More geckos abounded
Sunday we got up around 7:30am to grab some quick breakfast before our all day Maraamu boat excursion. We left the docks with three other couples and the family running the excursion at 9am.
Our first stop was what used to be Manta Point, before the construction started on two new hotels right at that area: the new Ritz Carlton and (another!!!) Intercontinental Hotel. The last time folks saw mantas there was about 4 months ago. Now the only place anyone sees them anymore is in the Pass, and 9 times out of 10 the conditiions are too bad to dive there. Bastards.
After a very pleasant (but manta-free) 45 minutes snorkeling, we climbed back into the boat and headed north to a private motu owned by the family, where waited the three friendliest stingrays I've ever seen!
Maude (one of the guides) had them eating fish out of her hand while they rubbed on and glided all over her and everyone else in the water. It was amazing to see these wild creatures tamed and clearly affectionate. Certainly the food had much to do with it, but despite being free to come and go, they seemed genuinely friendly. Dogs? Yes. Cats? Sometimes, sure. But I guess I've never given fish enough credit in the intelligence department. :)
After we'd played with them for a good while, we enjoyed our second coconut show of the trip, and I got to both shuck a couple of coconuts in the Tahitian way, and learn how to (and somewhat successfully try to) climb a coconut tree.
After spending some time on shore, we put on our fins back on and went snorkeling over and through a beautiful coral garden.
Part way through the swim, I noticed a profusion of sea urchins in the area. In fact several coral heads seemed to be filled with the spiny black beasts. And when we reached a point with a depression where our guide had us stop for a bit, I saw a stone on the lagoon floor that was _covered_ with broken urchin bristles. The mystery was solved when our guide used a long sharp stick to extract a half dozen urchins from a nearby coral head and line them up for the slaughter. :) They were too small to get any good human-edible meat out of them, but a few whacks from the long stick broke each one open, and the fish had a feast.
We swam back to the beach and boat through a surprising collection of water temperatures. Had I not known better, I'd have suspected alternating hot and cold springs scattered about the lagoon. I know it was the sun, but still... Wow vertically oriented thermoclines!
Once back, we watched another one of the guides use bait fish to try to lure some small sharks into the immediate area, but the current was moving in the wrong direction (out to sea through the barrier reef, instead of in toward the lagoon from which sharks could come), so the stingrays simply enjoyed more food.
Lunch followed. It was grilled everything, including my first taste of the flavorless Breadfruit(tm). Everything else: fish, ham, sausage, chicken and veggies was very tasty. After lunch, Ned led us on a hike out to the old coral head - once submerged, now part of the motu. He showed us the saltwater-drinking tree with weapon-worthy wood and explained how to catch an octopus while walking the reef: Tow a small piece of shell behind you on a string. When an octopus grabs it to eat, grab the octopus. :) Tasty.
After the hike we played with the rays a bit more, then napped in the shade a bit. Around 2:30pm we left the motu to continue our trip around the island.
Our final stop before returning to Club Med was a sandy-bottomed shallows in the southwest of the lagoon teeming with rays, amongst which we swam and waded some more.
After a quarter hour we continued on, finishing our circumnavigation of the island back at Club Med docks. It was a fine time, but I ended up with a rather sunburned back - a result of my foolish decision not to wear a shirt while snorkeling. I'd been very good about such things for the entire trip, but alas I succumbed to the idea that I'd somehow become a bit more adapted in that time. Not so much, really. At least it wasn't too bad - no peeling at all, and wearing a shirt isn't too uncomfortable, so such is life.
We came back to an excellent final dinner with these philo dough egg and fish pot-pie kind of things that were amazingly tasty. We also got a chance to swap contact info with Ron, and see the Fire Dancing show again, it being Sunday. Megan didn't get pulled up this time, but we did have mostly front-row seats. :)
The following morning, we were up, breakfasted, packed and out of our room by 10am to have a nice day of sitting in the bar and grabbing our final lunch with a couple of G.O.s, including Ed. It turns out that Ed climbs the mountain trail by himself pretty regularly and he shared our view of the asshole guide we met on the trail. :) We also got a CD with the few pictures we'd gotten taken by the professional photographer who roams the Club. At 3:30 we hopped the shuttle to Vaitapee, then the 4pm boat to BOB, then our 5:45pm ATR72 flight to PPT via Reatea, where we cooled our heels (along with clearing the pearls through customs) until our surprisingly comfortable 11:45pm redeye into LAX. We didn't make it quite early enough to catch the 11:40am to PIT, so we stayed with our "check into LAX Marriott for 9 hours" plan. It was so nice to have a comfy bed in which to rest instead of an LAX chair. But now we're here sitting in LAX waiting for our 11:30pm red-eye back to PIT, and in about 6 hours or so we should be on the ground, driving home to two cute little kitties. Let's keep hoping those 3 first class seats stay unsold... (No such luck, as it turned out... ah, well.)