Inside the reef on the west side of Tahaa beside the private motu occupied by the Tahaa Resort and Spa there is a lovely Coral Garden. The garden is a corridor about 300m llong and 30m wide between 2 motus. We attached our dinghy to one of the buoys at the mouth of the Garden and jumped off in the waist deep water. We snorkeled wearing our wet suits for buoyancy to help us float on the surface over the coral and our reef shoes which help our feet float and are much easier than flippers to carefully step down onto the sandy patches. The garden is full of tropical fish of so many amazing colors and patterns. I can see how fashion designers must be influenced by all of these incredible color combinations and patterns found in nature.. Every day I have a favorite fish. In the Tuamotus I loved the Picasso Trigger fish which look like a lady with full face make up and lipstick ready to go to town. Here I love the fish that have pink streaked cheeks and psychedelic striped backs. I also love the black fish with the small blue spots, black outlined clear dorsal fins and pink tails. It feels a bit like I've been shrunk down and put into a goldfish tank following the fish through the little coral caves. Peter was playing footsie with an Octopus who was sitting in a crevice in the coral. It followed our every move with its big eye. Peter brought a little bag of cooked rice to feed the fish and they swarmed him. I could hardly see him through the crowd of fish.

The Tahaa Resort is a very posh thatched roof over water bungalow type resort. We stopped in for happy hour by the pool bar. The resort was scarcely occupied and it appeared that all of the folks at the little bar were honeymooners. The bar tender was a large very pretty man made up with lovely painted on eyebrows and lipstick. The grounds are gorgeous and I did notice a nice tennis court. It did seem a little too quiet though.

Raiatea has a big charter boat base and this is a popular spot for charter boats to anchor to snorkel the coral garden. We have been very entertained by the numerous anchoring attempts and techniques as boats come and go for the past 3 days. It reminds me of sitting at a boat launch for an entertaining afternoon. We've all had those fun experiences where we hope no one is watching. We try not to watch too obviously but when someone drops their anchor right on top of yours its hard not to make an appearance.

Today was an unusually social day sharing stories, prospective good anchorages, and sun downer drinks with other sailors. Tomorrow we sail off to Bora Bora. The sandy beaches, turquoise waters and majestic mountain peak that you see in brochures is reportedly worthy of a visit even though it is very touristy.