Fruit Picker, Local Generosity, Frankys Fare, and Te Tiare Beach Resort or Royal Huahine

During our travels thus far we have checked each hardware or supply store for a fruit picker. This not so odd twisted piece of metal is a wonderful little tool to pick fruit trees that have some altitude. While anchored near Fare we asked a local women walking with her kids and she suggested a shop out by the college. We rode our bikes up to the store realizing it was an automotive mechanic garage. We stopped for a second then started to turn our bikes around and head back to town, when a local gentlemen came out to greet us. We tried to explain, with the little French we know, that we must have made a mistake. He persisted to know what we were looking for and so we drew him a picture. He then said, “No problem, come back at 9 am the next morning”.

As we went back to town we stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few items and we ran across a couple from Arizona that were staying at the Te Tiare Beach Resort or Royal Huahine.  We started to chat and if you could believe it their water taxi to the resort left without them on the boat. Serendipitous they were talking to boat people. We kindly offered them a ride by dinghy to their resort and they invited us to spend the day at the pool on Friday.

The next morning we woke up ready to go and arrived at the automotive store on time. The gentlemen that was supposed to meet us was running late and there seem to be some confusion as if he was going to stand us up. Although the shop repaired cars and outboards there was another local gentlemen at the front desk fixing phones, during the confusion and a lot of French to other co-workers he waved us to follow him. He got on a bicycle and started to ride. We followed him, on our bikes, blindly and not entirely sure how far we would be biking, but after a lovely peddle along a beach and through a small very nice neighborhood, we arrived at his house. Tinirau and his wife Faimano were so kind. Both of them hardly spoke English, but with their warm smiles and kindness they pulled down a long pole that had attached a hand made fruit picker. We asked how much money did he want and he searched for words and then said, “FREE”.  We started saying, “oh no, we can’t take it for free”. Wade started to give him cash and Tinirau wouldn’t take it. As Tinirau was detaching the picker from the pole Sara looked around and admired their beautiful garden. They started handing us cantaloupe and watermelon, they seemed disappointed that we would not take the fruit they offered so we put a couple of watermelons in our bag.  We gave them both hugs as we were leaving, got on our bikes, and waved good-bye.

We couldn’t stop talking about the generosity and kindness we had experienced, as we biked to see Jocelyn and Smith owners of Frankys Fare, a Huahine Guest House on Airbnb. During Wade’s past visit to Huahine he had met the lovely couple at the Yacht club and wanted to stop by to say hello. Jocelyn is from Canada and used to live in North Shore Oahu and Smith is local to Huahine but met Jocelyn in Hawaii. They’re guest house is so wonderful and well maintained for anyone on a budget and / or loves to surf would be in heaven. Only Jocelyn was home so we just said hello and we hope to meet up with both of them before we leave. Last time Smith had given Wade directions to some great forging spots and said we were welcome to what we could carry. With our new fruit picker in hand, avocados and mangoes perfect for the picking we had too much fun, but we had pool plans the next day.

The next morning we woke and moved the boat south. We had learned from Jocelyn the Te Tiare Beach Resort had just changed hands and is now called the Royal Huahine.  Micheal and Karen were staying on the end bungalow and closest to the ocean so as we drove by they saw us and gave us a shout. We called about the mooring ball in front of Royal Huahine, but the availability was unclear, so we turned towards the shallows and Wade scouted out from the bow our depth. We couldn’t believe it was around 8 feet for about a 1/4 mile. Michael and Karen kayaked out to meet us. Wade used the dingy and Sara paddled board and we all went to the reef to snorkel. On our way back to the boat we saw over a dozen sting rays glide through the water.

After our reef trip we headed into the hotel for our first ever bungalow over the water experience. You would think it was much like a boat, but it was a little different and relaxing to watch the fish under the bungalow. The hotel pool was not the best but the company was good.  We joined Michael and Karen for dinner and realized there are only three staff running the entire resort. We could not believe the two front desk personnel were the hostess, bartender, server, and bus boy with one cook in the back, which was adequate for the few quantity of guest, it was almost like you had your own private resort.  Overall the Royal Huahine was nice, the food was good, and the day was pleasant.

Cheers!

Sara and Wade