We stayed in Raiatea more than a week. It is a mountainous island, about 30 by 20 miles in size, with a population of 14,000. We had several friends there including Vimy (Daryl & Deniz), Liward (Steve & Lili), North Star (Steve & Kim) and Joalea (Tony M & Margaret & daughter). That equates to lots of dinner parties on our boat and theirs. One night a group of us went out for dinner at a small resort. It was a fun night, but when we returned to the carnage, we found we were locked out. So, we had to climb the fence!
One day, we went with Vimy and Liward to a nearby motu for a picnic lunch. We brought all our toys and went snorkeling, kayaking, and paddle boarding. Steve brought his machete and we cut open coconuts for a snack and had a fun pitch-in lunch. That is until a storm rolled in and we had a very wet dingy ride back to the anchorage.
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One day, we rented a car with Vimy and Joalea and did the island tour. Raiatea is like one large botanical garden with steep 3,000 foot mountains rising up from the shoreline. My highlight was getting to visit the Taputapuatea Marae Site. Last year, I got to work with the Culture Department in Tahiti, assisting them with translation/transcription for their UNESCO World Heritage Site application. Two of the guys that I worked with, James & Hiro, arranged to meet us there and took time to tell us a bit about the site. This site was the only international marae site, where all the chiefs gathered by sailing 2,000+ miles from all over Polynesia (Hawaii to Easter Island, to New Zealand, to the Cooks). Here, they agreed on their laws, conducted ceremonies to bring in the Gods, competed in traditional sporting games and, of course, they had music and dancing for all occasions. We enjoyed a nice lunch at a small waterfront pension next to the site.
(See Photos)
Continuing around the island, we stopped at a working vanilla farm. There were several green houses where they grow the vanilla plants, hand pollenating each bean individually. They had vanilla beans all laid out on the ground drying, which takes days, and workers starting to pick up burlap sacks of the beans. Inside another shed, there were ladies hand massaging the beans, which is the next step in the process. Growing vanilla beans is very labor intensive, which is why they are so expensive (ave. $2 - $5 per bean).
Finally, the high wind and seas were calming down. So, we did laundry, topped off our gasoline supply, and did some last provisioning preparing to leave Raiatea to sail 5 days to Palmerston Atoll in the Cook Islands.
More Later - G&T