Lost in Tranlation in Tikehau

Welcome back to our little slice of tropical paradise.

We flew from Bora Bora to Tikehau with the Italian couple we had met earlier. They spoke perfect English and were great fun. It turned out that they were staying at the same place as us in Tikehau.

Tikehau is a coral lagoon without an island in the middle. I'll throw in a brief geology lesson here to explain one theory for this unusual feature. During the ice age there was an island surounded by a coral reef. After the ice age, the ice began to melt and the sea slowly rose about 120 metres over many millenia. The coral slowly grew upwards, keeping just below the sea's surface, Eventually, the water rose above the island, effectively drowning it, but the reef kept growing. What we see today is a massive coral ring around an island that is no longer there. Weird, hey? Over the years, plants started growing on the coral, creating low islands. These islands are beautiful but the soil is very poor and it's difficult to grow anything.

This is what it looks like from the air. I couldn't fit all of it in one shot - it's about 40 km across! 

The sea breaks through the reef at regular intervals forming heaps of motu, small coral-based islands.

The Italians, Monica and Daniele, and us were met at the airport and taken by 4WD then boat to our accommodation. You've got to love a place that you can only get to by boat!

As soon as we arrived we saw many reef sharks hanging around directly beneath the restaurant balcony. The staff (and customers) of the restaurant throw all the food scraps into the sea so there is a resident school of sharks here. 

After every meal there would be a feeding frenzy as the scraps were thrown out. Scraps from the dinner table were just tossed into the water from where we sat. I'm sure that there were some kids at one stage throwing out perfectly good food, just to watch the sharks eat! 

There are also heaps of remora fish. I've only ever seen these attached to larger fish before but here they seem to live quite happily without being attached. I guess the regular supply of food scraps helps. They look weird with their suction-cup heads.

That night we met Irene and Bertie, a Swiss couple, and the six of us quickly became friends. We had such great times with these people.

Monica, Daniele, John and I did a lagoon tour the next day. We were excited to maybe see mantas but sadly, the mantas weren't there. John was so disappointed. We then went to an island where birds nest. I didn't expect this to be very interesting but it was quite amazing! Thousands of birds, mainly noddy terns, nested in the low trees. We could get quite close to them without even trying.

How gorgeous is this little guy?

There were also red-footed boobies. I love those red feet!

We had lunch on yet another gorgeous motu. I had brought some breadrolls with me which was just as well as the lunch was raw fish followed by a cooked fish each. (I'm not a fish lover).

We had time to snorkel and swim around the island. It was all so picture perfect.

Again, there was a resident school of sharks here. Monica threw out the food scraps....

Next stop was a place where a Taiwanese religious group had established a farm on a motu. (You never know what you're going to find sometimes!) It was quite interesting to see how they grew fruit and vegetables in such an unforgiving environment. It was very difficult to get fruit and vegetables in Tikehau. The meals at our accommodation were great but nearly always consisted of fish and carbs. Most fruit or veges were tinned. The fact that I took a photo of lettuces is an indication of how exciting it was to see greens!

That night, the staff had a surprise for Monica and Daniele. They were on their honeymoon and the staff brought out a special cake for them. They then played a song while the Italians danced. It was lovely.

John was well enough to dive again so he got the last spot on a very full boat and I joined the boat as the only snorkeller. It can be hit and miss being a snorkeller on a dive boat and this was more miss than hit. In my first five minutes I saw a turtle, a few barracuda and a huge Napoleon wrasse, which I've never seen before, then I didn't really see anything else of consequence for the rest of the trip!

This Napoleon wrasse is about 90 cm long!

The turtle was a hawksbill.

One thing I've seen a lot of in Polynesia is huge schools of these little guys. They're gorgeous.

I love the way they swirl with the water movements.

John had two great dives though. As well as seeing the things I saw he saw heaps of moray eels, a large Oceanic reef shark and a mermaid (that was me snorkelling above him!)

The most interesting part of the trip was getting back onto the boat after the second dive. I followed above the divers as they swam slowly through the pass between two motu. The current was quite strong and we drifted through it quickly. As we left the protection of the reef, though, the waves really started picking up. The boat came to pick us up but the water was so rough that the ladder was thrown up and down, making it really hard to get out of the water. There were four of us left in the sea when they made the decision to move to calmer waters. The four of us had to swim to the new position, which was a problem for one guy near John as he had already handed in his buoyancy compensator and one fin to the boat but still had his weight belt on. He then had to try to swim like that through rough water. John stayed with him while the other girl and I stayed together and we all managed to get there in the end.

Monica, Daniele, Irene and Bertie all left one day before us. The night before they left, we all had a great night telling jokes and stories. Half the fun was explaining why Tasmanian/Austrian/insert-preferred-country-or-region-to-make-fun-of jokes are funny to each of us! John told his "Jean-Claude" joke. Bertie doesn't speak much English and it was so funny watching John telling the joke in sections then everyone would wait while Irene translated for Bertie. When John got to the punch line, it was all lost in translation. Here's what happened. John had just said, "I go down in flames" It was so funny!

Saying farewell to our wonderful friends.

John and I caught a lift back to the main island and rode bikes around it. It didn't take very long!

To get back home, we wandered across what was supposed to be shallow water between the motus but the tide was up and we had to take our shorts off to get through.

On our last day there I had a short snorkel in the channel. I went between meal times to avoid the sharks! See if you can spot a fish in this photo.

It gave itself away when it moved.

The staff at our accommodation were fantastic. Within minutes of our arrival we were all laughing and making jokes. What I really loved was that the women ran the place. I occasionally saw a man in the kitchen (I think they did most of the cooking) or working outside but it was the women who were front and centre. 

Every second night, Camelia and Moon would play Polynesian music. It was good fun as they obviously loved doing it.

The place was picture-perfect. Our bungalow was next to the water. It was basic but worked well.

Look closely at the palm fronds on the buildings though. They're fake! They're made of plastic. From a distance you certainly wouldn't know but close up it was pretty obvious. How bizarre.

Mum, you would have loved the food here. The cheapest and easiest food for them to eat is fish. When we first arrived I explained that I don't like fish much. I could tell by the looks on their faces that this was not what they wanted to hear. Somehow, they chose to interpret my request as not liking raw fish. Raw fish in coconut milk is one of the most common meals here. So when raw fish was served, I usally got something else, often a salad or cooked fish. So I got fish every day. The thing is, some of the fish dishes were amazing! Italian fish skewers and grilled mahi mahi with a delicious sauce were my faves.

We were really sad to say goodbye to these great people. This is Moon. She always sang as she worked and you'd never see her without a smile on her face.

Esther was also great value. With her smoker's voice, she did a great Al Jolson impersonation one night.

Bye Moon!

We waited an hour or so in the very simple airport and I had to laugh at the security sign that said you can't carry batteries, hand grenades or ...... chain saws on the plane!

As each plane landed or took off, a fire engine would drive out to be prepared for an emergency. We had to laugh that there was a boat ready too!

We had a great time on Tikehau, largely thanks to the wonderful people - both the staff and the other guests.

Until next time.
Heather and John