Tag Archives: gambiers

Seahorse Island

Gambiers Beauty

After several days of hosting people onboard Sugar Shack, partying, and eating like royalty, we needed to decompress!  We also needed to make water, do laundry, and scrub the boat. So, we headed to the North part of Gambiers.

On the way we passed by “Sea Horse” island…can you guess why?  Of course, in a month it will be called something different as the tree will grow and the shape will change…but still it was cool when we saw it.  It’s only in the Gambiers that we see shapes in the trees.  So pretty!

Seahorse Island

Seahorse Island

Our first stop was Two-Palm island.  When we first came to this anchorage there were three palm trees on the motu and we called it Three Palm Island (in April 2019).  One of the palms lost its top so we renamed it Two Palm Island in March 2020.  However, when we arrived in January 2021 there was only one palm tree left.  Not sure how their tops keep getting blown off, but they do.  It still does not take away from the beauty of this anchorage!

One palm island

One palm island

We took advantage of the crystal-clear water and spent 2 days making water, doing laundry and cleaning the boat.  We replenished the house batteries, filled the water tanks, and cleaned the water line. Whew!  And this is our “resting period.”

It was so nice to be back in gorgeous water!  We paddle boarded, swam, snorkeled, and enjoyed lots of water time.

After a few days it was time to meet up with some of our cruiser friends as we were taking them on a pearl farm tour.

Pearl Farm Tour: Dada

Matt and I took 3 other boats on a tour of Dada’s Pearl Farm.  It was Eve from “Auntie,” Seavett and Anaka from “Major Tom” and Russell, Kate, Choloe, Felix and Hugo from “Katherine De Fuego.”  We all anchored across the lagoon just north of Totegegie.  This is the closest anchorage to his pearl farm.  We then hopped in two dinghies and made the 1.5 nm trip across the lagoon to his pearl farm. 

I did not take a lot of photos or document what we saw because I have written about Dada’s Pearl Farm in past Gambiers posts (click here or here) to read more.  We picked a day with light wind and no swell so the journey across the lagoon would be easier and it was!

Everyone had great fun and learned a lot about farming, harvesting, and seeding pearls.

Dada's Pearl Farm Tour

Dada’s Pearl Farm Tour

Taravai Visit

We visited our good friends Valerie, Herve, Alan, and Ariki on Taravai for a few days where they showered us with love.  We had a wonderfully tasty lunch with them and enjoyed the anchorage all to ourselves.  The next day we had them over for lunch on Sugar Shack.

Valerie, Herve, Alan, Ariki

Valerie, Herve, Alan, Ariki

Matt captured some beautiful photos of the anchorage.  This is a photo looking out toward the main pass into the Gambiers lagoon.

Gambiers Pass

Gambiers Pass

This photo shows the beautiful reef

Taravai Anchorage

Taravai Anchorage

And this amazing drone shot shows the entire bay with the mountain reflecting on the water. Valerie and Herve’s house is in the middle of the bay – can you see it (to the right of the church)?

Taravai

Taravai

Taravai

Taravai in Gambiers

Stefan took us to his friend’s house where he runs a little pension (hotel) for island visitors.  They had a beautiful view.  It is called Pension Maro’i.

Pension Maro'i

Pension Maro’i

Spoiling wrotten

For many years I have dreamed of owning a long strand of pearls.  A strand so long that you could wrap it around your neck twice or wrap around your wrist.  But it is hard to pull the trigger on something like that when you are not bringing in the bacon.  I’ve looked at strands all over French Polynesia and the prettiest, most colorful pearls, with the most luster, at the most reasonable prices are here in Gambier.

When we first arrived I did not buy anything because it was our first stop in FP and I wanted to shop around to see if I could find better prices.  The second time I came back to Gambier it was covid and I did not want to spend money during the “unrest.”  Here we are the third and most likely final time and I think I am going to do it. I will just have to eat top ramon for the next 6-months 🙂

I found a long, single strand of pearls that had an amazing variety of colors on small pearls with lots of luster.  Most of the pearls are huge and don’t look well on me.  They look great on the Polynesians!  This particular strand had 130 pearls in near perfect condition.  Not 100% flawless, but colorful, with lots of luster, round, and all the same size.  The photos do not do it justice, but it is what it is.

