Sunday 30 April – Friday 5 May
Hello and welcome to marvellous Maupiti!
This is as unspoiled as you can get in the Society Islands. There’s no bank, no ATM, no card transactions of any kind (we’re having to pay cash for everything – accommodation, food, trips, etc), there are very few restaurants and no shops to speak of. We’re staying at Pension Taravanui (below) not far up the west coast from Vai’Ea where we eat breakfast (7.30 am) and dinner (6.30 pm) every day with the other (all French so far) guests. We have Wi-Fi but it’s intermittent. Sometimes I can upload photos, sometimes I can’t so I’ll add then as and when I can.
Thursday 4 May
Unfortunately we don’t have many pictures from today as I don’t take my phone onto boats and Craig’s phone and both his GoPros are refusing to work.
Regardless of the high winds the trip was on. We were collected at 8 am after brekkie and driven to the harbour to meet the famous Sammi of Sammi Tours and we boarded his boat with Snow the dog (there’s an explanation about his name later) a group of three French ladies (one called Sylvie) and a solo traveller called Sarah then we collected a family of three from a motu. All French. We’re still the only English on the island although the big news is that an older Australian couple have arrived. It’s big news here 😆. They’re staying in the beach bungalow next to Fabrice and Cecile the lucky things!
Despite every boat’s best effort no one found mantas today. We’re so glad we went yesterday.
We had a nice snorkel in the coral gardens but I was sad that everyone kept standing on the coral. It’s a real problem when it’s so shallow and people wear water shoes so they don’t realise (or don’t care but I hope that’s not the case) that they’re damaging it.
Here’s some photos of where we were that I found on the internet – it’s located close to the pass. I’ve chosen the second photo to show you how shallow it is and how easily the coral can get damaged.
I saw plenty of these butterfly fish!
We headed to Motu Pitihahe (bottom right of the map).
To be continued… just realised it’s not long until dinner so I’d better get ready!
Wednesday 3 May
We were nervous at breakfast as although the sun was blazing it was incredibly windy. Would the car arrive to take us on the trip? Yes it would!
This is the shorter of the trips we’ve booked – snorkelling with mantas. Cool. Amusingly when they dropped us off at the wharf Delphine was already on the boat! We knew she was going on a day trip (the one we’ve booked for tomorrow) and we’d waved her off only a few minutes earlier as she left in another car but we didn’t realise we were cadging a lift on that boat to see the mantas. There were lots of people on the boat, all smiley and happy (obviously they’d also listened to Mr Blue Sky recently too!) and we set off in search with Mama leading the way at the front of the boat…
All we really had to do was head for the other three boats! Masks and fins on. In the water. Swim like mad. Nothing. There was one manta apparently but it was miles away. Swim back to the boat. “Hello Fabrice! Hello Cecile” (on another boat). Back on the boat. Off we go again. Stop. This time no hesitation and I’m first in and Craig and I are keeping pace with this gorgeous creature a few feet below us. (Photo not mine but taken at the same spot – the Maupiti Manta cleaning station). It looked exactly like this. The depth, the colour of the sea, the size, I might even recognise the edge of that reef!
Whilst we kept pace everyone else lagged behind so then it was only the two of us with the manga. Magical. My legs have clearly got stronger from diving. We were called back to the boat.
We went close to shore and the boat stopped. Not sure why. Then a massive shadow came swimming towards us; what on earth was it?! It turned out to be the biggest trevally I’ve ever seen. We have dived with many schools of trevally across the world but nothing on this scale. I urge you to watch Craig’s video once he’s posted it on TiketyTok. This photo of a random large trevally doesn’t do it justice; our one is called Babou, is extremely handsome and likes to be hand fed frozen fish bits!
Then… that’s it guys, we’re heading back to drop off Catherine and Craig 😞. But… we passed a small boat, there were only two people in the water. Manta! Back in the water, scramble with about ten others to get anywhere near it – this one was massive. Only Craig and I left at the end again and when I turned around we were a long way from the boat on our own. Fantastic.
We hope to repeat it tomorrow morning as the first part of our three part day trip but the forecast is for really strong winds so we’re not sure it’ll happen. If not, that memory will sustain us until Rangiroa.
