Travels With Rick, Part Two

On April 3 we woke to a nice, sunny morning with a bit of a breeze but not too much. If you zoom in on the map, we were at the purple place-mark on the left side of Taha’a, near the Coral Gardens and the ‘Le Taha’a Island Resort & Spa.

The resort is supposed to be the fanciest thing in Taha’a or Raiatea. With rooms starting at $1500 per night, it better be VERY nice. There are quite a few ‘over water bungalows’ and you can see Bora Bora in the background. The Coral Gardens are just to the right of the last bungalow on the right.

Rick and I went to the small town in Tapu Amu bay to get some fresh baguettes, but they were out. “Come back in 30 minutes” we were told, so we went for a walk. When we returned, they said “Come back in 30 minutes” so we went for another walk. When we returned and they were still out. We gave up. But the next morning, I went back to try once more – success!

On our walk, we noticed the seeds from a Pandanus tree on the ground – is it just me, or does that look like ‘Candy Corn’?

After a leisurely breakfast we headed out to snorkel the Coral Gardens. It is an ideal location because the water is flowing in through gorgeous coral with an abundance of colorful fish that either ignore you or come and check you out. You just walk to the beginning (near the outer reef), jump in and let the current take you past all the beauty.

The next morning, it was off to Bora Bora. We had hoped to sail but the wind was only about 4 knots so we motored the 30 miles. See the yellow track in the map at the top of this post.

Our anchorage was in the lagoon, west of the To’opua motu (lower right in sat map)

On April 5 we went Rick and I went scuba diving. We did a ‘two dive package’ from a local Bora Bora dive shop. The main attraction of the first dive was the Manta Rays so I included a number of pics.

As we were within a short dinghy ride from the high-end Conrad Hilton Bora Bora resort, we thought we’d take a look at how people with way too much $ live.

The welcoming and send-off includes a singer playing a yukelele.

The place was very nice. Maybe you get what you pay for?

Back on Calista, we enjoyed the beautiful scenery all around us.

But, unfortunately, even the good times with friends don’t last forever and on April 7, Rick had to head home. We dinghyed in to the main docks where he caught a ferry boat to the airport and away he went, back to Colorado. We had a great time and I think Rick enjoyed the trip as well.