Week #2: living like a local
Not much sailing for our second week on Wallis. We decided to drop our anchor in the south of Huahine island, one of the most beautiful bays in the whole of French Polynesia . We spent time meeting old and new friends, enjoying the best of the Polynesian lifestyle...
Good friends & pétanque
The first time I came to Huahine was in 1996, the island had one of the few affordable hostels we could reach from Tahiti for the weekend. So I spent a lot of time with the Bremond family (Huber, Cecelle, Will, Paul, Celina, Ariiura) who still welcome us as their own, almost 30 years later. This is why we love dropping our anchor here and just watch the days go by, it is our second home…
During the week everyone attends to their own business. When the weekend comes, the whole family gathers together either to party with local musique (this is a story for another time) or to play games of pétanque with the whole village. As they have been practicing every weekend for the past 30 years, they could all be playing in the pétanque world championships (if there is such a thing). Bottom line, Yamini and I lost 2 of our 2 games... and were out. we have a lot more practicing to do :)
Fishing in the lagoon
One of the benefits of having local friends is that they know the lagoon inside out, which is great to go on fishing trips! There are many ways to fish in the bay, with a fishing rod drifting on the calm lagoon waters, with fishing nets placed at strategic locations, even on the reef to chase bigger fish or lobsters… Today, we went spear fishing near the reef, which is great fun. However, you do need to know which fish are good to eat and which ones are not. This is where local help is most important!
As you can see, we did not come back empty-handed, definitely enough fish for a couple of nice barbecue sessions on board Wallis. Side story: our friends gifted us 10 avocados on the first day we arrived... so all our meals this week included avocado in one way or another !
Lagoon activities
There is always something going on on the lagoon. The first activity is to watch fish swim around our boat (we are anchored in less than 2m of crystal clear water…). Sting rays, eagle rays, box fish, remora are all very quiet and well behaved neighbours. The lagoon is also an amazing play ground for swimming, snorkelling, stand-up paddle strolling around the bay, kiteboarding or (depending on the wind) learning how to Wing Foil !
We also spent time on land and did a full Huahine island tour, 50km in 4h... The electric cycles really helped as, even if the road mostly follows the beaches around the island, you do need to climb some steep hills to get across to the other side of the island to the main town: Fare.
