After an 8hour flight, we arrived at Faa'a (yes, 3 "a" syllables!) in Tahiti, French Polynesia. Our flight arrived about 20 mins early, and there was no-one to meet us. We waited, and waited, as the airport grew less crowded - tourists were greeted by cruise ship representatives, giving them a floral lei. We had nothing, and no-one. Finally, 2 other tourists joined us, also staying at the same Pension as us, and still we waited. Eric borrowed a phone and called the owners of the Pension where we were all booked, and a few minutes later, a taxi arrived. The driver stopped, looked at the 6 of us with all our luggage (the other couple were Americans, with huge carry-on bags and ever huger checked-in luggage!). He walked away from us, looking stunned and stupefied. His vehicle was not large enough for 6 of us, let alone all our luggage! Eventually, he arranged for a 2nd taxi van to take Eric, Karl, Robin and I, with our luggage, and he took the American couple, and away we went. It was about 10.30pm local time when we arrived at Pension de la Plage - neither of the owners/managers was around, and we could not see or hear my mum in any of the rooms. The initial taxi driver took the American couple to a room and told them it was theirs (who knows if it was or not?!) and then finally, Vincent, the owner appeared and showed us to our room and to where mum was, already in bed asleep! It gets light early in Tahiti, and it gets dark early, so mum had waited up for us then fallen asleep.
We had 2 adjoining rooms, a double and a single in one, and a double with a kitchenette in the other, both with bathrooms. Eric & I had the kitchenette - mum had the boys. After greetings and hugs and catch-ups, we all headed to bed.
Friday morning, we had breakfast on the open-air terrace under the palm-thatched roof, beside the pool. Mmm, idyllic.
Mum had, of course, arrived in Tahiti on the Wednesday evening, and had the Thursday to herself. On Vincent's advice, she had hired a small car for us for the weekend, as, being Easter, there would not be any public transport. She told us how Vincent had taken her to collect the car, in his small 2-seater buggy!
She said she had goggles on, and was harnessed in, and there was no chance to talk with Vincent as the wind whipped through everything! She picked up the car then had to get back to the Pension by herself, driving a manual car on the "wrong" side of the road, the right side. She missed the Pension and ended up almost in Pape'ete before managing to reverse course and get back safely to the Pension. She obviously recovered enough from that adventure, and headed out again in the other direction a bit later on. So, our explorations on Friday covered a bit of what mum had already driven past, but this time we stopped and explored, starting with 'Ārahurahu Marae (an ancient open-air place of worship, a rectangle shape with a paved platform of basalt rocks surrounded by a wall, and with the ahu (altar) at one end), Maraa Grotto (caves with lush tropical gardens and ferns, and crystal-clear pools) and Bain de Vaima (a spring bubbling into a crystal clear river, very popular with locals, and with eels). We continued around the south coast of Tahiti Iti (Little Tahiti, joined to Tahiti Nui by a narrow peninsula), passing through traditional Polynesian villages and past popular beaches. The road ends at the Tirahi River, where we re-traced our steps and headed round the quieter east coast of Tahiti Nui. This side of the island is more isolated, more rural, and the road passes between cliffs and sea. We stopped at a couple of lookouts, to see the inland valleys, small waterfalls, and the views out over the reef. We also stopped at the Arahoho Blowhole (trou du souffleur).
At Point Venus, the place where Captain James Cook spent a 3-month sojourn in 1769 to witness and record the transit of Venus across the face of the sun trying to calculate the distance between the sun and the moon, we also saw a lighthouse built in 1867, a memorial to the crew of the Bounty, and a memorial to the first Protestant missionaries who landed at this point in 1797.
We spent the latter part of the day across the road from the Pension at the lagoon which is not too far from Le Meridien Hotel and where the sand was closer to white than black, which most of Tahiti is surrounded by, and also in the pool at the Pension, before cooking up pasta and sauce accompanied by fresh baguette. We had enjoyed a lovely Good Friday lunch meal at a vegetarian caravan, a roulette.
As it was dark soon after 5.30pm, we were all in bed before 8.30-9pm
Saturday morning saw the boys swimming in the pool soon after breakfast before we headed into Pape'ete to look around. First stop was the 1875 Cathedrale de l'Immaculee, followed by time walking through the Marche de Pape'ete, a very colourful market selling fruit, vegetables, fabrics, baskets, jewelry and much more.
