The last few days have been spent at a fairly relaxed pace - eating, walking, exploring and socialising. We met some of the World ARC people who have been very nice and invited us to join them for the afternoon at "Alex's Place". A local's house that he opens up to tourists and serves meals and drinks while they enjoy his pool and snooker table. The place is in a nice setting overlooking the bay and he picked us up and dropped us back to the boats which was good because his driveway is so steep most of us would not have made it up there any other way.
Our duty free documents arrived on Tuesday which allowed us to buy diesel at half price (bring the cost down to normal prices) so we headed off around lunch time towards the north western side of the island where the guide book said there was a nice bay with a fresh water swimming hole. It only took two hours of relaxed sailing to get there but on arrival the swell and wind were wrapping their way in and making it too uncomfortable so we decided to keep going to Hanaiapa Bay on the top of the island. It took two and a half hours with the motor on bashing into the sea to arrive but it was worth it. The entrance to the bay has a beautiful waterfall and three large caves set into the cliff face. The bay was calm so we dropped the anchor and settled in for the night.
Wednesday we went for a walk into the village at the head of the bay. What a delightful surprise! The people live in a tropical paradise with fruit hanging off trees everywhere, flowers are in abundance, the people are very friendly and there is a calm and relaxed atmosphere with the only noise coming from the odd chicken or goat. After a short distance we came across William who has a sign out the front of his place that says "Yacht Club". He welcomes you in to his house (shack) and gets you to sign his visitor books which he has dating back to the early 2000's. He then gave us a refreshing drink which he makes himself (don't know what is in it but it tasted ok) and then tries to load you up with all the fruit you can carry from his garden.
Back to the boat for a relax for a while before Steve decided to go for his first snorkel in the Pacific. He was happy to find there were heaps of fish and some he had never seen before with nice corals and even a five foot black tip shark. Ange won't go swimming here because she says there are monsters down there - maybe we will have to find a calm coral atoll for her.