September 22 – November 14, 2012
Neiafu has several eateries, bars and hangouts, but the heart of the town is the Aquarium cafe. It is on the second story of a waterfront structure. The dining area is an open-air, covered deck that is nestled up against a hill, making it open to the breezes yet protected from the wind. It has an incredible view of the harbor and sits above one of two dinghy docks in the town. It also happens to have good food, coffee drinks and bar drinks.
The Aquarium has a lot going for it, but what makes it the most special is the ambiance. They have internet access there (one of only two places in town that do), and if you order a drink or some food, you can use it for free. All the cruisers use the internet regularly; so at any given time of day, the yachties are in with their laptops or socializing with the other yachties. It’s like a big clubhouse. On top of that, people walking to and from the dinghy dock are in full view of the restaurant, which means friends are always spotting each other. It is the kind of place you can sit for hours and just chat with various people coming and going, and many people do just that, often enjoying many cold beers as they do so.
We had the perfect introduction to the Aquarium the day we arrived. After resting up from our passage, we headed ashore for a late lunch/early dinner and ran into some friends we hadn’t seen since Bora Bora. They invited us to come with them to the Aquarium for a bite and some drinks, and that sounded good to us. What followed was food and beer, lots of beer, over the rest of the evening and well into the night. The burritos were pretty good, but the pizza was fabulous! Most of the faces there were familiar, almost everyone there a cruiser, and many of the people we had either met before or seen more than once (in the cruising world this alone can be the basis for a friendship: seeing someone at more than one anchorage). We had a great time eating, drinking, talking, swapping stories, and laughing.
The festivities ramped up after dark when the Pub Crawl came along. The Pub Crawl is one of the first events in the week-long cruising Regatta festivities. To partake, you dress up in a silly costume and then group up at the first chosen pub or bar, have a drink, then follow a truck blasting loud techno music to the next bar/restaurant. There it is your job to invade the establishment, get more to drink and dance amid the tables and people there! It is a ton of fun, and I could not believe all the costumed people coming in and literally dancing on the benches and tables. It was a blast! After a song, they all headed off, dancing behind the truck to the next restaurant. Our well-rested friends decided to follow the party, but Rich and I were feeling our lack of sleep and opted to head back to the boat. By now I decided I liked the Regatta quite a bit and was glad we had come!
Over the weeks to come, we would spend a lot of time at the Aquarium, which became our second home. Sometimes it was hopping with people, and sometimes it was relatively quiet, but it was always a good place to be. We had many great pizzas, great conversations, cold beer, quiet computer time, cappuccinos, delicious pasta, good burritos, fun partying, funny moments, tropical rain showers, Regatta talks/presentations, American football on TV, New Zealand rugby (discovering what the All Blacks are and why they are extremely important!), cold bottles of water after an afternoon’s hot shopping trip, friend reunions, group dinners, gossip and news exchange, group weather analysis, and the occasional glass of wine with a candle-lit dinner. This is truly a special place on earth and will always be one of our favorite things about our cruise. –Cyndi
