Usually life in the Gambier is very quiet, but the past two weeks have been quite eventful. We had a wonderful potluck/BBQ on christmas day with our Polynesian friends on Taravai and got to know 4 other cruising boats who spend the cyclone season here (11 in total). In Rikitea the community set up a party shed on the 30th and there were snacks and music for 3 days (the people usually didn’t arrive beore 1 in the morning, but then the party continued without a break the next morning…). On the first of January we motored back to Taravai (hectically cooking under way) for another lovely BBQ at lunch time.
Yesterday we had breakfast with the view of the pine-forested mountains of Taravai, then we lifted the anchor and only 10 miles further we anchored in front of the kitchy beautiful motu Kouaku, which is just a strip of fine white sand, shrubs on top and lots of nesting birds. This diversity in such a small archipelago makes the Gambier so special for us…
This morning there was almost no wind, the lagoon was mirror-like calm and we had coffee on deck looking out on the incredible panorama all around us: the white sand of the motu gleaming behind us, the turquoise lagoon dotted with large, colourful reefs, the rugged peaks of of the little rock islands Kamaka, Manui and Makaroa in the west, the silhouettes of the mountainous islands of Akamaru, Aukena and Mangareva in the NW and the chain of motus stretching out northwards along the barrier reef–it’s just mindboggingly beautiful here 
