“Huahine” was the next stop on our island hopping tour for the last 2 1/2 days. Far away from tourism (actually hardly anyone knows the island, as all package tourists go straight to “Moorea” and “Bora Bora”), this island is definitely still a top secret travel destination! It actually consists of two little islands called “Huahine nui” and “Huahine iti” which are surrounded by a broad reef and bathed in a huge lagoon where also tiny little sandy islets- so called “motus” are located. We actually stayed on one of those “motus” in the beautiful eco-acommodation “au motu Mahare”, run by a young French-English couple with their cute little daughter Daisy. They both quit their jobs in France eight years ago, to build this hotel from scratch by themselves only using local materials. When they arrived, there was only a wild island full of coconut trees, now there is their home, two sleeping huts and bathroom huts for guests plus a communal kitchen- all done and decorated with a lot of taste. They also use only solar power and rain water for the whole installation. As nobody else lives only island (accessible by a 10min boat ride) we really enjoyed the silence, nature and amazing setting. At night we both prepared “poisson cru” (which was delicious!) and during the day we went out snorkeling and kayaking. Also visited a pearl farm- which French Polynesia is famous for. Very interesting! After a lot of training the last three months, Florian became the world best mango-cutter and prepares “mango-flowers” every morning for breakfast.

One day we also rented a scooter to drive around Huahine, which is a very authentic and beautiful island with only 6000 people living there. As we could not find any place to eat for lunch, we stopped on the street to buy some mangos from locals. I think they saw our hungry faces and invited us over in their home and kindly fed us with lots of bananas, mangos and papayas, without wanting to have any money in return (well, of course we left some). This was incredible, seeing how little they have themselves..

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