French Polynesia 2015
Huahine
"A deep, crystal-clear lagoon surrounds the two islands while magnificent bays and white-sand beaches add drama and solitude to their virtues. Relatively unchanged by the modern world, Huahine offer a slower taste of old Polynesia. With only eight small villages scattered across the island, the few residents welcome visitors with great kindness. Not surprisingly, this fertile world offers rich soil providing the local farmers a bountiful harvest of vanilla, melons, and bananas."
The short flight arrives on Huahine (WHO-ah-HEE-nee), and once again a WARFIELD sign is displayed. We are quickly guided to a van and driven into the main town, and we are surprised when he turns right onto the dock. Apparently the only way to get to our next resort is by boat. The captain of the small boat smiles and asks us "Avez-vous besoin d'une supermarché"?, I stare blankly at him, and Norine responds quickly. He has asked if we wanted to get some groceries at the supermarket before we leave the town. So nice, and we stocked up on drinks and snacks for our room, before loading onto the boat for the 15 minute trip to our resort.
Working our way along the deep lagoon we spot the overwater bungalows on the horizon. Royal Huahine, formerly known as Te Tiare is supposed to be the most luxurious hotel of Huahine. Hidden in a small bay across from a rustic village, this resort truly feels authentic and remote. It features 18 bungalows in the garden, 11 on the beach and 11 over the water, all facing west to take advantage of the spectacular sunsets over the neighbouring islands of Raiatea and Tahaa. We found out that of the 40 bungalows only 4 are occupied.
With only 4 rooms rented, you would think they wouldn't have to put us side-by-side with other guests, but they do. In fact there are so few guests, they do room service for dinner everynight, delivered by bike of course.
The bungalow is large, maybe a little dated, but very nice.
The highlight of the bungalow is definitely the large deck out front. Steps lead down to a small platform where you can dive off into the water, unlike Moorea the water is deeper here, about 12 ft compared to 4 ft.
In Moorea, our view was to the East, so if we woke up early enough we would see the sunrise (we didn't), but here our deck looks right out onto the Sunset. The view of the clouds as the colours change was amazing, as was the amazing view of the stars after dark. It was almost bright out because there were so many stars, and the milky way was completely visible.
Norine has the scare of her life when what appears to be a giant spider is trying to climb the sliding glass door. I go over to look, and it's a large crab. In a flash he disappears when I go to look for him, and a few minutes later he is tapping on the glass beside the bed. Apparently attracted by the light, a little assistance with an umbrella and he was swimming away to the neighbors bungalow.
Things get more interesting when it starts raining, raining inside of our bathroom. Turns out the drain hose on the AC unit has started leaking and is pooling in the drop ceiling of the bathroom. It's like an indoor rain shower, so we had to turn off the Air conditioner tonight and rely on the ceiling fan to keep us cool. By the time we finish breakfast the next morning they have fixed it.
The next morning is sunny and calm, the water is beautiful, even though it is deeper than our last island.
We decided to check out the snorkelling here, and although the waters were nice and warm, they were a little murkier with the deeper water. So we spent more time just swimming instead of snorkeling.
Today I had arranged horseback riding, so we load onto the boat to head to town, where we would be picked up and taken to the ranch. La Petite Ferme (the small farm) is the ranch where we would have a couple horses and a guide for the afternoon.
Norine would have Copika and and I would have Santal, turns out Santal is a bit of a character. Our guide Cristal rides bareback and we head out towards the beach. She didn't have to wear the goofy hat either.
Santal decides he just likes to be at the back of the pack, no amount of encouragement will convince him otherwise. Even when the two girls stop to enjoy the view of the beach, he is going to stay behind them.
Along the trails through the jungle we pass a mother dog with 2 pups. The pups decide they are going to chase the horses, so the 3 of them follow us along until we get to a roadway and the mom stops the pups from going any further.
Safely away from the pups we come out of the jungle to our ultimate destination, Lake Fauna Nui.
We were told there would be riding in water, so we expected to be riding along the shoreline, turns out, we are crossing the lake.
Santal's character really comes out when he goes in the water, as soon as he goes in he starts groaning. When I asked Cristal what that was about, she tells me that he loves the water and that's his "ahhhhhhhhhh". When he isn't groaning he is sticking his head in the water and blowing bubbles. It's a salt water lake, so it's just a play thing and not drinking. We are laughing at Bubbles, err, Santal.
In the video below you can hear him groaning as we are working our way across the lake.
On the other side of the lake we come back out near the farm and a grazing area, where we leave Santal and Copika to head back for some Ice cold water and some awkward silence conversations with the owner before the boat ride back to our resort.
While we are waiting at the port, a local kid climbs up the shipping gantry and dives off to the applause of the crowd gathered around waiting for the boat. We meet our new neighbors, 3 girls and 2 guys that just arrived on Huahine and are on their way to our resort. It's almost a ridiculous parody of typical hipsters, with the constant "Like" in every sentence. I almost burst out loud laughing when we get on the boat, everyone one of them is pulling out Selfie Sticks, and snapping photos of themselves.
Our new arrivals are in the two huts to the right of our bungalow, but the neighbors to the left are now gone, so it wasn't too bad. But seriously, when a resort is empty, why would you put guests side-by-side? Another night of room service because there's not enough people to open the restaurant, and the night is wrapped up by another beautiful sunset.
The next morning is clear and calm, so after our complimentary breakfast buffet we explore the shoreline outside of our resort. The entire time we are walking along the narrow beaches we are the only ones there.
The property around the resort is well taken care of, it's basically acres of gardens full of tropical flowers.
There is also a few things around the resort that make both of us nervous for different reasons. Tucked into a number of gardens are big holes where giant crabs have nestled in making Norine a bit squeamish. For me it's the Bees, in some of the palm trees there is a large drone as the fruit clusters are solid with hundreds of bees... yoiks.
Another hot day at around 35 degrees Celsius, so we go for a swim and a snorkel to cool down.
Since the water was a little murky again, we decided to spend the afternoon at the pool by the beach bar. Aside from the local cat, there was nobody at the pool or the bar, this was as busy as I ever saw it.
It was definitely a much more laid back destination, with no internet connection, and no real excursions beyond the horseback riding planned, it was a nice way to break up the trip and truly wind down. Another sunset to wrap up our last night in Huahine, and we would be heading off to our final destination the next day.
Back onto the boat, and we are ferried to the port in the main town. We are picked up in a van by the same guy that dropped us off, and taken to the tiny airport for our 30 minute flight to Bora Bora.
The views of the islands and reefs are breathtaking as we fly our way to Bora Bora.
