patriciawatt

Some one asked me the other day which was my favourite port or country on this trip, and I couldn’t really come up with an answer.  I liked or was fascinated by so many different places.

But I know now.  It’s French Polynesia.  I love this part of the world.  It seems like all the nonsense and strife and problems of the rest of the world are so far away from here.  Plus it is so beautiful.  I have never seen such clear blue waters.  Sapphire, indigo and turquoise and beautiful white sand beaches.  Islands & atolls.  Jagged volcanic peaks and wonderful reef ringed lagoons.  A myriad of fish of all colours and sizes.  You can understand why Herman Melville jumped ship to stay here and then wrote a book – Typee – based on his experiences on Nuka’Hiva.   And I have to read James Michener’s Tales of the South Pacific and Hawaii once again. One of my favourite broadway musicals has always been South Pacific.  The coral reefs for the most part are still healthy.  I AM COMING BACK. And if I wore a younger woman’s clothes, I think I would consider moving here.

I have snorkelled and swam with sharks and turtles and moray eels.  I have fed the fish and had hundreds swarm me and give me fish kisses as I fed them, and I have just sat on a chaise near the ocean and let the sounds of the surf wash over me and cleanse my soul.  I have kayaked in the ocean, and I have watched a man meticulously remove a beautiful pearl from an oyster using dental instruments, surgically remove the black lip to use part of it again it to create the same colour in another oyster, and then replace that beautiful pearl with the white nucleus that will form the next beautiful pearl.

I have loved the people here.  Gentle and friendly and unsophisticated in a beautiful way.   From the Society Islands, to the Australs, to the Tuamotus, to the Marquesas, it is all magical.  I think it is the most wonderful part of the world and my voyage.