We took a private taxi to the Sofitel, the car being not much more than a wreck. Driving over potholes was extremely painful, as was the price for a 15 minute drive: 4000 CFP (about 40 EUR) return.

The Yellow Submarine is a dinky little toy, a semi-submersible where two people can sit in the bottom cockpit, surrounded by glass panels, so that they can look at the fishes, and the fishes back at them...

It was the first nice day in over a week and the little boat needed a bit of a clean, so our nice skipper, a Frenchman who'd moved to Moorea, advised us. So we set off a bit later than planned. On board we climbed into the cockpit and once we got going it didn't take long until we saw little fish shooting left and right, in and out of the coral. It was like floating through a really big aquarium - only this time we were the ones trapped inside!

I'm no expert on fish, but they were as colourful and picturesque as you can imagine them: little blue fish, stripy zebra ones, striped black, yellow and white, flat ones, ugly ones, tiny see-through ones... Keiron said it was like watching Finding Nemo in 3D.

After about twenty minutes we stopped and the skipper fed the fish some bread, causing a lot of pushing and shoving (if a fish can shove without elbows) for the best bits, and we got a bit snap happy. After that, I went overboard with a snorkel (first time for me!) and it took me a bit to get the hang of it. When I looked up, the boat was metres away and the skipper advised me to hold onto a rope, as the current was very strong and I was being pulled away from the boat.

When I got back on (in usual less-than-elegant manner) he told us the lagoon is usually very calm with few waves, but now, the water was high and choppy, good for sufers but not for the little sub...

We got back in the rickety car and after the obligatory baguette for lunch we set off shopping. I bought a pareu (big piece of painted cloth used as dress or shorts) with the two lizzards on it, we see loads of those little guys in the evening on our windows in the bungalow. I just need to learn how to tie the thing now!