainy season in French Polynesia.
We lingered over breakfast in the Club Restaurant; with no firm plans for today, we could afford to. When we returned to the cabin, we packed for a 'Princess Cays-type' day, meaning we had some beach stuff (including our tarp), ice in our metal water bottles, beverages, snorkel gear (less fins) and towels. Lightly loaded, we were not. We thought we'd take the shuttle on the tender pier to the town of Fare, on the western coast of Huahine Nui, but weren't exactly sure what we'd do once we'd arrived there.
The shuttle costs $8pp each way, and must be charged directly to your onboard account. Once on shore, we simply showed our cruise card to someone who wrote down the information and handed us four one-way tickets, two of which we immediately relinquished when we climbed aboard the...well, I'm not sure what to call it. It wasn't a bus, exactly.
It was about a 20 minute ride to Fare, a twisty, turny trip. The road was single lane asphalt in excellent condition but the ride was still rough. On either side was a two-foot wide gravel shoulder used for passing. En route, the scenery was gorgeous, mountainous and verdant, with absolutely no trash anywhere. If asked, I'd have to say that's the most noticeable difference between French Polynesia and the Caribbean...things down here are simply kept up better.
Fare itself was more a village than a town. We first walked down the "main" street in search of a magazin (store) selling cold beers.
The little building on the left is where the shuttle dropped us off.
Downtown Fare
I'm always on the lookout for funny signs. This one qualified...
We were shocked to find a grocery store that was second in size only to the Carrefour near Papeete. Shocked!! We were even more amazed to find ice cold Bud Light Lime in bottles, our very favorite beer. It's the first time we've seen them since we left home. We were having such good luck that G repeated something he's been doing for a couple of weeks now...our second floatie died and has been tossed, and our remaining floatie is still usable but can't be folded up any longer. We know now to buy two new ones every summer; they simply don't survive more than one winter's use (especially with us cruising five months last winter). Live and learn. I would have been content to just continue to share our remaining floatie, but G has been on a mission to find another. Between you and I, I think he was hoping/expecting to find that same Swimways Spring Float here in French Polynesia, and was carrying a photo of the one we have left to show different store owners. Ha. But, believe it or not, in today's store he found an inflatable swim ring, one of the traditional kinds that requires 66 breaths to fill, compared to our Swimways that requires six. But still...it's something. Even Carrefour didn't have a swim ring for anyone over two years old.
While he was doing all that, I took note of the pain (bread). The price didn't even need to be posted; it's 53 CFP, of course (controlled by the government, it's such an integral part of everyday life in French Polynesia).
But the plastic sleeves to carry the pain are not government price controlled, and cost nearly as much as the bread itself. I've never seen anyone other than us use one.
It's always interesting to note that the selection of shoes in any store is pretty much limited to an entire aisle of flip flops and Croc-type footwear. No one wears anything else down here, except to run or to dress up (and even then the footwear might still consist of flip flops, in leather for men and with a flower trim for women). What a life!
Having purchased the Bud Light Limes and the floatie (and not having to tie up a register for five minutes while we figured out the local currency...progress!), we set out for the only beach in Fare, whose name I cannot find anywhere, maybe because it's simply known as the Fare Beach.
Surprisingly, it had more surf than we've seen on any other beach in French Polynesia. Usually, the surrounding barrier reef and motus get all the waves and the mainland beaches have flat water, but there is a pass in the barrier reef just in front of Fare large enough to allow waves to reach the shore. They weren't huge waves (you can see the large waves crashing on the reef in the distance), but they were waves. If you look really closely, you can see Raiatea in the distance on the horizon.
I made a beeline for that water. It was really très chaud today, and the sun was unrelenting. It was very satisfying to swim in that crystalline water and look across the way at Raiatea and Taha'a, about 28 miles away, and, specifically at Mt. Tapioi on the north end of Raiatea, knowing I had conquered that hill (and would never have to do it again, so help me God!). G spent some time blowing up his new toy and trialing it. He pronounced it not nearly has good as the Swimways float, but said that it would allow us to do what we want to do in Rangiroa (stay tuned for that).
The beach in Fare was quite a bit better than the public beach on Rangiroa, but still pales (and I mean pales) in comparison to the best beaches in the Caribbean. French Polynesia is simply not the beach destination that the Caribbean is, but that's okay. It offers so much more that is so much better that it's still, by far, the comparative winner in our books. Water shoes or sandals are absolutely imperative here though; nearly every beach has a rocky entry at a minimum, and even the sand contains lots of small rocks. But the water...unmatchable!
The last shuttle back to the ship was leaving Fare at 3pm, but we caught the second last one and were back on the ship by shortly after 3pm. G promptly dropped everything and headed up to a hot tub while I washed and rinsed and aired out and Fabreezed everything in preparation for next time. G returned from the hot tub saying it was deluging outside. How could that be; the day had been so perfect? As soon as the Pacific Princess cruised back out of Farerea Pass and the shelter of Huahine Nui and Huahine Iti, it was hit with a gale force wind that caused the ship to pitch. The metal water bottles I'd had drying out on the vanity went flying, and I could hear similar noise from the cabin next door. Luckily, it's smoothed out a little but it's still a bouncy night out there.
We were starved by dinner (having skipped lunch) and enjoyed three courses plus dessert. Once fed, we immediately realized how tired we were and returned to the cabin. G claims he's going back out tonight but my contacts, dirty from today's beach time, are already out; I'm not going anywhere.
And, finally, it's Day 53, half way through the first part of our Winter Odyssey. 53 nights from tonight we'll be sleeping in our own bed. Actually, 53 nights from now we'll be doing laundry and digging out from under a pile of 3 1/2 months of mail while surfing the net at over 60 Mbps download speed and watching over 100 TV channels, pausing and reversing them over and over, just 'cause we can.
Oh, who am I kidding? 53 nights from now we'll probably be heating up gloves in the dryer and stretching cleats onto the soles of our boots to go out and shovel snow by porch light. But only for four days, just long enough to remind ourselves why we cruise all winter. ;-)