AlexandrA comes home

Well while at Hivo Oa we grabbed some fruit from a farm in the mountains. I Bunch of 120 bananas for $5 and my new bestest favorites food, pomellos. I have never heard or seen pomellos but the are like a grape fruit but up to 30cm. Not as bitter as a grape fruit, they are delicious. At only $1 each if I had of known how good they we're I would have bought 20!
Well I knew that the bananas were to ripen together but I did not think so fast. We got through the first 60 and since then have found it more difficult to eat the second half. Superb to eat but nearing overdose I think our poo will look like bananas shortly.
The diving at Rangiroa was absolute stunning. With enormous visibility in comparison to the Galapagos it was what you would dream of. These atolls are the first place that has burnt me to return. An absolute must for anyone who dives. We had first a manta ray larger than us split the 4 of us diving as it came from behind and just swam through us. We all peed in our wets suits a bit. Eagle and spotted rays, turtles and a family of dolphins that came to us and white tipped reef sharks that stayed around too. I do know what they have done here but one normally is chasing the sea life to keep up. The turtle saw us and dashed to us swimming in and out looking for a pat, the same as the dolphins, super! I did one drift dive through the atoll Chanel. Running at about 5 knots it was like flying. Unfortunately one in our group was a learner and had some difficulties so we had to adjust our dive profile. As the water was running so strong against the waves the surface water was very rough and the dive boat could not see us for pick up untill about 60 min after we had surfaced and had drifted about 3km into the lagoon. Nothing dangerous but a super example of having other people around looking out for you. I will see if there are flares I can carry in my bcd in the future. Sandy braved another dive here too after I had commented on how great it was. With a dolphin encounter too she was not disappointed. So much so as soon as we arrived at Tahiti we book a dive the same day as she flew out the next. This did not disappoint either. No beatiful corals, dolphins or turtles but party central for sharks. We plunged in off the boat into at least 20 sharks straight off. Half black tip reefs at about 1.5m and the others grey sharks at about 2.5m. The grey sharks are more your typical Hollywood looking shark, probably about 5 times heavier than the reefs. We encountered between 50 to 100 sharks for the dive as I definitely lost count. I have never before though I would start to get bored looking at sharks on a dive. A little spooky when you are drifting along and check your 6 to find a grey shark following you. Still I was safe as everyone knows that sharks eat girls before boys. I remember from primary school that girls are made of sugar and spice and every thing nice while boys are made from slugs and snails and puppy dogs tails, the sharks know this too!
Papeete the capital of Tahiti is very cosmopolitan. The most modern town, as it not really big as I would call a city. The first place where Skype has worked well. Sandy has left and certainly will we miss her culinary skills. Max is home shortly and I am staying. More to come.

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