Category: French Polynesia

Knowing that we had nothing much planned for the day, we’d decided to sleep in. And woke up before seven.

Andy checked his email. Nothing. No News.

This meant – probably – that we would not be leaving French Polynesia today.

We went to breakfast and then checked with reception. Flights had resumed this morning but they’d had no news from the airport about our flight either, and… they were very sorry but they were full today so we couldn’t stay here another night. On that note, Andy phoned Air New Zealand to get some sort of update. On Booking.com, I found us a (relatively) affordable room at Le Meridien.

Andy came back with news. We were booked on the early evening flight tomorrow (Tuesday), and we’ll be getting to Auckland at 22.25. He’d also managed to get them to re-arrange our internal flight booked for tomorrow evening to Thursday morning free of charge Knowing that check-in at Le Meridien wasn’t until 2pm, we didn’t rush there but instead spent an hour contacting the AirBnBs and hotels we’d booked for tonight and tomorrow night, as well as the excursion we’d booked to try and re-arrange things. So we arranged, de-arranged, planned and re-planned.

We got a taxi to Le Meridien, and I have to say that by now, it feels like we’re people who travel from hotel to hotel to review them. So here it is. The ultimate guide to posh hotels in Papeete (I know some people get paid to review hotels, our review is just based on our humble thoughts):

• In last place, the InterContinental Tahiti Resort and Spa. I didn’t like it at all. The staff were friendly (especially the barman who gave me a generous helping of rum in my cocktail) but it is too big. And with one restaurant and one pool closed for renovation, everyone was packed like sardines around the other pool. Our room (not the most expensive I know but still not cheap) was dated and dingy
• In second place, the Manava Suite Resort Tahiti. The infinity pool and pool bar looked great but we didn’t have a chance to use the facilities as we had to check out by 11:00. The room was good and the staff were nice. It was an improvement on the previous hotel, but definitely not as good as the Manava in Moorea
• In first place, Le Meridien Tahiti. The pool is great, the room is great (and it’s only a basic one) and there is a beach. The staff are friendly and super helpful. They’re the first to truly understand that we’re not supposed to be here and they made sure that everything was perfect for us. We’d definitely come back to this one on our next venture in French Polynesia

We still had to wait an hour or so for our room to be ready, so we explored the complex (lovely!) and walked to the supermarket a few minutes away to get some supplies. By then, I was feeling like we hadn’t done much these last few days. The rain in Bora Bora; getting ready to leave for New Zealand; changing hotels constantly and not being able to enjoy our time in each of them and make the most of the facilities. Anyway, just to say that it’s the little things that matter. We got a bottle of Tahitian white, some iced tea, lovely cheese and bread, a quinoa chickpea and mint salad, and some local pastries. By now, we should have been in our AirBnB in Auckland having some control over our food.

So we had it all sorted. We had lunch and breakfast for tomorrow. We’d planned to have dinner at the informal restaurant by the ocean to treat ourselves – our last night in French Polynesia. They have three very tasty vegetarian options.

Once we got into our room, we checked the activities available for tomorrow morning. With our flight late afternoon, we’d decided to see some of Tahiti. We went down to reception to book our excursion. Andy’s phone buzzed. Air New Zealand were now offering us a flight at 4.10 tomorrow morning. Talk about timing!

We decided to go for it. More rain is forecast here over the next few days, and we do have things to do in Auckland. So… our taxi to the airport is booked for 1:30.

With the rest of the afternoon free, I went swimming in the pool and read my book in the sunshine. Andy went snorkelling off the beach.

We’ll be having our breakfast for dinner in a few minutes and go to bed early.

The frustration over the last few days is down to not knowing what would happen when. So a lot of time was wasted. And then some news came and we had to plan around it, and then a different update. The flash flood on Sunday seriously inconvenienced us and our itinerary. We’ve had to fork out a fair amount of money for two hotels here and one in Auckland. We have lost three nights in Auckland – all non-refundable. We have insurance (the best one we’ve ever had) but… insurance has small print. And yet you see… this is all immaterial. Someone lost their life as a result of the heavy rain on Sunday, and that put everything into perspective.

