The next atoll in the Tuamotos that we ventured off to was Tahanea. It is supposedly a park reserve. There is a rare type of sandpiper bird that is lives here, so the atoll got park status. There are just a few people living on Tahanea, maybe 10-15. They are mostly there for the Copra trade (dried and pressed coconuts). It’s hard to imagine living somewhere so remote with so few people!
Our friends on Ivadel had already moved on to Fakarava, and Kini Popo was anxious to go too. We were not yet ready to leave this beautiful spot, so we said farewell for now and headed across the lagoon alone. We arrived at probably the most beautiful anchorage we have ever seen, and that is saying a lot. The water was crystal clear blue. The palm tree studded motus had white sand beaches, and that day was calm and sunny weather. After dropping the anchor, we sat to take in the beautiful scenery and appreciate how few people get to see these amazing out of the way spots.
The next day we decided to go exploring on the islands. We had seen all of the palm trees and decided we needed to go get some coconuts. Mike brought his machete, and we brought several containers to pour coconut water into. There weren’t too many green coconuts just lying around, so Mike did his best impression of a monkey and climbed the palm trees. He knocked coconut after coconut down to the ground. Soon we had gathered quite a pile.
Mike went to work with the machete cutting away the husk at the top to get a hole opened to get at the coconut water. There is nothing quite as refreshing as coconut water straight out of a coconut! In all, we loaded up over 2 liters of coconut water and hauled back the coconuts to scoop out the meat inside. Quite a delicious snack!
There were three other boats anchored near us, and they invited us to join them on the beach at sunset for a bonfire. The days are warm here, but the sun goes down early. The nights are cool and pleasant (it is almost winter in the Southern Hemisphere), and a bonfire on the beach is the perfect way to spend an evening.
We spent the next day snorkeling some of the reefs with some of the new boats we met. The most amazing thing on the reefs were the grouper! Usually when we have seen grouper in the past, they take off into a hole or under a rock the minute you see them. Of course, it certainly doesn’t help if you are holding a speargun. But, clearly these grouper had no fear of humans. They just hung out and even swam up to you. I’ve never been 12 inches from a grouper in a staring contest until now. It was pretty funny.
That night, Mike really wanted to go hunt for lobsters on the outer reef. I reluctantly agreed to go. It didn’t really sound like that much fun to me. At the last minute, one of our new friends Robert decided to join us. So, the three of us went trekking out over the coral in the moonlight with our dive lights. It really was beautiful on the reef. We were in knee to thigh deep water with coral all around. We did our best to walk between the coral heads so as not to damage it. The waves were crashing onto the reef as the swell rolled in from the deep ocean just a few yards away, but it was very peaceful.
The two real hunters got to work searching every nook and cranny around the reef for any sight of lobster. They even put on masks to get a better look under water. But, despite a pretty exhaustive search, there were no lobsters to be found. We were later told that you have to do it when there is no moon, but who knows… We did find lots of sea urchins, but I wasn’t brave enough to take any. I’ve only eaten it at sushi restaurants, but Robert said it is good on pasta. Maybe I’ll try to prepare it next time we come across the urchins.
After a few days of bliss in this beautiful place, we decided it was time to go meet up with our friends in Fakarava. We were pretty low on fresh foods, and had resorted to eating a lot of canned food (not my favorite, but I try to make something decent out of it.) So, we departed Tahanea just before sunset hoping to catch the 6 am slack tide at the South pass of Fakarava.
Even though we had little daylight, Mike let out a fishing line. Just outside the pass of Tahanea we caught a nice 15 lb yellowfin tuna (no more monster tuna for us!). It was a great end to our time in Tahanea, but we were looking forward to Fakarava, where we had heard our friends had already dove the south pass, famous for its hundreds of sharks! Eek!
-Katie