Huahine by Scooter

These last months, basically every day starts the same on Irie. Mark gets up at around 6am and starts work. I leave the bed about an hour later and commence the day with household chores, before I turn my computer on. It has been busy in regards to The Wirie business and we did launch our newest product The Wirie^pro earlier this month. More about that in another blog.

Back to last week, where one of those days, after a hectic few hours, we decided to “leave it all behind” and go on a little excursion. Around 10am, we closed the lids of our laptops, shook off the stress, grabbed an umbrella (it is rainy season after all!), filled our backpack with food and water, took the dinghy ashore, walked up to a bike/scooter/car rental place in Fare and rented a scooter for the rest of the day. Mark jumped behind me on the seat and off we went.

In October, I had already biked around half of Huahine (Huahine Nui, which is the bigger island of the two) with my cousin Griet and her husband Wim. Now, we quickly revisited the sites of that day (the extensive marae, the interesting looking fish traps and the sacred blue-eyed eels), since Mark hadn’t been beyond the capital Fare. And, we purposefully took the little boat ride to Huahine’s only pearl farm in the lagoon to buy me a belated birthday gift. The scooter came in handy to – slowly - climb the biggest hill and arrive at the viewpoint overlooking the deep bay of Maroe, which, connected to Bourayne Bay in the west, cuts Huahine in half. The first rainstorm arrived and we managed to shelter on a covered bench. This was as good a time as any to eat our lunches and watch some of the many land crabs emerge from their holes.

When the downpour turned to drizzle, we continued our tour of Huahine and crossed the bridge over the division. New territory! At a slow pace, we circumnavigated Huahine Iti – hillier than we thought – checking out bays and greeting friendly people along the way. This part of the island is even quieter and more laid-back than the northern part and we eyed Avea Bay as a future anchorage, while overlooking deeper bays as possible “hurricane holes”. The second rainsquall couldn’t be avoided, so we slowed down to the point where we just didn’t fall over, in order for Mark to hold the umbrella above our heads. Quite the sight that must have been; two tourists inching along under a purple umbrella, getting soaking wet anyway! In this fashion, we limped our way back to Huahine Nui and Fare, where we found Irie violently bobbing in an unpredicted wind, chop and swell from the west. Time to move!

Biggest marae of Huahine in Maeva

V-shaped fish traps and fishermen

Explanation at the Huahine pearl farm

View of the eastern lagoon from the pearl farm

Hello big and blue-eyed sacred eel!

Land crabs "harvesting" pieces of baguette

After lunch and rain, it is time to go again

Waterfall on Huahine Iti - only visible in the rainy season

Local boy helping his daddy in the yard

Mailbox for... that's right... a baguette!

East side of Huahine Iti

A nice "little" birthday gift. Thank you, sweetie!