The alarm went off at 6.15am. We got up, dressed and got into our pre-ordered taxi at 6:45am.

When we originally planned this leg of the trip, we made a point of spending a night in Papeete so we could see the town and visit the famous Sunday market.

Turns out the Sunday market is from 4am to 9am. Hmmm. I have to say we did think twice about going… but we did go and I’m glad we bothered.

The taxi driver asked me to confirm our destination a couple of times and then said mysteriously that today was Sunday and that was God’s day.

I understood what he meant when we got to the market.

It’s divided into various sections – fruit and vegetables, meat and fish. There’s also a section for tourists where you can pick up last minute souvenirs. None of the shops on the upper floors were open, and neither was the café we were hoping to go to for breakfast. On the lower floor, only two tourist shops were open (we bought some natural Tahitian mosquito repellent). Still, it was buzzing with sellers and customers.

Andy had read that the upper floor was a good place to go to for overall shots of the market, and so we went up. We managed to take a couple of shots before a grumpy security man told us that it was forbidden. ‘Oh sorry’ I said. ‘What’s forbidden?’ I got no sense out of him except that it was forbidden. He escorted us to the stairs – and then I understood. That set of stairs had a chain on it with a sign saying that access was not allowed on Sundays. At the bottom of the stairs, another security man met us and he pointed to the sign. I apologised and said that we didn’t know because the set of stairs we used by the main entrance didn’t have a chain or a sign.

Once we cleared this misunderstanding, we explored the market further. There was a great pastry section and many exotic fruits and vegetables. There was a man in the corner making sugar cane juice. On a couple of fish stalls, we were saddened to see some of the pretty fish we’d met whilst snorkelling.

A couple of streets by the market were closed to traffic today and were lined with stalls. There was a man selling a variety of coffee from larger plastic vats. And a couple selling lovely cakes made with local fruits – banana, mango, papaya and pineapple.

We walked a few blocks around the market to get a feel for the town. The area immediately surrounding the market seemed quite rundown but there were a number of buildings with quite graphic designs and they caught my eye.

We were on our way to the taxi rank when we noticed a church a few streets away. We walked to it and saw that it was the cathedral (the temple de Paofai) and that a service was about to begin. It was packed; people were standing at the back. Most people were wearing white, and all were signing beautiful hymns. The air was thick with incense. The cathedral has been rebuilt a number of times and became more and more Polynesian each time. The mahogany Madonna and Child and a couple of stained-glass windows depicting local scenes stood out.

The journey back to the hotel went quickly. We had a chatty taxi driver that talked me through the pros and cons of most of the islands in French Polynesia so we’d know which ones to visit and which ones to avoid when we come back – 🙂 – like many of the locals we’ve chatted to, she wasn’t keen on Bora Bora either.

We got back to the hotel before 9am and went for a swim and got back to our room just in time. The heavens opened. We finished packing, checked-out and looked for things to occupy ourselves until our transfer to the airport. I’d like to say that the four and hours went quickly but they didn’t. We walked about – dodging heavy showers –, had a small lunch and we worked on our diaries. As departure time neared, we got a transit room and had a shower. For the first time in many weeks, we put long trousers and shoes on. Very odd.

We got to the airport in about 15 minutes. We were next in line for check-in when the couple in front of us turned around and indicated that things were not looking good. Soon enough, there was an announcement: the runway was flooded and so our flight was cancelled. We were still trying to come to terms with this news when the second message came through: Air New Zealand would not take any responsibility for the passengers. We’d have to find our own hotel and transport there.

