Tahiti Days

We were last in Tahiti in 2006, when we flew to Pape’ete to join Crystal Serenity on one segment of the world cruise for that year. The city certainly has changed a lot since then. We had two overnights here, as we arrived from Mo’orea in the evening and would start a new cruise segment the next day.

We chose an island tour for in-transit guests on the first day, and a walk in the market and lunch at one of the more exclusive restaurants as our tour on the second day. Of course, we had our share of rain, again, but it is the time of year and is to be expected.

On Tuesday, our first day, the tour took us to the Museum of Tahiti and the Islands, which, unfortunately, is undergoing renovation and expansion, so the exhibits are limited. Nonetheless, we did learn a lot about how all of the islands, from Hawai’i to Easter Island to New Zealand, were originally populated by people from the Society Islands. More on that in the next post from Raiatea, which is considered the cradle of civilization for the outlying islands of the Pacific.

The boats the early Polynesians used were made of wood and
tied together with rope made from palm leaves

From the museum, we drove to Marae Arahunahu. As on the other islands, the marae were the places where the kings and spiritual leaders would invoke the gods to help them in times of battle, or to pray for bountiful harvests, or whatever the community needed at the time. The tikis at this marae also had an interesting story. These were fortunately replicas of the originals. Had they been the real ones, it would have been forbidden to photograph them…and after the story we were told, we probably wouldn’t have wanted to! Apparently, the tikis had been discovered on a wrecked boat and they needed to be moved. But none of the native islanders would touch them, for fear that the gods would retaliate. So a foreign crew who didn’t have the superstition was hired, and they moved the tikis, using ropes tied around their necks to maneuver them. As our guide told the story, the next day, all of the crew but one was found dead with ropes around their necks. The only one spared was the driver, who had had proper respect and did not touch the tikis…and who happened to be our guide’s uncle.

The tiki replicas of a woman and, in the back, a man.

The stone marae.

Next we went to the home and garden of Roger and Juliet Gowen. Their 100 year-old home has a history of its own, having been built by the English writer Robert Keibel in 1920. Juliet showed us around the garden, where along with beautiful plants, there is a number of trees that have historically had medicinal uses for the islanders, including the ubiquitous Noni plant, said to cure just about anything, even the “heartbreak of psoriasis” if you can swallow the very distasteful juice! According to a later guide, it tastes better if mixed with rum!!

This ficus, or fig tree, similar to the Benjamina we can get as a
tropical 'tree' at home, is only 55 years old.

And this tree, covered in vines, is over 100 years old.

One of the views from the house.

The front porch. It looks very inviting and cool
in the humidity.

A seletion of local fruit - papaya, watermelon, starfruit,
finger bananas, cantaloupe, pineapple and, at the
top right, cooked breadfruit

After our stop there and a lovely refreshment break, we continued on to visit the Vaipahi Gardens and Waterfall, and then on to our last stop, the Maraa Fern Grotto.

Vaipahi Gardens:

Maraa Fern Grotto:

Across the street from the fern grotto was a small park
with this little hut

A coconut grove by the water

Looking towards the central mountains what do we see,
but more rain clouds. We had just missed a shower
while we were at the grotto, but of course it rained
again once we got back to the ship.

On Wednesday, the day dawned somewhat bright…although the beautiful rainbow meant that there must have been some more rain around.

We set out for our Marketplace walk and lunch while we could see a break in the weather. The Market was only a ten minute stroll from the ship, so we were hoping to get there before the next rain shower…..at least we made it to the welcome tent that had been set up to greet the new guests the day before.

After getting geared up with Vox Boxes so we could hear our guide, and then getting plastic rain ponchos, which were later augmented by umbrellas – Larry called our outfits ‘The Man From Glad meets Mary Poppins’ - we headed out into the still-heavy rain. It hadn’t let up for almost 15 minutes and we couldn’t wait much longer.

The Market is, as always, one of the hubs of the city, for fishermen, farmers, handcrafters and others to come together to sell their wares. Very colourful and interesting, it made us feel like gathering up a lot of the local produce and fresh fish, and heading to the kitchen….

Potatoes, finger bananas and avocados

Shell necklaces and bottles of monoi oil. This is made
of the copra, or dried coconut and has a wonderful aroma,
especially when mixed with floral scents.

Handbags and hats, all hand made from local wood and
leaf products.

Fresh tuna

On our way to the restaurant, we passed the Cathedrale Notre Dame, the oldest Catholic Church in Tahiti.

See our rain gear - not much to look at, but
effective!

Another few minutes’ walk, and by now the rain was letting up a bit more, and we were at Restaurant l’O a la Bouche, one of the premier French restaurants in Pape’ete. It was a delicious meal, reflecting French cuisine combined with local ingredients…OK, so the lamb was from New Zealand, but that’s because there is very little livestock on the island and almost all of the meat here comes from there.

When we left the restaurant, it had cleared to the point where the sun was even shining!! But, of course, that couldn’t last for long, and within an hour or so of us returning to the ship, it was raining again! Looked kind of like a fog bank, or maybe a really heavy snow squall from our balcony door!!

Even when we sailed out in the evening, it was in a driving rain that created a fog so thick that, once we had cleared the narrow harbour channel, another cruise ship appeared suddenly out of nowhere (at least to those of us without access to a radar screen; we’re sure the Bridge knew it was there) a little too close for comfort. So much for a tropical sailaway for the newly boarded guests.

We passed Mo’orea when the rain had let up into a trickle and the sun had just gone down, heading for Raiatea on the following day.