Anyways. We were very excited for Rangiroa (Range-i-row-ah). It's a tiny flat island with almost nothing on it. It actually amazed us that there were actual people who lived there. Literally it's in the shape of a horseshoe and about 200 yards wide at it's widest point. It's not a completely intact horseshoe and the ocean comes through it (looks like a river at each breaking point) several times. We did literally walk from one side of the island to the other a couple of times. Ethan discovered you shouldn't just go tromping into the grass to find a tree to pee on. He was rewarded with thorny stickers all over him.
Somehow my pictures are in the wrong order so first you'll get the afternoon.
In the morning we snorkeled while Grams and Grandpa took Isaac and Miles on a glassbottom boat ride. That wasn't enough activity for them so after lunch we headed back to explore. And there wasn't much to explore so we snagged a bus to the main attraction which was a Black Pearl Farm. Apparently black pearls are THE thing to buy in French Polynesia and the price certainly reflects that. We walked around observing the whole operation- actually just amazing to see them crack open these oysters and find a pearl every time. Turns out these aren't natural pearls as those are very rare, but instead, they surgically add a grain or sand or other irritant to the oyster and let a pearl form that way. Then they're guaranteed more success.
The little boys were more interested int he waves than the clams.
And this is how they entertained themselves while we shopped for a few of the reject pearls which in my opinion are actually cooler than the real one. They have rings and funny shapes and bizarre colors and are very unique.
A few minutes after we boarded our bus to head back to the ship, Miles (who was sitting on my lap because of space issues) started really scratching under his arms. I looked at them and he had this intense red rash all over them. Not thinking much of it, we continued on our way. 1 Minute after we got off the bus while we were just walking around, he randomly threw up. Ethan and Isaac had been begging to play in the sand and in fact every time we stopped for even 1 second, they instantly plopped themselves down and started forming mounds. So Taylor stayed behind to let them play and I took Miles back to the ship thinking maybe he had the flu. As we rode the tender back he started just absolutely freaking out- in the way only a 2 year old can and he started scratching his entire body and just flipping out. Upon examination, his crazy red, bumpy white rash had now (just 5 minutes after just being under his arms) spread to almost his entire body- behind his knees, on his neck, behind his ears, on his face, up and down is arms and legs and stomach. So we dashed on board as quick as we could and gave him several doses of benadryl. It took a few hours for the rash to go away but he didn't throw up once and so unfortunately we think that means he's probably allergic to shellfish of some kind. Who knows? For now we're avoiding them which is pretty easy in Salt Lake, and thankfully he didn't have a more severe reaction.
Okay so now for the morning. We arrived in Rangiroa and were excited to get off the ship and get to our 9am snorkeling excursion. We got on land and were waiting for our boat when the heavens parted and literally DUMPED. This was not rain, this was not even Florida rain, this was being under a waterfall dumping rain! We jumped in our boat as soon as we could but we were soaked, and it kept coming, and as we drove the wind didn't help anyone stay warm. After a few minutes everyone in the boat was dieing laughing because honestly what else could you do. We got to the spot where we were going to snorkel and everyone just sat there- still getting soaked but not really wanting to even move to get in. The guides assured us that we should get in and that the water would be warmer and amazingly they were right. It felt like bathwater. Like jumping in a nice warm bath after being out in a rainstorm. And even though the rain didn't let up, the water was warm enough that we didn't even notice it after we were in.
When we decided to join the family for this trip, Taylor made some decisions- first he'd get scuba certified becuase what was the point of coming to the best place on earth for scuba diving and not being able to go (unfortunately pregnancy precluded me from this) and secondly he decided to invest in scuba/snorkel gear to make things easier and also an underwater camera since what's the point of seeing the cool fish if you can't show them off.
So here's just a few of his pictures. It was his first time using it so he was still figuring things out and the water was really cloudy because of the wind and rain. See what a gray day it is?
All of Taylor's siblings and spouses/fiances joined us for snorkeling and we brought Ethan along for his first snorkel experience. He was great after the first few minutes of figuring out the not breathing through your nose things. He didn't stay out for the whole 1 1/2 hours though because it really was a lot of work to swim with the big waves.
Taylor and Ethan holding hands.
And then Ethan holding hands with me. I have to admit if I was just 6 that I'd be a little freaked out to be in the middle of the ocean trying to breathe in a funny way and getting sloshed around by big waves, I'd want someone's hand too.
Luckily this was our first dive so we didn't really how cloudy the water was. Still we were amazed by the thousands of fish and beautiful coral we saw.
Kind of a little intimidating to be swimming and suddenly an entire school of fish comes at you very fast- makes you think, huh, what's chasing them on the other side that I'm going to run head-on into?
We spent a good while watching a group of moray eels dart out of their holes, hiss at fish (and Taylor who kept trying to get closer for a picture), and even leave their holes to catch something.
If you look close you can see this one hissing at Taylor with his mouth open.
This one is my favorite - the parrot fish. Taylor's mom actually ate one their last day and said it tasted just like other fish. Still kind of weirds me out that you'd eat him. He's so pretty.
A really great adventure and so fun to have Taylor's siblings and Ethan along with us!
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