Being quoted a ridiculous price for a room on the phone, Andy got onto Booking.com and got us a room for a third off. In the taxi to the hotel, we listened to the news. Our flight was mentioned, as well as localised flooding in town. I asked the taxi driver whether this happened regularly. She mentioned the weather being all over the place. It didn’t rain in December as expected this year and they had lots of rain a few weeks ago when the airport flooded too.

And so here we are. Stranded in Tahiti.

We’re spending tonight at the Manava Suite Resort Tahiti. The hotel is much nicer that the Intercontinental (I wasn’t going to go back there) and has a nice feel to it… which is just as well as we don’t know how long we’re going to be here for!

We went for a walk and had half a decent sunset. The rain’s stopped for now. There is a lovely infinity pool (and a pool bar) so I think tomorrow morning’s sorted!

I wasn’t ready to leave French Polynesia. Apart from the last couple of days, we’ve had stunning weather and a superb time here. But this is not what I wished for. So far, we’ve lost our AirBnB booking in Auckland for tonight, and our only full day of sightseeing in Auckland. If we don’t leave French Polynesia tomorrow, the losses won’t bear thinking about.

Today started grey again,

The wind and rain were strong over night, the beach showed the after-effects, sun loungers in the sea, cushions everywhere – the beach hut team were fishing furniture out of the lagoon. The weather in the Pacific doesn’t do things by halves.

The fish put on a good show at breakfast time for our final morning on Bora Bora, plenty of leaping and fighting for the bread scraps thrown their way.

We finished packing and showered, 11:00 check-out soon came round. We went back to the turtle centre, they were clearing up after the night before as well – one of the resort’s electric vehicle had managed to fall into the turtle’s lagoon, it had been removing a lot of debris from the beach, this was now in the lagoon and the staff were trying to remove it.

I bought a t-shirt from their shop – all for a good cause. I’m in good company – on the wall they have pictures of previous visitors including Dolph Lundgren and John Travolta.

We had a last look in the gift shop and decided we didn’t need Tahiti themed shot glasses, glasses cases, phone covers or loud shirts. It was soon time for the airport transfer, when we arrived there was a ukulele serenade, sunshine and floral bouquets – leaving was a lot lower key.

The plane left a few minutes late because the paper work wasn’t complete, as we climber over the ocean we finally go to see Bora Bora from above, even on a grey day its an impressive site. We’re soon over Tahaa again, we could see the channel where we’d snorkelled a few days before. This felt like a proper flight, about 45 minutes back to Tahiti. As we start to descend we can see the island bought by Marlon Brando after he filmed Mutiny on the Bounty in Moorea. It was sold by his estate soon after his death and is now a luxury resort. His wish had been to keep it simple and unspoilt, it doesn’t appear that this has been strictly keep to.

We had a good view of Papeete, the capital of Tahiti, as we landed. Its larger than we’d expected with quite a large water front and container port.

Its a short drive from the airport to our final hotel in French Polynesia. The Intercontinental is supposed to be one of the best hotels on the island – a destination in itself according to Lonely Planet – but it leaves us cold, very large and impersonal, the room is okay but the worst we’ve had so far. To make things worse we can see Moorea where we started two weeks ago a few miles across the water.

We wandered round the hotel, at the far end of the complex there are two giant ‘footprints’ in the rocks in the sea, this is where legend tells that a mountain in Moorea was saved from being stolen by a giant throwing a spear from Tahiti.

We spent a pleasurable hour re-arranging our luggage to meet Air New Zealand’s strict baggage policies then had dinner.

Obviously the poor weather hasn’t helped our impressions over the last few days but we’ve concluded that 4 and 5 star luxury hotels aren’t really for us – we were much more at home in Raitea, just fifteen rooms, very friendly, much better food too – for vegetarians at least.

