Pitufa.at

We are getting ready to leave as there’s a weather window for Rapa Iti coming up. Yesterday we went to say good-bye to our local friends, so of course Pitufa got loaded up with fruit and veg… It’s very tempting to stay and spend Christmas here with them, but we should slowly make our way east as the cyclone season has started.

It’s our third visit to Raivavae, but this year we’re lucky with the weather for the first time–sunny skies make such a difference… We’ve been dividing our time between writing/boat projects and fun activities with our cruiser friends. Three days ago we hiked up Mt. Hiro, the highest mountain, together: 8 cruisers in a row To get to the path we had to cross a… Continue reading »

Yesterday it was sunny, so we kicked ourselves to some activity even though we were still tired from the passage–you never know how long the nice weather will last in the Australs… We went to the mayor’s office, didn’t get a map, but some vague advice about hiking tracks. We hitched a ride along the cross-island road–after friendly Rurutu we were surprised how many cars… Continue reading »

The past three days it was still blowing hard, so we stayed in Avera bay where it was bouncy, but at least safe. The sun was out again and we explored the last few corners of the island we had not seen yet: we walked along the beach to a spectacular cave just north of Avera, hiked along the ridge southwards and today we made… Continue reading »

We’ve been confined to the boat for 5 days during nasty weather with lots of rain, sustained winds of 30 knots (54 km/h) and gusts howling down the mountains with up to 50 knots (90 km/h). We were feeling a bit sorry for ourselves until we read on the news that Europe has been hit by far worse weather with horrible floodings, mudslides and snow… Continue reading »

There’s a front moving by just north of us and we get grey, rainy and very windy weather here. The wind’s howling over the montain and gusts up to 40 knots push Pitufa from one side to the other. Fortunately the sea’s are (still??) rather calm, so we’re having productive indoor-project days. I got the jewellery workshop out, Christian’s working on the computer and Leeloo… Continue reading »

The more we see of Rurutu, the more we fall in love with it. We’ve had a few sunny days and used them to explore all around the island. All along the shores we’ve found white beaches with rugged cliffs behind them. There are lots of caves, but no signs to lead tourists there (the locals know where they are anyway, so why bother with… Continue reading »

We had little info about Rurutu before we got here, but the island is a pleasant surprise for us. In the Lonely Planet Rurutu is described as a raised atoll, but then it should be just a flat plateau surrounded by coral cliffs like Niue, instead it has cliffs divided by flat coastal regions and high mountains inland, so we think that it must have… Continue reading »