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Although the wind was blowing all night the water was a little choppy but we had a good night’s sleep. We were up at daybreak we had breakfast and a little tidy up before heading ashore to clear customs. We found the little office on the wharf and we were welcomed by a friendly officer wearing a blue flowers shirt with Polynesian flower necklace. It’s good that B is French as the signage and paperwork was in French and the customs officer only spoke French.

After completing the customs paper work, he called the police to come to do the immigration side of things. The two officers that arrived spoke both English and French. Both of them were also very friendly and after all the official documents signed and stamped we had a chat with them, talking about their life on the island. One of them even invited B to go play indoor volleyball.

Once we were officially allowed into the country, we walked 3km to the supermarket. B thought she was in heaven, or at least in France. She was like a kid in a toy shop, going along the shelves saying “that is so delicious, you have to try this, you have to try that”. She even keep talking French to me as she has some difficulty to go from one to the other language Now she is playing French music. After getting a few more things than we needed, we hitched a ride back to Imagine. In a couple of minutes just outside of the supermarket 3 ladies in a car stopped and invited us to get in the car. They took us back to the wharf and mentioned that if any help needed just go to the “Préfecture” ( Police headquarters) and ask for Janine or Caroline.

With high winds predicted we moved to the south west end of the island. We swam and planned to settle down there for a few days rest. This place is called the blue lagoon which is an atoll inside the main atoll. This means that we are surrounded by reefs.