Tautau Coral Gardens – motu on western Tahaa, Society Islands

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All the hotels, resorts and charter yachts are closed due to a COVID shutdown, so life in the lagoon is very quiet (not that there are many resorts anyway).

We’ve been exploring the motu’s around the west of Tahaa (motu’s are the small islands around the edge of the reef).

This motu is called Tautau and it’s right beside the coral gardens, which are great for a drift snorkel through the pass at vast speed! We snorkelled the pass a few times so that we could actually see the fish and coral as the first half of the pass goes in an instant as the current rapidly carries you through.

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It’s stunning here and I know I keep using that word, but it really is. The blues of the ocean and sky, contrasting with the greens of the palm and coconut trees together with white sand make it all utterly breathtaking. I’m not sure any of the photos really do it justice. The Pacific islands really are landfalls of paradise.

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We are enjoying having some quiet time here and making our own entertainment as there is barely anyone around.

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The boys love being towed on the paddle board behind the dinghy, and Felix decided to dress up as a pirate and paddle across to conquer the neighbouring boat ‘Peregrine’, much to Micheal’s (single-hander) amusement.

Random Polynesian trivia; we went to a place called Faaaha on Tahaa, (and no, miraculously I’ve not made a spelling mistake) but the thing is, in the Polynesian language you sound out every ‘a’! It’s quite a job to pronounce the place, “Fah-ah-ah-ha” on “Tah-ah-ah” without sounding like you are singing the Sound of Music!