 

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Woke around 6:30. The sky was heavy and grey – this is bad news, today was supposed to be our helicopter flight over Bora Bora and one of the neighbouring islands. Lonely Planet describes the view from the helicopter as so beautiful it will bring tears to your eyes. About 15 years ago, Florence sent me a link to a picture of this view. I’d heard of Bora Bora but never knew it looked quite so incredible. 15 Years later and we’re finally here. We’ve been lucky with the weather so far on this leg of the trip but here, in Bora Bora, our luck has run out. This island seems to have a micro-climate of its own; the day before we came here we enjoyed a sunny day for our day out on the sea round Tahaa. Bora Bora, only 10 miles away, had a day of rain and wind. I went to the concierge desk early to get the expected bad news, the helicopter company was on the phone while I was there – no flights today! There’s a chance for tomorrow though.

We had plenty of time for a leisurely breakfast, making the most of the fruit, pastries and espresso machine. As we ate, the weather got slowly worse. The rain poured down, we could hardly see the fish in the lagoon because of the wind and rain on the water. We did notice a fish nursery, one large fish brought about 20 little ones over to the restaurant area, presumably to show them where the best food is. When you throw some bread in the water for them, the fish all start moving well before it hits the water, we assumed this is because they’re used to watching for insects from under the surface.

We made a dash for our room and re-planned our day’s activities, what to do if it rained and what to do if and when it cleared. I phoned home to catch up on the news from London – sounded like the weather was better there – for once.

The morning passed with a bit of reading and some research for the next leg of our travels.

It’s soon lunchtime. We wandered over to the bar and shared a sandwich and a couple of juices. A large group had just arrived, apparently straight from their international flight – they’re all wearing long trousers which looks surprisingly unusual.

At 2:00pm, we’d booked a couple of eco-activities for an hour. Florence was planting baby coral in the coral nursery and I was spending an hour in the Turtle hospital. Pieces of coral that have broken off from reefs but are still alive are collected and mounted in small plastic cups then initially planted within the lagoon. They hopefully grow slowly into a larger piece of coral that can be moved to more open water elsewhere around the site. It’s quite a new project and they’re learning all the time how to improve survival and growth rates.

I start my time helping to clean the shells of a few of the turtles with a toothbrush. In the ocean, this would be done by small fish while the turtles sleep but here it’s done by hand. I was told that it’s quite a boring part of the job so they came up with the idea of charging tourists to do it for them; I think this is quite near the truth for them but it fascinating to be this close to animals we’ve only seen in the distance before. The turtles have suffered a variety of injuries and illnesses; one has lost a flipper after getting caught in fishing net and she is re-learning to swim, one was shot with a spear gun which pierced her shell and neck and while she was injured, she was attacked by sharks who took a number of bites out of her tail area. Even quite a small turtle, about 50 cm long, weighs 30kg or more, and they’re strong so it takes some effort to hold them still while we scrub. Each day, one of the turtles spends a few hours in a small enclosure to get used to swimming again, the highlight of my time is the opportunity to swim with them. The enclosure is about 60m long, with pipes to the ocean at one end so fish can come and go and the water is kept fresh. The turtle clearly relished its relative freedom, speeding up and down far faster than me, the only way to see her was to stay still and wait for her to speed past. While waiting for her to appear I was shown a moray eel hiding among the rocks at the bottom.

Back to the room for a shower. We have an hour to spare until our next activity – a long massage. Florence has chosen a salt body scrub followed by a massage, I selected an 80 minute Polynesian massage. This involves continuous movement by the masseur invoking the feeling of waves. The massage room was over the water so we could hear the waves outside, there was some gentle background ukelele music too. It was very relaxing – yes we can be even more relaxed.

The hotel had taken measures against the weather, the outside bar and restaurant were closed and as much as possible has been moved away from the beach. It was cocktail hour but no sunset to accompany it tonight. We called in at the concierge desk – no helicopter flights tomorrow either; we’ll just have to come back and do it.

