We didn't get fireworks here in Huahine, but we had a lovely time celebrating with our friends on Irie and Namaste. We started off with happy hour, where we were allowed to stockpile quite a few half price drinks until the bar eventually realised that we had way more drinks than people and cut us off 5 minutes early. Then we had a really chilled out evening, with dinner and a lengthy stay in the games room. There were some young local guys who kept trying to get us to dance with them but we all kept turning them down. Even Garth, who is usually happy to embarrass himself. Poor guys. So we ended a very eventful year with lovely friends on a tiny island in the middle of the South Pacific, which was quite different to our celebrations last year in Australia. We had drinks with my best friend and her family, before the boys let off premature fireworks so they could continue drinking up until midnight. And the year before, a few weeks before our wedding in New Zealand. I think I spent that New Years sewing beads onto my wedding dress. So we've come a long way, mostly under sail, and I'm glad we've made it far enough to see the new year in here on this lovely island with these lovely people.
(I've stolen these New Years pics from Liesbet on Irie again)
After a lot of boat work and dinghy finishing we finally managed to get off the boat for some sightseeing yesterday. We actually got up early enough so that we could do boat work in the morning and then take our bikes to shore afterwards, around lunch time. I love this new dinghy! The bikes only just fit in our old one. Now we've got room for the bikes plus four people to sit onboard comfortably. We didn't really have any plans but we knew that it was about 25km around the whole island. So armed with a map, nearly 4L of water and some snacks we set off.
The road wound through several villages, all of which were pretty quiet seeing as it was a Sunday. We stopped a few times to take in the scenery and the kms kind of flew by. It was the middle of the day in the middle of summer in the middle of the tropics, so it was hot. But the ride was surprisingly pleasant.
We stopped to look around a Marae, which is a historical Polynesian site. It was just a lot of rock walls and raised platforms. But the information boards told us that while these Marae were originally meeting places like the Marae in New Zealand, eventually they took on a more religious role. Sometimes they were even used to sacrifice people. Quite a lot of the area was still intact and you could see where everything had been. The boards even showed us whereabouts they would stack up the human skulls from the sacrifices, so that little stop turned out to be a lot more interesting than I had expected.
We eventually made it to Faia without meaning to. This village is all the way on the other side of the island, so there was no turning back now. We were going the whole way around. This is the main tourist attraction on Huahine as giant blue eyed eels live in the creek that runs through the village. Hot and sweaty on my pushbike, I didn't really realise where we were. But we went past a little store with woven bags and sarongs hanging out the front and decided to go inside. A little guy came out as we got to the door and spent a painstakingly long time explaining that we should go and fetch our bikes to park them right next to the door instead of round the corner. He didn't speak a single word of English and my French is very limited, so he exhausted himself pretending to ride a bike and then pointing to the door. When we caught on and moved them to the side of the road close by he took over and propped them up right in his doorway.
He was really lovely. He managed to explain that it was cool inside because of the woven roof, then thrust a weird green thing into my arms. It was like a super sized bean pod. I tried to give it back because I had no idea what to do with it, but he showed us how to open it and eat the flesh inside. It was delicious! It was indeed a giant bean pod, full of giant beans. Each one was encased in something white and squishy which was the bit that you ate. The flesh was sweet and refreshing and reminded me a bit of lychees. It was really juicy. When I squeezed it liquid would come to the surface and would then be sucked back into the sponge-like flesh when I let go. It was definitely the weirdest fruit I've ever eaten. He loaded us up with two more after we'd eaten our taster, which I suspect was quite generous considering I haven't seen them growing anywhere.
The store had the usual things for sale - jewlery and woven baskets. There were also little critters made out of Pandamas hanging in amongst everything that our new friend proudly explained were his. They looked like Christmas decorations and when Garth picked up a fish that he liked this guy started running around retrieving more of them from all the little nooks and crannies in his shop. I don't think he was trying to sell them. It felt like he was just really proud of them and wanted to show them off. We got the Polynesian name for everything and I tried to write them down, but I have no idea of the spelling. I kept asking him how much the little fish was that Garth was clinging to, but he just kept beaming and indicating that it was he who had made it.
Either my French wasn't up to scratch or they didn't really speak French at all, but I eventually gave in and did what the locals usually do when trying to communicate with me - I drew $ symbols in the sand. This worked and we established that they were $500 Spf each. Garth was holding a bird and a fish, and his wife appeared from nowhere to announce that it was $1000 for both. So I gave her a $1000 note. Then it all got very confusing. She reappeared a few minutes later with a huge pile of change and shoved it into my hand - I'm not really sure what I paid but it was much less than $1000. Then a bag was brought out for our wares and after Garth had put his little critters in she stared at it for a second and added a pretty star to his menagerie. Then the little guy went out and cut a hunk off the bunch of bananas that every house has hanging out the front, and shoved that into Garth's hands as well. It felt like we were caught in the middle of a whirlwind of intense hospitality.
So after many merci's and maruru's, which we established was the Polynesian word for thank you, we wandered back out into the sunlight overwhelmed by their kindness and loaded down with our booty.
