Our first stop in Aitutaki was at the Tavake Cafe recommended to us by our nextdoor neighbors, sailing vessel Antali. We wandered down the main road, stumbling upon the beachfront burgers pretty quickly. The minced patties were banging, washed down with well earnt beers. Denise’s ale “barely hit the sides”. During lunch, Steve brought up the fantastic idea of organizing a snorkel tour to see some of the local spots, so John and I set off to the tourism office to see what we could find. We were recommended going out with a local company called Wet n Wild, and after a quick chat with Quentin, we had arranged a tour for the next morning.

After lunch, the crew all returned to the boat to find whatever clean clothes we had left, as we had been invited to a happy hour on the wharf by the other cruisers! Andrea and Denise had managed to source a bag of ice, which is nothing short of a delicacy after living on a boat for so long! Despite the passing showers, happy hour G&T’s were enjoyed as the sun went down.

The next morning we were up bright and early, ready for our snorkel adventure! Our first stop was to see the giant clam farms, some of them growing to be the size of a large child! The clams actually seemed to glow the closer you got to them, all different colors! They were absolutely mesmerizing, making it hard to want to leave and head to our next stop. Michael armed with his GoPro managed again to get some awesome footage. But good thing we did, as next up on the tour was the GT’s, the Giant Trevally fish.

Before we were even off the boat and in the water, we could see the GT’s start circling us. Not the most welcoming of sights, but we all jumped in once again. They were clearly very used to snorkelers, as they stayed by the boat the whole time we were there (there may have been some persuasion in the form of old banana fish food). From there we headed off to the famous Honeymoon Island, a very popular windsurfing spot/romantic getaway.

Our final snorkel was what our guides “QJ and Abs” called the coral maze, with an abundance of reef fish and coral spread out along the barrier reef. The morning was finished off with a fresh coconut each, the icing on the cake after an incredible morning in the water.

Cheers,

Liv

GT’s and G&T’s

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