Geoff, Nick and Mike finished their golf and arranged to meet us at the Sheraton for lunch. Have to say we were a little bit sneaky and got out of the taxi and just walked in to the hotel and found ourselves a set of sun loungers around the pool

Vegetable life on the motus is dominated by the coconut palm, whose tolerance for the salty environment and poor sandy soil is beyond belief.

We sailed right up to the top of the Yasawas and have anchored in the most beautiful bay. Once again, we made our way onto the beach to pay our respects to the Chief who was sitting under a tree with some of the other local gentleman.

A lovely sunny day to welcome Geoff’s son Mike and his family, and his friend Sam and family,  who arrived early afternoon.  We picked them up from Denarau Port and set off immediately

We left Levuka, had a lovely sail and spent two nights anchored around Voli Voli just us, not a soul or boat in sight, so peaceful. 

Before the British took over Fiji as a colony, the Fijian government was headquartered at the village of Levuka, on the island of Ovalau.

We sailed into Savusavu at 12.30pm and found a mooring in Nakama Creek. Savusavu is on the island of Vanua Levu and is an area of old plantations, a whaling station from years back and Fiji’s newest Port of Entry.

We had decided to leave so Geoff and I went to the Gendarmerie to get our clearance papers, usually an easy formality…

Huahine (the authentic island), Raiatea (the sacred island), Bora Bora (pearls of the Pacific), Tahaa (the vanilla island), Maupitip[p (the nature island)

We arrived in Raiatea and retrieved all our baggage, Geoff ran out and flagged down the only taxi before it became a free for all.

We arrived in Papeete at the ungodly hour of 2.00am with a lot of baggage – and all sorts of boat parts.

Blogs will resume this week!

I am now back in Auckland catching up with my family after almost 5 months away.  I fly back to Papeete on 8 August - so watch this space!

Raiatea lies about 20 miles westward of Huahine and we have set off on the most glorious sunny  morning.  

Tahitian pearl farming can produce black pearls which mean the marine cultured pearls produced from the black lip pearl oyster shell.

The Tuamotus certainly lived up to our expectations, plenty of crystal clear blue waters and fabulous snorkelling and diving. Now we’re moving on to the Society Islands.

The Society Islands are made up of twelve major islands divided into a Windward cluster of five and a Leeward cluster of seven islands.

Rangiroa is Tuamotuan for “vast sky” and is the largest atoll in the Tuamotus, and one of the largest in the world, it’s 40 miles long and 17 miles wide at its widest point.

Since October 2006, the commune of Fakarava has been classified as a Biosphere Reserve in UNESCO’s World Heritage due to its specific characteristics and its natural and cultural heritage.

Anchor up and we are off to the Tuamoto Archipelago, first stop Raroia.  It’s about a two day sail so we should be there around lunchtime on Monday.