After our exciting morning (I really am getting into snorkelling) I’m doing some hand washing, reading in the sun, enjoying the views and peace and catching up with my blog whilst Craig is out exploring the island on his new bike! Not sure he’ll love it as much as Bikey but you never know…
He didn’t get very far – a group of kids stopped him to chat and were really confused because he didn’t speak French so clearly they don’t meet many tourists who aren’t French or can’t speak French. Some guy turned up and helped translate but time wasn’t on Craig’s side and he had to return. No bonding with a new bike then.
Dinner was the best we’ve had so far, really delicious with crepes for dessert. We had a lovely evening chatting to the others and went to bed happy, tired and we both slept well.
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
I don’t know this song but I was looking for a song about chasing something as we were manta chasing today and I came across this.
It’s ‘Chase’ (1978) by Giorgio Moroder, the guy who co-wrote ‘Together in Electric Dreams’ with Phil Oakey (Human League), a song I played for Phil’s birthday. It was from the soundtrack to the film Midnight Express and has been remixed numerous times and is played by DJ’s all over the world. Interesting. He turned 83 last week. How cool to have your song from the 70’s played in the 2020’s when you’re in your 80’s! It is pretty funky. Hope you enjoy it.
Tuesday 2 May
We woke to sunshine after neither of us had a great night; we both kept waking up and waking each other up so we were grateful for a lovely start to the day.
Above is the view to the north from the shoreline where we are staying, below is the view straight out and the main house where we meet and eat is in the last photo. Not bad.
All three couples are leaving today. The newest are off to another island after just one night here, Christian and Marise have come to the end of their four island four week holiday and Fabrice and Cecile are off to stay in the stunning place I originally wanted to book (it was full 😞) next to the beach for five nights. We’re going to meet them there this afternoon once they’ve checked in. Hoorah – they will have a toilet I can use 😆. We’re having a relaxing morning until we walk there early afternoon.
Breakfast was exactly the same as yesterday and it was yummy. I suspect it will be the same every day so I won’t share details again! We assume that new people will be arriving so we’re looking forward to meeting them later. The weather keeps changing from bright sunshine to overcast but so far there’s no sign of rain so hopefully we’ll make it to the beach and back before the forecast for rain at 5pm. Oh! Within ten minutes of writing that extremely high winds accompanied by lashings of rain suddenly descended on us 😆. You can’t tell from this photo how bad it is (it’s so noisy outside we can hardly hear each other talk inside!) but it’s certainly a contrast from the photo I took at 7am yesterday!
I think we might be staying here for a while!
Eventually the rain stopped but it remained windy and overcast, perfect for a (just under) 3km uphill walk at the hottest part of the day. Without the company of our French friends taking pictures like yesterday we made swift progress and arrived in just over 25 minutes. Wow-sa-mia! I remembered why I’d tried to book this place. The few bungalows there have the most stunning setting and private beach. No food included but who cares about eating when you can live here?! Their bungalow is the one closest to us – they’d booked about a year ago…
We had a good nosy around their place and sat with them on their veranda chatting for about 90 minutes as best we could in our Franglais! Cecile and I discovered we’re only two months apart in age. She’s Head of a school she’s worked in for 32 years. Wow. Fabrice is 56, retired from the police force at 40 years old after 20 years service and spends most of his time pursuing sports. You can tell, he’s whippet thin and super fit – he ran the entire circuit of the island in 50 minutes before breakfast one day! 😳. I can just about put my contact lenses in before I eat. It’s another reason he and Craig get on so well despite the language barrier; they just love being active and doing stuff all the time.
We left about 4 pm to walk back and enjoyed the views of this special island. The French keep referring to it as ‘sauvage’ meaning wild. It’s a great word but it’s far from being wild with its well tended ‘English country’ walk to and from the beach. It’s more unspoilt than wild I’d say. Regardless of how you choose to describe the place it’s difficult not to fall in love with Maupiti despite the island throwing every different kind of tropical weather our way. It’s all part of its unique charm.
Once back we grabbed a couple of beers, sat outside to drink them then discussed and organised a couple of trips. The weather here is so changeable we’ve no idea whether we’ll get to go on either. Let’s see.
I call the view behind Craig ‘one tree hill’. I was concerned the single tree at the top wouldn’t have survived the onslaught of the gale force winds but it’s clearly a tough buggar. Apparently theres also an American TV series of the same name (early noughties according to Google), no idea, never seen it.
