Yesterday we took a dinghy ride and visited the church at Papetoai. The Octagonal Church was built in 1822, and is thought to be the oldest church in the South Pacific. We then dinghied over to where some tikis had been placed underwater for the tourists to find (kind of hokey), and finished up nearby the Club Mediterranee, a rather expensive hotel with a fantastic view, to snorkel with stingrays and black tipped sharks. Very cool. Actually, the best part was finding a flying gurnard fish. I know, a few of you are probably thinking "What took them so long to find a flying gurnard?" Well...for those of you who have never seen one (we hadn't before this morning) the common name is "sea robin." What a great looking fish: it has camouflage to fade into the sandy background and wings that make it look like it's flying as it's swimming around.. pretty unusual! It looks like a moth and moves slowly along the bottom, using his 'hooks on either side of his head to stir up the sand. Thanks, Sheri (sv Reflections) for sharing your pictures! This morning we motored to Cooks Bay and anchored in 67' in front of the Bali Hai Hotel. We tied our dinghy up to their dock and went inside to find the proprietor to make sure it was OK to tie up where we did, and her response was to look at us and say "This is your place...of course you can tie up there." What a welcome! We've made reservations for dinner and a Polynesian dance show tonight. The steak dinner cost 2000cfp, the chicken 1800cfp, and there were many other entrees as well. Some of our friends dinghied over from Opunohu Bay to Cooks Bay just to see the area, and we've met some other cruisers from New Caledonia as well as a French local who runs a catamaran doing day charters here for the last 12 years (actually, "met" isn't the proper term as I went out to "rescue" him as he tried to row into shore against a fresh breeze and couldn't make it, so I towed him in). The views here are beautiful, just a bit different than the views in Opunohu Bay, and it's easy to see the tremendous allure of this area. The weather is doing a bit of change, so we expect to be around here for a few days.
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