Another early morning. Catch the sunrise and an eagle ray swimming by our bungalow! Snorkel gear packed and ready for our excursion. Breakfast has Richard going for potato cakes, vegetables, poisson cru. For me it's egg over easy, bacon, toast, fruit, tomato juice. I have not had any coffee. It seems like forever but it's just too bitter/strong for me.

Eagle ray

Sunrise

Full moon still in the sky

Sun coming up

Richard

Poisson cru

My breakfast

Today's half day excursion is with Lagoon Service. www.lagoonservice.com Booked and paid for before we arrived. Cost 18000 XPF/$180.55 for the 2 of us. This company gets excellent reviews on Trip Advisor. Pick up is at our dock at 9:15 AM. This is a motorized outrigger boat. There are 8 of us. We are the last pick up as all the others are already on the boat. Aro is our captain/guide. He is very likable-great personality. Per email from LS we are to snorkel at a spot for the coral and fish, sting rays being fed, sharks being fed. First stop is for the sting rays. They are all over us. There are so many. Aro shows us the eyes, the mouth. Finally have a picture of Richard with a sting ray. The water is shallow so easy to get up close and personal with the rays. Then we are at a spot that Aro calls Coral Gardens but it's not the same as the one from Pure Snorkeling. This spot seems to be close to the Sofitel Private Island. Because of my experience with PS/William I am confident to go into the water. Aro gives me a noodle to wrap around my waist and he takes me by the hand like William did. I see coral-some with nice color-and lots of fish-all kinds-sizes, shapes, colors. It was beautiful. I mentioned to Aro about the mantas we had seen and he decides to stop at Anau. I don't go in the water but the others are excited. They see 1 manta. Better than none. We have mango and pineapple juice to drink. Then it was the sharks. Aro feeds them sardines and boy-what a show they put on! We get into the water. So many balck tips and 3 large lemon sharks. Mind-blowing. We see William from Pure Snorkeling so we pull up next to him to say hi. He remembers us!! Then last stop-swim and a snack. Water is shallow. There are some sting rays in the water here. Time for a snack break. Aro has set out a platter on the wing of the boat. It has cut up banana, coconut, grapefruit, and banana bread. Yummy!! Where has the time gone?? We are dropped off and I give Aro the same amount of tip I gave to William. He deserved it for going the extra distance to guide me around and make me feel comfortable. I really enjoyed the day thanks to Aro. We are back by 1:15 PM.

Getting picked up at our dock

Aro

Sting rays

Aro shows us the eyes and mouth

Richard and a sting ray!

Juice on the boat

Coral and fish

Moray eel

This fish photo bombed us!!

Anau in hopes of seeing mantas

Manta ray

Reef break

Black tip sharks

Lemon shark

Black tip shark

Lemon sharks

Running into William from Pure Snorkeling

Sting ray

Snack time

Coconut, banana, banana bread, grapefruit

Our bungalow #3 is second from the right

Saying goodbye

The rest of the day Richard lays out on our bungalow lounger while I drift on my float. I even used the lower deck's outdoor shower to rinse off the salt water. All the IC properties have had a nice bath tub which I haven't used. I have brought with me a few bath bombs. I decide I must soak in the tub. Use the mango bath bomb. Relaxing for an hour feels so good.

Me and my float

Mango bath

Dinner-Mai Kai. Pick up 6:30 PM. A charge of 200 XPF per person is added to our bill for the taxi. We get a table by the railing. It's a bit breezy and cold. I have on a short sleeve wrap which doesn't keep me warm. Richard is fine. Drinks-Hinano, pina colada. We get a free sample of gazpacho soup which is very tasty. The table setting has a light that changes color-pink, green, blue, yellow, white. Very pretty. I order the Indian shrimp curry and fresh coconut milk with vegetables and jasmine rice. Richard gets the red tuna Chinese style with vegetables. Credit card accepted. Cost with tip 10700 XPF/$105.08. In reading some recent reviews there had been some negative comments about the service in particular. I must say we had no issues/complaints about the service we received. Everything was great. Back to the resort a bit before 9:00 PM. We do a little packing as we leave tomorrow for Tahiti. 😢