December 6th 2019

We were up quite early after a good sleep. We had tea and coffee and then a shower and walked down to the hotel area for breakfast which was a buffet style meal with cold cuts, fruit, bacon and eggs and the other usual breakfast items. After breakfast, we went to the front desk to book our outing for tomorrow. We are going to Anaho Bay which is on the north side of the island. This involves starting at 8.30 a.m. and driving through the winding roads fo the island from the west side of the main town of Taiohae which is where the hotel is located and up to Hatiheu Bay where we will take about a one hour hike across to Anaho Bay. Here we may be able to swim and eat our packed lunch and then either return to Hatiheu Bay by foot or by boat. We will then drive back to the hotel. We are not sure how rigorous this will be but we hope that we are capable of it!! This bay was mentioned specifically in the book ‘Sea People’ which was one of the inspirations for this trip.

After completing the formalities for the trip, the shuttle into the town of Taiohae was ready to leave and we decided to take it into the town and walk back to the hotel. The driver took us to the east end of town away from the hotel where there is a vegetable and fruit market a small fish market on the quay and an artisanal area selling arts and craft and jewelry made by local crafts people. After a short time browsing this merchandise, we started our walk back to the hotel along the edge of the bay. We soon passed the Marie or City Hall and came to the bank where we both took some local currency. Then we passed a small store where we bought a couple of items and some cat food for our cats at home. 

The 'infinity pool' at our hotel

The huge 'tiki' overlooking the harbor 

Views of the harbor at Taiohae

The Protestant church

The Roman Catholic Cathedral all decked out for the wedding later this afternoon.

Some way further on we passed and checked out a small church being decorated for Christmas. We then stopped at Boulanger Snack Joseph, the town baker and had an early lunch of raw fish Chinese style and duck with tamarind. We also bought a baguette for ‘research purposes’. It turned out to taste pretty bad perhaps due to the lack of the large quantities of butter present in French baguettes. Walking on we came to the cathedral which is called, of course, Norte Dame. It was an open air building which was set up for the afternoon’s wedding with flowers everywhere and an archway downtown he aisle of bamboo fronds. It looked as nice a place as any in the world to get married. To disturb the peace, I was stung here by an angry insect which gave me quite a sharp stabbing pain in my side. Painful for a few minutes it soon dissipated and there4 was no residual reaction. We did go into a nearby shop to see if we could get something to put on it but they didn’t have anything so we left it to heal itself. Then on past schools just finishing early for Friday afternoon and to the entrance to the lane leading to the hotel.

We climbed up to the hotel area which was well underway in the preparations for the wedding with floral table arrangements and table decorations ready for disposition. We went up tour our bungalow and had a cooling shower and sat outside for a while before having an afternoon nap. Dinner for the hotel guests will be served in a separate area away from the wedding tonight as the 90 wedding attendees will occupy the restaurant and pool area spaces. The hotel manager has already apologized for the ‘disturbance’ but it will be exciting to catch a glimpse of the local wedding celebrations.

We went down to the grassy area set aside for us at 7 p.m. to find some of the guests already there. The staff were in extra special dress with the very colorful flower head-dresses  and bright shirts and dresses, The meal was a reduced menu but was very good indeed with an octopus salad to start and either fillet of beef or wahoo fish for main course with an exotic Pavlova for dessert. A very nice meal indeed to the muted sounds of island music accompanying the wedding dinner a short distance away. We retreated back to our bungalow and later the music from the wedding festivities increased a bit as the disco ramped up but it did not disturb us and we were soon asleep.