October 20 2012 Raiatea, French Polynesia

Follow My Drift

This morning, not long after sunrise, we arrived at the island of Raiatea on the first day of six in French Polynesia and I was up on the outside viewing deck in front of the gym to get a bird’s eye view as we sailed past motus (small islands) and waterfront homes on the way to the pier where we were to dock.

Today I had booked through Holland America to do their Coral Garden Drift snorkelling excursion and what a wonderful choice that turned out to be. The trip was limited to two boats of 12 people each, plus our guide and driver. We had a 30 minute boat ride out to Tahaa, skimming across the most inviting turquoise waters, past over the water bungalow hotels, yachts and reefs.

The coral drift is done between the two motus above

  

Once at the motu we waded ashore and walked along the coral sand to the beginning of the drift between two motus which had lots of coral between them. Our guide Maryanne went in first and swam out about 5 metres and then we followed her at 3 metre intervals. The current was fairly fast so all we had to do was put our heads down to view the coral and tropical fish only an arm’s distance below us and keep track of the fins of the person in front of us to guide us through the coral. Once at the other end where the smaller motu finished, we got out and walked back to repeat this great experience. The second time the current was going much faster so I found I had to use my fins more to ensure I kept following the correct route to avoid landing up on coral – which would have been extremely painful! My snorkelling gear ended up being a great investment because those provided by the operators weren’t always the best fitting for the other participants.

Back on board our boat we had a fresh platter of tropical fruits – papaya, finger bananas, coconut and grapefruit – to refresh ourselves on the way back to the dock.

This was a great outing and I would highly recommend it to confident swimmers and snorkelers.

After showering to get the salt out of my hair, I had lunch in the Lido before going back ashore to have a look around the town. It’s Saturday and most stores closed at lunchtime so only half of the sleepy town was open. I found that the most interesting stores were the local supermarkets where I went expecting to see some French delicacies but was surprised to see Australian wines, Tim Tams and Bega cheese alongside their more expensive French counterparts.

Although the town was very much an island settlement it had touches of Gallic charm with its wrought iron lamp posts reminiscent of those found in Paris, and of course, the French gendarmes walking along the streets.

Just before sunset we set sail (not figuratively) for Bora Bora. I’ve never cruised out of one port before where you can see the next port in the distance – it is that close. (Where we snorkelled today would probably have been half way between Raiatea and Bora Bora.)