Pitufa.at

Finally the weather’s sunny and warm and we’ve started making dinghy excursions. Yesterday we visited Herve and Valerie (the caretakers of the village of Taravai) and got news of all the boats that we met here last time around–Valerie’s good at keeping in touch with people. We brought them a few presents (cookies, books, etc.) and in return Herve took us for a walk in the gardens, picking lychees, avocados, soursop, lemons, coconuts, bananas and papayas.
Today we set out prepared with long trousers, hiking boots and a machete to hike up to the peak of the little island Agakauitai next to our anchorage. Despite of our equipment we first got stuck in a swamp, walked around it only to be stranded in meterhigh, sharpleaved reed. We gave up and and decided to use the combination of low tide and strong footgear to climb on the volcanic rocks along the shore of the island. It turned out to be delightful: we climbed over colourful rock formations, found tidal pools teeming with life, little white beaches in between and all that with a view of the fringe reef surrounded by glittering turquoise, azure and green sea. The water’s so clear that we could watch the colourful reef fish from shore.