Maeva

Around 9:30 we were ready and went ashore for our hike to Maeva. We briefly looked at hiring bikes (or at least an extra bike as we already have two) but decided against the idea in favour of walking. The hike was around 6km to where the archaeological site is. A lot of the way was along the side of a stretch of water connected to the sea at one end called the lake. It was all very pretty. Along the way Ben set us a maths problem. We had to make the number 24 using just the four numbers (once each and only once) 1,3,4 & 6, the four standard operations (+,-,/,x) and parenthesis/brackets. It was infuriating but once the trick was found both Helen and I solved it.

The ruins were quite extensive and in a lot of places partially restored. There was a boat hut that appeared to have been reconstructed but it was out of bounds so we could not investigate further. Our guide book stated there should be a museum nearby so we walked into the town of Maeva but could not find it. We walked back to the ruins and up a foot path to find more of the marae – ruins. There were a lot of noisy school kids around the first set of ruins/banyon tree so we soon pushed on upwards to where we were on our own with a pleasant view over the sea to the north.

We decided against following the path onwards and headed back the way we came. Walking back along the road we soon managed to hitch a lift with a local lady who was singing along to French songs. In town we picked up some sandwich rolls from the supermarket which we ate going back to the dinghy. At this point we’d decided to leave the anchorage in the afternoon and head down south to where the snorkeling is supposed to be really good.

Heading back to the boat we noticed Renova had arrived. We went over to greet them and hand over a pair of shoes Naomi had left aboard our dinghy after the ride to the rays in Moorea. We gave them the low down of the land and soon had agreed to stay in the anchorage and meet them for Happy Hour.

As the afternoon wore on more of our friends arrived: Kamaya, Victoria, Dilan & Escapade showed up in the anchorage. We soon had a few more folks invited to Happy Hour. I spent the afternoon doing computer stuff still not getting round to work on the head sail.

We ate our dinner before heading out for Happy Hour. Another great time with friends was had on the waterfront. Back on the boat we watched a couple of episodes of 24 before retiring.

Today we definitely will head south and definitely might work on the head sail.