We woke up to an overcast sky and made our way to breakfast. Andy was happy to find a great selection of fruit and a ‘proper’ coffee machine and proceeded to treat himself to an expresso. We got seats right by the lagoon and saw an incredible variety of fish (including some new ones). People happily chucked bits of food in the water and the fish all rushed to nibble it.

After breakfast, we explored the other side of the complex, and found lots of fish in the protected lagoon (this is where they take the turtles for a swim in the afternoon).

At 10:30am, we headed for the museum for a brief talk about safety around the turtles. We then went to the turtle hospital. Here, they look after turtles rescued from poachers, turtles with fishing net related injuries, and baby turtles. These were very cute and they were given to the hospital as eggs as their mother had been killed by a poacher. It is illegal to kill turtles but there is a demand for the meat and so the money means that some are ready to take the risk. In front of each turtle there’s a lunchbox containing fish, shrimps and squid bits which you feed to the turtles. You’re not allowed to touch them or make them eat out of the water, you need to drop the food in the water and they get it. They gave me a latex glove, and even with the glove on I can’t say that I particularly enjoyed picking up the fish and the squid but I got to feed turtles. Each afternoon, one of the turtles gets to go for a swim. The only reason it’s only one of them is that they are quite territorial and the protected lagoon is not that big. Most of the turtles we saw are green turtles, with the exception of one hawksbill sea turtle (these are critically endangered).

We played pétanque and I won; I should stick to Scrabble and pétanque from now on.

With the weather showing no signs of improving, we decided to go swimming – first in the two swimming pools, then the mini jacuzzi, then the ocean and finally the non-protected lagoon. All along, it was just us. A few Americans congregated around the pool bar looked at us weirdly.

Back in our bungalow, we saw fish underneath our glass floor so we decided to go snorkelling. Andy saw a number of fish. I didn’t see anything, but as I removed my mask and got back on our steps, a small ray went past.

We both expressed surprise that it was already 2:30pm – island time again.

Thunder and heavy rain. We spent the afternoon indoors, deleted some photos, researched our next destination and watched the final episode of Apple Tree Yard.

We were close to getting cabin fever when the rain eased off so I sent Andy out for a walk. And when the sky cleared, we had a beautiful sunset and of course, an iridescent cloud (our third in three days; they are a thing!).

On the way back to our cabin, we decided to pay a visit to the Miki Miki bar, sat on the terrace and ordered Tiki Miki (Manao white rum, Avatea dark rum, pimm’s, passion fruit juice, mango juice and ginger cordial).

Andy was ordering room service (not sure what we’re having, I just heard the words Pinot Noir) when there was a knock on the door – my missing laundry, which arrived on Air Tahiti flight VT241.

On fish watching duty, I switched on the underwater lights beneath the bungalow and spotted three large fish right under our glass floor. We were just about to leave to go and see the Polynesian show on the beach when a school of fish came by. We were watching them, lying on the bed, with our heads towards the glass floor, when a reef shark swam past.

We woke up to the light switching itself on in the room. There is a timer, connected to the fan but neither of us had used this so it’s a bit of a mystery.

We went down to breakfast early and it was lovely to be able to have the space all to ourselves. It’s a great hotel with great staff and we’re sorry to be leaving it.

We left for the airport an hour before our flight; the journey took about fifteen minutes. Another airport, another chicken. No one seems that bothered that chickens are roaming free in the ‘terminals’ here. We checked in, boarded our flight and ten minutes later we were in Bora Bora, the ‘Pearl of the Pacific’.

We’re the only ones from the plane going to our hotel, so we got the boat transfer to ourselves.

They had bad weather here yesterday. Today, with the sun shining, it is as if someone’s turned the colour monitor up. It’s insane.

Arriving at the dock, there is a happy chap playing the ukulele… just for us 🙂

Our hostess showed us around the complex. It’s all very different here – Le Meridien is a five star hotel. It is busy, mostly with French and American tourists, here to be seen. We looked slightly shabby in comparison. The staff are very friendly but it is a little more impersonal (in our last two hotels, we never had to give our room numbers). We signed up to a loyalty scheme which will give us 10% off food in the restaurants in the evening. There are two restaurants and two bars on site; we’re told we need to book for dinner!!!