Not sure where we were going, we wandered across the road to organise ourselves. As we tried to pack away all the bags we noticed a whole heap of kids splashing and playing in the creek by the road. They were obviously chasing something, which we assumed were the eels. Very small eels. They would hide under the rocks and the kids were trying to trap them so they could maneuver the rocks out of the way at the same time as they reached in to grab one. I'm not sure what the next part of their plan was, because as soon as they held up their prize the eels would dissappear through their fingers along with the water.
Assuming these tiny ones were just babies we followed the creek in search of their parents. All the locals were hanging out in the water, splashing around and really enjoying their Sunday. And right next to them were the eels. They were massive! They looked like giant salamanders, with most of them bigger than one of our legs. There was a cruise ship in town so tourists were everywhere, hence why we didn't climb into the water to try and pick one up which is what you're supposed to do. Mostly why. Their heads were so big I'm sure one could have gobbled up my whole arm. Assuming they have teeth.
A little kid appeared out of nowhere and delighted in showing us where the eels were all hiding. Garth always attracts animals and small children. We told him we didn't speak French, but he started chattering away to us anyway. Garth tried to participate in a conversation with him, but 'I would like to eat somehing' and 'My name is Garth' didn't really contribute much to the conversation. This didn't deter the kid though, who followed us around the whole time we were there talking at us in French. I guess that's what kids normally do, but it was strange not knowing what he was saying. We did understand bits and pieces though - he asked us repeatedly why we weren't getting in the water to play with the man-eating eels.
Our bike ride got a little more difficult after that. We were already almost out of drinking water and were then met with a 2km long hill. There were signs warning us that it was a 15% grade, but knowing that just made it worse. There was no way we could ride up it on our folding bikes. We eventually made it to the top and were presented with a lookout, although it wasn't a very spectacular one.
On the way down I could hear island music blaring out from all the valleys. I assumed that the locals were putting on some kind of show for all the people on the cruise ship. But the noise got louder and louder, until a car drove past us with a speaker strapped to the roof. It was bigger than the car, and looked like the kind of speaker you'd find at the front of a stage at a rock concert. They were just driving around the island blaring music, literally as loud as they possibly could. It's pretty normal to see people riding their pushbikes with one hand on the handlebars and one hand on a boom box. Everybody is always carrying around hand-held speakers or setting bigger ones up on the beach and at the side of the road. The locals just seem to want to share their music with the world. But these guys were clearly having a laugh.
Then we got to the bottom of the hill and rode along the coast line as we approached the town of Fare again. Everybody was still celebrating, four days after the New Years celebrations would have died down in Australia and New Zealand. There were groups of people gathered in backyards, smoke curling up from their fires as feasts were prepared. There was a massive volleyball competition going on by the water with locals lounging around and cheering on the players. Then as we got closer to town the whole coastline was dotted with people. They were all having picnics and just relaxing in the water. Except instead of sitting on the beach like normal people, they were sitting in the water. Everybody had moved their chairs out into the water until they were sitting waist deep in the ocean. There were no waves, so there were even a few tables out there as well with chairs all around them so everybody could eat lunch without getting hot. I even saw a beach umbrella planted in the water, shading the lounge chairs underneath. It was brilliant! I loved it so much. I was actually struck with how Australian the whole thing was, considering how often I've seen people back home swimming around with eskys in an attempt to drink and swim at the same time. But instead of purposefully trying to be ridiculous, this was just normal. I love this island.
The New Years celebrations are only just starting to die down today, on the 5th of January. The beach parties that have been going on since last year have quietened down. Over the last week music has been blasting out from huge speakers on the beach, with people lying around in the water all day relaxing. There was even a DJ there one day, chattering away in French and Polynesian in between songs. When there was no music playing groups of locals would gather on the beach and sing for hours on end, creating a beautiful atmosphere for us to enjoy as the sun set each day. They were often accompanied by ukuleles and they clearly knew how to sing, so it was like a free show right in front of our boat.
We went for a snorkel the other day with both Irie and Namaste, which was a lot of fun. I spent ages chasing all the clown fish I could find. We haven't seen any since Australia, but unlike the ones in the Whitsundays these guys were very camera shy. I found one tiny little baby who would just dart in and out of his anemone, appearing in a different spot each time. It hurt my head trying to keep track of him!
We decided to walk up the beach and drift back towards the boats with the current, which turned out to be a really nice snorkel. As soon as we got in the water from the beach we spotted a few baby reef sharks in the lagoon. They then proceeded to circle us. They didn't want to play though and kept running away then coming back again when they decided we weren't going to eat them. They were totally adorable. Sharks with tiny mouths are much more fun than the big ones.
Rachel kept pointing out interesting things we hadn't seen before - among my favourites were a lion fish and some tiny snake-like guys. There were also these things she called Christmas tree worms, which we saw in lots of different colours. They did indeed look like Christmas trees and would dissappear instantly as soon as you got too close to them. Hours of entertainment right there.
Xxx Monique
