Arriving in Tikihau after a short flight from Papatee, we landed on a small Atoll that didn't look like much more than a strip of sand with a couple of palm tree growing from it. The owner of the resort picked us out of the crowd walking off the airplane saying he always knows who his clients are, not sure if that is good or bad?

Well as the way of the islands we were loaded up onto a flatbed truck and "trucked" over to the wharf to get aboard our "Miami Vice" cigarette boat. Zoom! We headed out to sea and soon arrived at a seemingly deserted island, but hidden deep inside was a Pacific retreat to rival anyplace we have been. Our ocean side room caught all of the trade winds no a/c needed.

The funny thing was we were not sure who worked here at first as everybody seemed to be helping us with our luggage and getting to our room. Turns out Chris the owner had a few friends staying with him as it was low season. One of the "friends" was Tom a tall 60ish guy who was propped up in the bar like Lurch of the Addams Family, he had gotten whiplash riding a wave days before and was a character.

After figuring out who worked there and who was a friend we sat down for our first meal family style. And let me tell you we had sworn off of food after the long cruise to French Polynesia. The Chef was a Paris trained Chef who somehow served better food then we received on the cruise. Luckily it was well rationed and we enjoyed every meal, there was a bar that was well staffed at all times. For Super Bowl Sunday the Chef whipped up an American BBQ with all the trimmings, we'll probably never forget the Patriots beating the Seahawks for the rest of our lives.

We toured a closed pearl farm and even dove to pick our own pearls. We snorkeled off the beach seeing black tip sharks up close, one got a little close so I took a swing at him not the right thing to do in his element, he decided I was too big to eat and left me alone. Night time was crab time as the island was infested with coconut crabs, they were very colorful and easy to catch some islands had even wiped them out by eating every one of them, Chris had decided to keep his little oasis a crab haven no crab eating allowed.

Of course every year Joy and I have to try our hand at fishing and again the fish won to a sort. In the first 15 minutes we snagged a big one which got stronger as we reeled him in. Turns out that the probable tuna we had hooked was eaten by a seven foot grey shark! Well we got him back to the boat but what to do? He gets into the boat something is getting bitten, broken or killed. We didn't want the shark and or to have to wallop him with a board, he decided for us and made a quick break for it and cut our line taking our tuna and lure with him.

Ending our stay in Tikihau we both tried and succeeded in learning to paddle board. A quick bike ride around the main motu and center of town had us wishing for more, Tikihau was a great stay with seven days flying by we were soon on our little plane back to Papatee and ferry ride to Moorea and our sailing adventure 2015. All aboard the Aroa in our next installment and finale.