We met the new arrivals before dinner. A lovely lady called Delphine who left her husband back in France to spend a couple of weeks in FP celebrating a big birthday. I didn’t ask which one but I’d guess 40 unless she’s aged very badly or exceedingly well! She speaks some English. Nice. There’s also a family but I can’t remember most of their names; there’s a husband and wife (he speaks a bit of English), an older woman I’m guessing is his Mum (the wife calls her Helene rather than Maman but I’ve not heard pops call her anything yet) and a boy – Louis – of about 12 who’s extremely smiley and keen to learn to scuba. Top chap!
We finally had a Maupiti sunset! Woohoo!!
We had a really delicious dinner with cake for dessert and all sat around chatting as best we could. Back to the room, read, sleep! Although we didn’t do much today it felt like a really great day.
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
What’s that? You’d like more ELO? Another track from the amazing Out of The Blue album? A song about blue skies? You’ve twisted my arm! This one’s for everyone that likes great upbeat happy music, it’s for Ant for sharing this with me at Wembley or Bust and it’s for Jonny up in the midlands with my HFB. Oh, I just discovered that according to Google it’s been voted the happiest song ever. Well of course it is!
Love it! 💙 Love Jeff 💜!! ⛅️ 🌞
It is of course Mr Blue Sky (1977) and it’s the Wembley or Bust live version (2017). Enjoy!!!
“Sun is shinin’ in the sky
There ain’t a cloud in sight
It’s stopped rainin’, everybody’s in the play And don’t you know, it’s a beautiful new day…
…Mr. Blue Sky, please tell us why
You had to hide away for so long, so long Where did we go wrong?
Hey there Mr. Blue, Sky, we’re so pleased to be with you, Sky Look around see what you do, Blue
Everybody smiles at you”
Monday 1 May
Happy May Day!
We woke to discover that the independence party had triumphed. The French don’t seem concerned, they say that it will mean no more big hotels (I couldn’t work out whether that just means no new ones and I don’t think those details have been worked out yet), a reduction in the number of tourists allowed in and a return to a more simple way of life which is less dependent on tourism so they can enjoy their own islands more. Sounds like a good plan to me!
It is redolent of the conversation we had with Lisa and Craig who own the fantastic Sconser Lodge on the Isle of Skye. We were one of their first guests post lockdown in September 2020 when the island reopened for a mere month so our timing was perfect! The island had an amazing lockdown with no tourists, they all clubbed together, the kids played outside all day during the crazy hot summer, they bought directly from local fisherman and enjoyed their own beautiful island on their own for once. It was the first time in years they’d really seen and enjoyed Skye and you could tell they were already regretting the return to ‘normality’. I’m guessing the same happened here and that post lockdown this was the islanders first opportunity to vote for someone who put their love of home above profit. 🇵🇫
I’d woken in the early hours (around 3am) and went out on our terrace to watch the weirdly silent lighting storm in the distance. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen lightning without thunder before. The rain followed not long after and was, well let’s just say, very tropical, ie full on! I managed another couple of hours sleep and we woke to lovely sunshine even though it was supposed to rain all day! Here’s the view from our terrace; there a small river outside that runs into the lagoon.
We had breakfast with two other couples (the family of four had already left to catch an early flight) which was very simple and delicious – baguette, butter (salted, hoorah!), apricot and strawberry jam, juice, grapefruit, watermelon, coffee (for everyone else) and hot water (for my Yorkshire teabag!).
Fabrice and Cecile invited us to join them on the 3km walk to the (only) beach which is located where I initially thought this place was – on the tip of the bit that sticks out to the west, opposite Motu Auria. They only know a couple of words in English but we managed perfectly adequately between us on the one hour walk there and the next few hours on the beach.
We really enjoyed the walk. A convoy of beeping cars, trucks and bikes went past us, all flying the independence flags, waving, laughing and hollering. I managed to get my phone out just in time to see the last ones disappear…
The journey felt more like a walk down an English country lane (albeit with palm trees, exotic flowers and the sea initially to our left then after the mountain it was to our right) than it felt like Bora Bora or Huahine. We passed a few houses but not a single shop or business in over an hour.
Fabrice has a drone too so despite neither being able to speak much of each other’s language they got on like a house on fire.
The road started to go uphill around the mountains. There were signs warning cyclists to dismount as the incline was 20 degrees. It was nowhere near as exhausting as The Nut in Stanley although it was about six times as long and much warmer! On the hill we met the other couple from our place – Christian and Marise – along with another lady who’s name I didn’t get but she spoke pretty good English so I walked with her for a while. Nice views!
