Shinny Boats and Little Goats

Our parking spot inside Opunohu Bay on Moorea is very interesting in that it is the play ground of the large - and I mean large! - private yachts. In the three days that we are here there are two nearly 200 ft yachts, each with their harem of water toys and two elegant sailing vessels one nearing 200 ft and the other a very graciously styled three mast ship of 300 +ft. We are definitely slumming it here. These vessels are each so beautiful in their own ways, the sailing ships with their lines and style and the power vessels with their utter opulence. It's not really "peeping Tom" activity when you openly stand on your back deck with the binoculars and check them all out - Is it?

So here's the scoop on the "great restaurant" we were directed to for dinner. Chez Vina. Sunday is supposed to be their "Traditional Polynesian Oven" day. So I phoned on Sat. for a reservation.
"Alow?"
"Hello, Do you speak English?"
"A leetle beet."
"Are you open for dinner tomorrow night? Could I make a reservation for two people?"
"Oui." (Yes - in French - good I can understand that much)
"Could you pick us up, we are on a boat and do not have a car?"
"Oui."
So we manage to get that ironed out - we are never really sure that they have understood us or we have understood them, but we have nothing but time here so we are learning patience. 6:00 pm at the Protestant Church by the Papeotai Boat Quay is our pick up time. After I hang up I realize that they don't know our name or description and that we don't know what kind of vehicle to look for. Glen says - Relax, we'll be the only white, non French speaking, out of place looking, people waiting by the church. O.K. so now we are waiting by the church and it is 6:00 pm, we know to phone again as it seems they like to send a pick-up once they know you are there instead of arriving as planned (Go Figure!) The driver will be a bit late - no problem - we are occupied watching the Family day events wind down in the park area. The Polynesian people really do take their weekends seriously. They have organized picnics with sports competitions and music every free day, not just special occasions. Our driver arrives at 6:30 and it is dark now so he drives by us once and we stand in the middle of the road the next time by so he has to stop. He is Serge, the owner of the restaurant and we are riding in his vintage 1980 Volvo. Serge opens and closes the doors for us "Because they are a little temperamental!" Serge is French and has been in Moorea for more than 25 years and he has had this car for all that time. He has a little farm on the mountain side and he has just come from finishing his chores. When we arrive at the restaurant, we are the only people there (typically not a good sign). Serge gives us our menus and goes off to get us a couple of Hinano (Tahitian made beer). According to the menu, we have goofed up, the Traditional Polynesian Oven Feast is at noon, every Sunday - Now what are we going to choose? Serge plops our beers down and asks what we would like to eat and since I get to speak first, I whine that we had really hoped to have the Traditional Oven meal, but we see unfortunately that we have missed it. "Pas de problem, Madam" (No problem, Madam - whew, my high school French is paying off) Serge goes on to explain that the Traditional Oven is a great thing because the people cook the food in the covered pit and eat what they need then recover the pit and the food can be eaten like this for two days. So we indeed can have the Traditional meal and the feast begins. Six courses of wonderful flavors and accompaniments. We have special entertainment tonight - Serge has a little 15 day old goat kid that he is bottle feeding and the little guy has the run of the restaurant (only in French Polynesia!) The little goat follows Serge around like a little dog, because he thinks Serge is his Mama. He comes bounding sideways out of the kitchen, his little hooves spinning on the smooth tiles, then he bleats in complaint when his tether rope (which isn't tethered) gets tangled around some chair legs and holds him in one spot. He is hilarious. The food was great, the entertainment special and we have another good memory from our travels.

We are on the down stokes of our time here, getting ready to go home again. We spend our last lazy days in Moorea polishing the stainless and diving. We are going to need a holiday from our holiday (Not). Lucky for us we choose to head back to Papeete, Tahiti and Marina Taina very early in the morning on July 28 and get into the Tahiti lagoon just as the wind rises to 25 knots, thus missing the impending bad weather that is about to blow out in the open. We are happy to find that we get a standard side dock tie instead of the med moor we had last time. Back at the marina, our social calander quickly fills our remaining days - dinner with our South African friends, a BBQ with our neighboring sail boat and pizza with our Australian/Italian friends. We give the boat a good bath and ready everything to be closed down for the time period we will be gone. Things have been great out here, but we are actually looking forward to going home to Calgary for a while. We fly out on July 31 and will be back to Tahiti on Aug 30. When we return, we will be heading to Suwarrow in the Cook Islands and then on to Samoa. Our time at home will be spent researching where to go and what to see when we get there. Can't wait.