Behind EV at our day anchorage near the reef we noticed a white marker buoy that seemed randomly placed. When we got back from Stingray City, Jack pointed out that occasionally a small snorkel boat or a line of jetskis would tie off to the buoy and jump in the water. What’s up with that?
I remembered reading about some sunken tikis hereabouts and we thought this might be the place. When Enki II dinghied by after a stingray snorkel we told them about it, climbed into their dinghy and Diana went in to check it out. She swam over to what looked like a coral bommie, then popped her head out and gave the thumbs up. With that, the rest of us donned our masks and fins and jumped in to explore. The water was a little murkier than we’d have liked, and the sun kept disappearing, but here you have it. Mystery tikis on the reef at the mouth of Opunohu Bay, Moorea.
Edited to add: just got enough internet to learn this from the Moon Guide:
“… “Le Monde de Mu,” an underwater sculpture garden in the lagoon off Papetoai with 10 large tikis created in 1998 by the renowned Tahitian stone carver Tihoti.”
Hats off to Tihoti and I wish we’d known there were ten. I don’t think we saw them all.