Ah, and then finally the beach! Not the best beach I’ve ever seen but it was low key, one bit was straight from a postcard (first picture below), it had fab views of a motu (third picture; Craig part swam and partly walked there as it’s so shallow) and one snack bar.
Craig and Droney having a walk together. 😍
I immediately started reading whist everyone else got in the water for about an hour. Not sure why I’d taken my kindle but not my swim stuff 🤔. Just before 12 pm everyone except Craig – who was on the motu for another half hour – got out of the water and joined the veeeeeery long queue at Snack Mimi. It chucked it down ever so often. They laughed at me sitting on a chair in the rain under an umbrella (‘so English to have an umbrella!’) but I didn’t get wet and could stay seated so who’s laughing now eh?! They kindly ordered for us as we would have been right at the back and goodness knows what time we’d have got our food. We eventually all ate at 1.40 pm! 😳 It was cheap and tasty but my do you have to wait. Now we know we can be more prepared for next time. Unfortunately for me there was no toilet (‘dans la mer’ said Mimi) so if you don’t have swim stuff you are literally stuffed! After our food Craig and I therefore headed back and the return was quite a bit quicker I can tell you!
We had a relaxing afternoon while it rained outside, joined the others plus a new French couple for dinner (apparently we’re the only English people currently in the island). Dinner wasn’t as nice as the night before but we didn’t go hungry.
We sat with Fabrice and Cecile outside for an hour and we had a ‘movie night’ watching their holiday videos which were fantastic. Back to our room to read and sleep. Bon nuit, mien dormi!
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
Whilst I mentioned it’s not the best beach ever our visit there pretty was much the only thing we did all day so clearly today’s song has to be from the film ‘The Beach’ which is all about a journey to a secret beach in Kho Phi Phi (Thailand) and what happens to a community living together in what seems to be paradise… There’s a few to choose from as it’s a good soundtrack (Moby’s ‘Porcelain’ being the standout) and I’ve chosen ‘Pure Shores’ (2000) by All Saints. I often find myself humming this or singing “take me to the beach” as I walk on a beach somewhere in the world.
“Many faces I have seen
Many places I have been
Walked the deserts, swam the shores…
…It’s calling you my dear out of reach
(take me to my beach)
I can hear it calling you
I’m comin’ not drowning, swimming closer to you“
Sunday 30 April – Election day
Our flight isn’t until this afternoon so we took our time packing this morning.
We ate up what was left in the fridge as there are no facilities in our next place. Aunty Shirley will be pleased as I had an entirely dairy based feast (she’s concerned that I’m not getting enough calcium and that’s why I keep breaking bones. It could be that or I could just be really clumsy! It’s probably both…). I had two yoghurts (more than I usually have in six months at home), a massive chunk of Brie and the last of the Blue D’Auvergne. 🧀 Not very balanced! Craig had a bit of cheese, the leftover prawn curry, some strange cheese and rice spring rolls and peanuts 😆.
We left our luggage with the hotel then decided to have a game of table tennis – we’ve been eyeing it up for six days but it’s been too hot to play. Today is hot but with a lovely breeze. For most of the time the game was very close and it took us ages to get to 16-16 but then I totally lost concentration and Craig powered to 21-16. He can be TT champ, I’m happy to remain the mini golf champ!
Maybe I was distracted by the view… 🤷♀️😬
As we were recovering from our exertions we both separately received a very disappointing email (I must have given them Craig’s email address at some point). There is only one dive school on Maupiti and I’d booked us in for six dives over three days about four months ago… I sent them a message last week to say we were looking forward to diving with them and to update them about my foot. On Thursday I received an email from someone called Teddy who had taken over the dive school (thanks for waiting for me to get in touch first mate!). He acknowledged my booking and said he’d be in touch today, Sunday, to confirm Monday’s pick-up time. He just emailed us both to say the conditions are too challenging to dive tomorrow (fair enough) and that he was in training for the rest of the week so couldn’t take us out at all. Not fair enough. I think it’s rude not to honour our booking or at least give us notice when he took over the dive school. We might have chosen another island if we’d known…
So, we think we’ll chill tomorrow while the weather’s not great then we can swim, snorkel and canoe in the lagoon during the next few days. Ha ha I hear you say, didn’t you say you’d never kayak again? Well, this should be different – they belong to the Pension we’re staying in so they’re free, there’s no safety malarkey; just get in the damn thing and if you fall out you fall out and you then get back in again! I’ve promised Craig I’ll hire a bike this time 😖. I believe it’s only about 8 km / 5 m around the island which I think I can manage with lots of breaks and plenty of water. If it hurts my foot though, Bikey is going back.