Plan B?

But then I saw this beautiful, one of a kind creation that was 40% less expensive.  I tried them both on, looked at them in and out of the sun and asked my friends for their opinions.  If you zoom in you can see the gorgeous colors. The two outer strands are purple and pink, the two inner strands are green and blue and the center strand is pearl.  Simply gorgeous.

Funny thing is I knew what I wanted, I just couldn’t pull the trigger because it was more expensive than I wanted to spend (I am unemployed after all).  I was searching for the 2nd best thing which I knew would not make me as happy. In the end, I was able to negotiate the price of the long strand pearl necklace down.  I bought the one I loved and wanted and am thrilled to pieces.

Events from this blog post occurred in January 2021.  Our blog posts run 8 weeks behind our adventures.

SW Tip Akamaru

Explorations During Calm Weather

We did not stay long in Rikitea.  We decided to go to a new anchorage since we had calm weather.  There are several anchorages that we have not been to yet because the weather did not cooperate.  We finally had really calm weather with super light winds and no swell that were predicted to last for a few days.

Our first stop was the false pass near Totegegie. We have been to this anchorage several times, but it is a good first stop.  Being anchored here would allow us to easily access the pass during these calm weathers.  Both of us wanted to do a snorkel drift in these good conditions. Super lovely to be out here with no other boats. We did not stay long at the false pass as we wanted to head to a new anchorage on the SW tip of Akamaru.  Our friends on Hoodoo tried to anchor here during our last visit but the swell made it uncomfortable.  I must admit it is a little scary coming into the anchorage as you have to go over a reef.  We had about 1-2 meters under our rudders, but still gets your heart pumping.

SW Tip Akamaru

SW Tip Akamaru

We had some spectacular sunsets with pretty pink clouds.

We took the dinghy to shore to walk the beach and found that there is actually sand on the beach!  Not coral or broken shells, but sand.  How lovely.

The view over the reef back to Sugar Shack was super pretty.

SW Tip of Akamaru

SW Tip of Akamaru

Sugar Shack against the SW tip of Akamaru during perfectly calm weather.

After a very brief rain we received a beautiful rainbow…

We head back to Rikitea for a number of reasons.  1) the supply ship is schedule to come either the 24th or the 25th of December and we want to be there to get some fresh produce; 2) the weather is shifting and will be better for us to be in the protected bay of Rikitea; 3) we wanted to celebrate Christmas with our friends and go to local church.

Events from this blog post occurred around the second week of December, 2020.  Our blog posts run 8 weeks behind our adventures.

View half way up the mountain

Gambiers Welcomes Us Back

What a pleasant surprise to pull into Rikitea (the main anchorage) with only 3 other boats!  If you remember from last season, we left when there were 35 boats in the same anchorage.  We found out that there are only 6-7 boats in all of Gambiers which is amazing and refreshing.  I am sure that will change once February rolls around that seems to be the time when the wind provides a better shot to this beautiful archipelago.

The weather was sunny, blue skies, and calm waters.  Rikitea had blue water and not the awful green murky water it’s known for.  Simply beautiful. We went ashore to see if we could find some fresh produce but most of the magasins (markets) were either empty or low on stock and quality.  The supply ships are coming soon.  We made a stop at Phillipe (the brioche guy) to do some internetting as we had been offline for 2.5 weeks and were not surprised by the very slow speeds!  Could not upload a photo to the blog and it took an extreme amount of patience to get to a website. Oh well, nothing new there.

Hike Around Mt. Duff

I am pretty sure Matt hoodwinked me.  He said he wanted to hike around Mt. Duff and hoped to collect some produce.  I should have asked for clarification about the hike as I was not ready for it at all.  It started out nice enough along the main road, behind the huge St. Michael cathedral and up toward the gap that separates Mt. Duff and Mt. Mokoto. 

