Peter goes native!

We had the luxury of spending over a week anchored in Moorea and got to love the community even more as we got to know it better. Peter felt so much a part of it, that he decided to go native! The kids won’t believe it since they had to wait until they were 18 to “deface” themselves, as Peter called it. Now that he is a geezer though, he figures he is old enough to do whatever he feels like and he felt drawn to get a traditional South Polynesian tattoo. Plus, he can cross off one more item on the “1,000 things to do before I die” list.

The highlight of the week was going on an all-day hike to the top of the mountains. We had a 360-degree view and a variety of terrain. Only have two black toenails on my big toes and a couple of blisters, so all is good.

Another day, we had a spontaneous bonus and were treated to a “free” afternoon show, by one of the award-winning dance troupes. They had over 100 dancers performing at the local hotel, just a dinghy ride away.

Since Peter’s birthday dinner was pre-empted by the huge storm, we made up for it by going out to dinner to a fabulous over-the-water restaurant. From our romantic table on the ocean, we could watch about nine stingrays swimming around. Each evening the restaurant feeds them, which in addition to their incredible food, is what they are famous for. So very cool to take a dinghy to and from dinner.

After sadly leaving Moorea (still so much to see and do there) we headed to a windy anchorage at the Tahiti Yacht Club. It was blowing over 25 knots when we picked up a mooring ball. Only casualty was the boat hook that I used to grab the mooring ball with, which bent in half from the pressure. This anchorage gave us a new location to explore Tahiti from where we walked to the black beaches and Peter got his “museum” fix.

We are now back at the anchorage in Marina Taini, where there are significantly fewer boats than there have been. They have all left for New Zealand, to get out of the hurricane zone for the winter. We will be sailing around Tahiti and then leaving our boat here in the marina for the winter, when we return again for another season at Silver Star to ski, watch hockey and most importantly visit with the kids and friends. We so love the contrast between the sun/sea and the snow/mountains.

Until next time…..I won’t do the next blog update until Monday, September 21st as we will be heading out of range again.
P.S. It is with sadness that we take a moment to reflect on this day eight years ago. Hopefully we have all learned something from the tragic event that rocked the world and all make a special effort to be kinder to people and to ourselves and to live each day with joy and unlimited possibilities.