Rurutu and first morning Moorea
Well, I didn’t expect to be offline so long but here I am back…..
After the last entry I flew over to Rurutu, a small island on the Australs, an 1,5 hours flight from Tahiti. This is where the humpback whales come to make more little humpbacks… 😉 I will not start to tell on a day by day basis as this would take too long but let me tell you that it was an amazing experience to see them under water. In Rurutu you learn fast NEVER to be without camera and while being on the beach you have to watch the horizon constantly and have the camera ready at all times. One evening we saw the whales for about half an hour playing around (spy hopping – i.e. looking out of the water and waving with their fins). The last morning I saw one of the whales jump 5 times. It was incredible. Unfortunately the pics of the breeching whale are not good as it was early and still to dark. The first morning one of them breeched very close to our boat but I didn’t have my camera ready as we were getting ready to get in the water again.
Two days ago we followed two male humpbacks all morning. They came up every now and then but then went down again to sleep. So we had time enough to watch them. One was really quiet and sleeping while the other one stood upright (but head down) and his white fluke sparkling in the sun. When they came up once one of them came directly on me so I tried to get out of the way… wasn’t afraid but I preferred not to bump into him. I have some awsome pictures from that morning as the water was clear. The first morning we were with mother and calf (and the two males) but there was too much sand and bubbles in the water so I was disappointed when I saw the pics. Yesterday I went again in the morning as our flight left only at 2 and we saw the whales mating. Everybody else heard them sing except me…. didn’t pay attention to whale songs (unfortunately).
Our flight from Rurutu was not really fun. They had to fuel the plane (which they did with barrels and a pomp 🙂 ) and we left late. Had to go to another island then where we had to wait 20 minuts for the flight documents so I was waiting for my luggage in Tahiti when my flight to Moorea was planed to depart… what I didn’t know was that this flight no longer exist. 4 weeks ago a plane from Air Moorea crashed and Air Moorea has lost the flight licence last monday. I had thought I was flying Air Tahiti so I hadn’t paid attention to that news but it turned out that AIr Tahiti has taken over the Air Moorea flights and their flight was half an hour later…. So I arrived half an hour later than planned in Moorea (but having know before I would have an much more comfortable flight…. ).
This morning I went diving and we saw black tip reef sharks and some grey sharks. After seeing the humpbacks they don’t make me nervous any more… 😀
I guess I am having a once in a lifetime vacation…. enjoying every minute of it…
Wanted to post at least two humpback pics but this computer doesn’t have an USB-slot.
Getting back to you before I leave an tuesday morning and then I will probably off again for a couple of days…. on the small islands you never know…. after having been on Easter Island and Rurutu, Moorea is kind of a culture shock for me. I am not used any more to so many people…. 🙂