We’ll also book a tour; it was impossible to do so in advance without being on Facebook but there’s a couple of operators on the island including one our taxi driver in Huahine recommended and one called Sammi’s Tours which I’ve seen lots of positive reviews about. So we’re unlikely to get bored! Plus I’ve just downloaded eight more books in case there’s no Wi-Fi at all…
So, we’re off to the airport soon via car then boat transfer and where hopefully we can continue our tradition of ordering a cafe au lait and a Chocolat chaud! ☕️
Later that day…
It’s unfortunately chucking it down and forecast to get worse over the next 36 hours; we’re looking forward to seeing a tropical lightening storm!
Our boat transfer was a bit late setting off and we arrived at the airport just after 2pm for a 2.50 pm flight! In fairness I’ve never seen such an efficient check-in; we were all checked in within ten minutes of arriving so we had just enough time to get a coffee and a Chocolat chaud and before we knew it we were waking onto the plane and it took off early. Farewell beautiful Bora Bora. We shall miss your beauty but my wallet is already happier! It’s even gorgeous in terrible weather!
It was another quick 15 minute flight.
First glimpses of Maupiti from the plane:
Within ten minutes of landing we’d collected our luggage, located the water taxi, paid our £5 each and were heading towards the main village of Vai’Ea. Here’s our view from the airport, again it’s on a motu with views to the main island. Nice!
Once we reached the village I thought we needed to find a taxi but a lovely lady asked us (in French) if we’re staying at Taravanui then gave us garlands of sweet smelling flowers, hoorah! That’s our first one! There was another (French) couple with us and a few minutes later we arrived at the Pension…
… but only after Craig panicked that he’d lost his phone, asked the woman to drive back to the dock to find the boat had already gone, they phoned the boat; no phone left on there. Have you checked your bags? Yes of course but I know for a fact I left it on the seat of the boat. Well, sorry but there’s no phone. Grumble grumble ‘someone obviously took it’. Very sad looking Craig – how would he live without Camilla?! (There’s a story in that name for another time). Everyone looking worried. Except me. I’m used to Craig’s possession going missing (temporarily or permanently) or getting broken on a fairly regular basis. Oh, sorry, it’s in my bag. 🙄🤨😆
We might struggle here a bit as no one speaks English and our French isn’t great and we’re all eating together twice a day. It’ll be part of the fun! We’re now in our teeny tiny cute as a button bungalow with a lovely view of the rain and stormy sea. Here’s the view behind us; I’ll share the front view when it’s sunny. The mountain gods are brooding…
We’ve got an hour before communal dinner so I’m going to do the same as Craig – read and relax.
Dinner was delicious! Cooked onsite by the family we had fish and veg fritters, fat tuna steaks marinaded in soy and ginger, rice and crispy delicious (plantain?) crisps followed by homemade chocolate cake. I bought a bottle of red wine and I’ll have a glass every night for the five nights I’m here. No idea what the grape is; it says ‘vin rouge’ and not much else and tastes of dark ripe cherries. Yum.
There were ten of us at dinner. We tried to join in a bit and occasionally someone tried a bit of English. It was good fun and they’re all lovely. We went to bed happy, read and fell asleep.
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
I’m not a fan of this song but it’s a fitting choice for FP today. Arcadia was formed by Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and Roger Taylor from Duran Duran during a break in the band’s schedule in 1985 and 1986. They released one pretty successful album ‘So Red the Rose’ which included this track.
DD have released some great songs in their time and I know Lizzie had a great time at a concert of theirs (then met Simon in the bar of her hotel afterwards!) so for FP, for Lizzie (currently living it up in Portugal 🥂) and for my blog rather than my own pleasure (I’m so self sacrificing!) here’s Arcadia’s ‘Election Day’ (1985). I would say I hope you enjoy it but it’s pretty awful and the video, which clearly cost a fortune as was the way of the world in the mid-80’s, is awful too 🙃🤫🫤. Craig just said ‘what the hell is that? It’s terrible, please turn it off’. You see? I wasn’t exaggerating! 😆