Raiatea & Taha'a

From our port in Raiatea we boarded a small boat and set out across the crystal clear waters for the island of Taha'a, where we boarded 4 x 4 trucks and headed to a vanilla plantation. We learned about the growing and processing of vanilla beans and we bought a bottle of vanilla extract to bring home.
Next we visited a pearl farm where we were shown how they slightly open the oyster and insert a round piece of shell from Mississippi into the gonad of this animal to grow a pearl. Beside the shell, they also insert a tiny piece of coloured oyster shell and in 18 months, they will harvest a pearl. This can be repeated 5 times per oyster.
In the shop, beautiful pearls we're on sale, but most were outside my price range.
We had fresh fruit at a viewpoint overlooking the bay and were taught the haka dance. Our tour finished with snorkeling in this beautiful tourquoise ocean where parrot fish and others caught our eye.Weiterlesen