Makatea Atoll has an amazing geological history which fascinated us today and made for a lovely adventure. Makatea is a raised or uplifted atoll, and so we spent the whole day walking on top of ancient coral reefs overgrown with jungle, or swimming underneath an ancient reef. The approach to the landing was quite wavy and rainy, suggesting we were really in for an adventure in the morning. Once ashore, we loaded up on trucks up the hill, and some of us hiked to the top of the island where we had a fantastic view at the Belvedere lookout! We could see the spectacular limestone cliffs raised above the sea. Then, we walked down across the ancient lagoon, now a forest, down to a cave system, where we swam into a stunning grotto. We could see the bottom of ancient coral and how dissolved coral then became stalactites and stalagmites. In the afternoon we snorkeled in the clear and rich waters off the northern end, with very healthy coral, and some of us even saw black-tipped and white-tipped reef sharks!
9/20/2022
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Tahanea Atoll, Tuamotu Archipelago, French Polynesia
Entering the pass of an atoll in French Polynesia is always a beautiful way to start the day. This morning we arrived at Tahanea, a small island with no permanent population. The water here is some of the clearest our staff have ever seen in this region. With winds and currents to contend with, our divers found a beautiful site to spend some time underwater. They enjoyed a healthy coral reef, some sharks, and large fish. On their way back to the ship they even found some manta rays and jumped in the water to snorkel with them. The rest of us split into two groups: the hikers and the swimmers. The hike ashore was full of birds and plants to observe and photograph. The swimmers launched from the snorkel platform into crystal water where they poked around the coral heads and grew even more comfortable swimming with reef sharks. We had an afternoon aboard. We began with a presentation by our guest speaker Tom Ritchie about the most useful plants in Polynesia. At tea time, the hotel team put out 13 different sweet treats, not to mention the sandwiches and fruit. Before recap, undersea specialist James Hyde gave us a condensed history of the natural world—starting with the big bang! Tomorrow will be a busy day for us as we transit to some islands we have never visited before. So it’s quiet on board this evening as we all head to bed to rest up for whatever tomorrow has in store.