We then headed over to the port, to find out about going to and from Mo'orea - next thing you know, we are on a ferry going over to the island paradise, just an hour from Tahiti. Towering, jagged mountains, lush vegetation (more so than on Tahiti), clear lagoons - we jumped in a taxi and drove around the island. Out of interest, Mo'orea itself means yellow lizard. Both vanilla and pineapple are grown on the island. Baie de Cook and Baie d'Opunohu are the floor of an ancient volcanic crater, and the tops of the mountains, while we were there, were almost shrouded by cloud. However, as we left the island, we got to see to the top of Mt Mouaputa, which is known as the pierced mountain as it has a hole through the top of it (you can stand up inside it but not touch the sides of the hole). The coastal road is about 60km right round, with about 5 main villages spread around the island. Because we were with a taxi driver, who said he could not go inland as his vehicle was not big enough, and because it was a spur of the moment decision to go to Mo'orea that day, we were not as well prepared as we could have been and did not see as much as we possibly could have. We did stop at the taxi driver's house, which was on the edge of a white sand beach.
Dinner that night, in the carpark across the road from the Pension, was crepes, from a creperie roulette (mum had eaten there on Thursday evening, and highly recommended it!). Mmm, good choice.
Sunday morning, the boys enjoyed hunting for Easter eggs in our rooms - the Easter Bunny had made a special trip to Tahiti with eggs for us! Luckily, none were melted, and Karl & Robin both ate eggs instead of breakfast that day, then wallowed in the pool for an hour or so before we headed to a local service at a Catholic Church - it said it was due to start at 9.30am- the congregation was still filling the church at 10.15am, and had practised singing all the songs (in French and in Tahitian - reasonably easy to follow, as you pronounce each vowel separately) in the service twice, before it actually started. We left as Communion was about to be taken, and paid up our bill at the Pension before heading off to see some more of Pape'ete: the Presidential Palace, the Vaima Hospital and Pharmacist's House (a colonial style building) and the hotel where Henri Matisse stayed on his arrival in Tahiti.
Then, back to the Pension to cook rice risotto, followed by swims - Eric and the boys went to the lagoon with flippers and their goggles (they saw a large moray eel and schools of small fish) while mum and I stayed and lazed in the pool at the Pension. That gave us some time to talk and have a good catch-up together.
Dinner again was across the road at the creperie - Eric has some new ideas for our regular pancake nights - followed by packing and an early night.
The alarm went off at 3am, the taxi arrived at 4am, and we were first in the queue to check in at Fa'aa airport for our return flights to New Zealand.
It was reasonably humid in Tahiti, including in the evenings when we headed off to bed. If it weren't for the humidity, I think the actual temperature would have been bearable. There were a lot of dogs walking around the islands (city and rural), as well as chickens and roosters (which were crowing at midnight on the morning we left!). There are a lot of road-side stalls selling fruit, vegetables and cooked foods. There are a lot of churches, of all denominations. There were a lot of cruise ships and their passengers - one evening, there was one in Pape'ete, and the next day, when we were in Mo'orea, that ship had sailed there to Baie d'Opunohu and there were 2 more ships in at Pape'ete. The waters were warm, and many Tahitian families obviously enjoy going to the beach and rivers to cool off and to swim and to fish. Eric was disappointed as the Tahitian babes were few and far between. The ones he did see were not as svelte as those depicted in the media - false advertising!
So, bags are unpacked, 3 loads of washing completed, grocery shopping done, muesli made, boys crashed! Eric is back at work tomorrow, the boys will do their blog, and I'll add photos to this one!
Our holiday is over. Did we enjoy it? Yes. Did we see amazing sights and learn new information? Yes. Would we do it all again? Yes, with provisos or conditions - new places, and probably only if the boys were older. The two of them being "them" (not doing what they were asked to; continuing to talk to each other, even when we asked them to stop for a moment so we could say something to them or so we could talk to each other or to someone else; carrying on and on in the evenings) got to be a bit much. It'll be interesting to see what they share with others at school, to see what they got out of the trip (apart from the Lego they bought at Legoland).