The main road takes you past the Gambiers cemetery which has a mausoleum (which looks like a small church).  Inside the mausoleum is one grave.

Gambiers cemetery

Gambiers cemetery

Many of the gravestones have photos of the decease and either flowers or shells adorning the gravesite.

This same road takes you by the recycling area and the gravel yard.  The locals recycle cans, aluminum and glass.  Unfortunately, they do not recycle plastic yet.  If you go further down the road you will come to their dump, I did not think you needed to see that site.

Gambiers Recycling

Gambiers Recycling

We found a few papayas on the side of the road and loaded them into our back packs. 

Just before the turn off to the main trail we had this pretty view of the anchorage.  Can you see Sugar Shack?

And the view the other way is equally pretty.

Aukena in the distance

Aukena in the distance

Once we reached the trail, we had already walked 3.2 miles (7,865 steps, 30 floors).  Yep, I was tired already and we have not even started the trail.  What did I get myself into?  Clearly, I am out of shape.

The start of the trail

The start of the trail

A higher view of the anchorage from the trail.  The water color is just magnificent, don’t you think?

View half way up the mountain

View half way up the mountain

The Trail

The locals must have just cleared the trail as it was lovely and easy to walk on.  Usually the trail is covered in raspberry bushes, overgrowth, pine needles and such.  There are a few areas where you still have to traverse across a landslide, climb over a tree, scurry over rocks, and wade through pine needles.  But for the most part the trail was awesome.

Along the first part of the trail (as you go up toward the gap between the two mountains) you will find lots of informative signs about the plants and trees.

Many types of ferns, coconut trees…

Flowering bushes and trees

Huge Elephant ear plants and grass

And more ferns and grass.

We found tons of fresh fruit including papaya, raspberries, chili peppers, pomplemouse, noni, oranges, limes, avocado, tomatoes, lychee, and mangos.  Most of the fruit was not ready for picking so we let it continue to mature.  But we did come away with raspberries, papaya, lychee, and pomplemouse.

So many fruit, so little time....

So many fruit, so little time….

You might wonder what lychee is. We had heard about this delicious fruit for two seasons.  This fruit only grows in cool climates like Gambiers and Australs and it only blooms in December.  Lychee is red and you peel it like an orange and then eat the tasty white nectar around the seed.  It is super sweet and divine!

Lychee the sweetest fruit

Lychee the sweetest fruit

Summit

We finally reach the summit.  Keep in mind that the gap summit is nowhere near the top of Mt. Duff or Mt. Mokoto.  It is tall, but not as tall as the two mountains.  But the views are superb.

Total hike was 6.8 miles, 16,757 steps and 93 floors.    If you look at this map, we took the black road that starts at Rikitea (top right), went down (bottom right), to the orange trail.  Then we took the orange trail up and over back to the red “You are here” bubble which connected back up with the black zig zag line and took us back to town. 

The gap between Mt. Duff (on right) and Mt. Mokoto (left).  We hiked between the two peaks.

By the time we got back to the boat, I was exhausted.  I poured a cold drink, took some advice, hopped in the shower, and then collapsed on the couch where I stayed for the rest of the evening.  Yeah me!

Matt:  My Goat

Matt is truly part goat. I  say that in a loving and admiring way.  He has incredible stamina and can hike for miles and miles and miles without getting tired.  When I work on the blog he goes for a hike or a walk.  Part of me is jealous as I’d love to go exploring with him, but part of me is relieved.  One because I can’t keep up with him and two because he is far more adventurous than I am.

One afternoon I spent well over 5 hours working on the internet (blog, banking, etc…).  Matt hiked over 10 miles around the tip of Mangareva.  He finally came back exhausted, bumped, and bruised, and tired.  It was the first time, in a long time, that I had seen him spent.  The photo says “8” miles but it was really 10!

Events from this blog post occurred around 12 December, 2020.  Our blog posts run 8 weeks behind our adventures.