South Pacific 2007

Our last remaining dives we saved for a special place up in the Tuamotu Islands called Ringaroa. It's a series of atolls that surround a huge lagoon -- you can't even see the other side of the lagoon. We dove for 3 days straight, opting to heed the 24 hour, no-fly safety precautions. This place was incredible, we dove with dolphins...let me repeat, we dove with dolphins! And sharks -- heaps of 'em. We were lucky enough to show up during the 2 weeks of the year that the grey reef sharks mate. We also saw Turtles, a Marlin, Lion fish, Eagle rays (and got close enough to take pictures of them), eels...you name it, we probably saw it here. We also did 2 drift dives from the ocean into the lagoon through one of the two passages. When the tide is outgoing, six foot waves bound this passage, but during the incoming tide, you can ride the currents like a rollercoaster through trenches and shark breeding grounds -- it's fast and for the adventurous. We saw heaps of people cut and mangled from the experience, alas we came out unscathed.



































Adam decided once again to don a clean shaven face for the 2nd time this trip -- what a champ, always with style!





And of course we spent some time at the most expensive resort in the Tuamotus -- and got kicked out in both French and English. Of course we promptly returned only a few hours later to take some photos and video. Adam took the opportunity to work on his latest move -- ladies beware, this shit is not for the weak-kneed.

Unless you're honeymooning, a few days on Bora Bora is all you need. Home to bungalows as far as the eye can see, this island is...well...full of bungalows. Maybe we're a bit jaded from all the places we've been so far, but Bora Bora is a bit satched from our perspective.














We did get into some mind blowing diving with sharks, lion fish, turtles, rays, and eels.





We spent a day cruising around the island on a 6hp yellow warrior. The beast broke down on us regularly, but drunk driving hasn't been as much fun since high school... (Just kidding Mom)











Despite that 2 of our 3 nights in Bora Bora we heard about thefts at our pension, we have to say that our view was quite incredible -- only 40 each per night for the same view as the 400+ bungalows next door.

Initially we were quite disheartened when we found out that we couldn't take our surf boards with us. French Polynesia, birth place of surfing...no boards! This turned out to be okay though, as the surf in Huahine was pretty choppy and we probably wouldn't have surfed it anyways.


Our stay was pretty iso -- the first 3 nights we spent on the south coast in Parea. We opted for the camping style accomodation, check out our digs.





Adam made it up for several sunrises, here's a sample.





And we made friends with the local animals -- I thought Adam was allergic.





We tried to get creative with the kayaks in the surf and I ended up losing my new mask and snorkel to the lagoon. On a positive note, we got in some wake boarding -- our first ever attempts.








Our last night on Huahine was spent up in Fare, the main town on Huahine. Pretty uneventful other than some intense kayaking and great sunset shots.











We had to move some of our clothes into a quarantine zone at this point, as it has been over five weeks since we've done any laundry. At this point made an unconscious decision to switch between two shirts for the remainder of the trip -- Ozomatli and Mitch's. Since we both have one of each with us, it took some coordination!