We explored further on our own. There is a shop selling souvenirs (beer mat anyone?); a pearl shop and an activity desk. We looked at the options on offer and booked a couple of activities for the forthcoming days. My credit card’s now feeling a little sorry for itself.

As our room wasn’t ready, we sat near the beach. A great place for people watching. There was a man sitting on a deckchair by the beach playing with his drone. Hammocks and rattan sun pods scattered about – I suspect these get snatched early in the morning.

Our room… is a private overwater bungalow. We have a dressing room. We have a bath! I don’t know when I last saw a bath. We have a glass floor and in theory we should see fish, but maybe due to yesterday’s weather, the water’s a bit choppy and not that clear today. Let’s hope things improve over the next few days. We have a sun deck and steps to the ocean. We have a spectacular view of the island’s iconic square-topped peak.

We had a quick swim, and ordered room service. We’re having an early dinner, so we shared a mozzarella and tomato salad. Andy got himself a pineapple juice; I ordered a glass of Chablis.

We spent the afternoon swimming straight from our deck, and drying out on our deck chairs. A tern flew by a few times, his under-wings picking up that incredible turquoise colour from the sea. That same turquoise colour that I’m looking at from my ‘working desk’.

We walked along the beach on our way to dinner. No idea where everybody was – just us on the beach… and an iridescent cloud.

We’ve only been here a few hours but Bora Bora? The verdict is out.

Another very nice breakfast this morning, set us up well for our another day in and on the water.

Our trip began at 9:00 at the end of the hotel pier, 12 people from the hotel on the trip, fortunately the boat is big enough to fit us all in. The plan for the day is go around the neighbouring island – Tahaa – and stop at at a few places on the way.

First stop is a pearl farm. The farming process is explained to us and we’re shown examples of many sizes and qualities of pearls. Polynesian pearls are darker shades than normal: greys, greens and purples. They are very beautiful but is the process wholly ethical? I’m not convinced. An aged and lazy cat occupied two of the seats in the room where we’re shown the pearls. It showed no sign of wanting to give up its comfortable position for a few visitors.

After speeding along The coast of the island to the top end, we stopped at a channel between two motus for a snorkel. The current through the channel was strong and fast so we headed for the beach, walked to the top of the channel and drifted back. The water was beautifully clear and there were lots of fish and corals to see but the current was too strong to stop and look at anything. A few of us ended up with scratches from the coral because it was hard to stay in control. At the end of the underwater roller-coaster, we were offered the chance to start again. Most people declined and stayed in the shallows. There was still a lot to see here and it was much easier to stop and enjoy the view. I saw another four or five fish I hadn’t seen before – one had a long pink nose – but the highlight was a school of brightly coloured butterfly fish that swam round and round me – they seemed inquisitive, coming right up to my mask and camera – an amazing experience. One feisty little black fish wanted to nibble my feet.

Tahaa is much less developed than most of the islands in the area, there is one road around part of the coast. The interior is completely undeveloped. Any accommodation is right down on the water level. There is only one substantial hotel, a very upmarket Relais & Chateaux, as we passed a helicopter took off from its landing pad and headed off towards Bora Bora.

We stopped on a motu for lunch. The island is owned by an extended family who have divided it up amongst themselves. Some parts are inhabited all the time; some just for weekends; our part had a couple of cabins for overnight stays and some tables and chairs for lunch. The message about our vegetarian food hadn’t got through again so we had a choice of bread, rice and coconut cake. Lunch was leisurely, the rest of the group were mainly French so have a different approach to smoking at the table. We ate our rations quickly and went to look at the stingray hospital that nurses injured animals back to fitness. We spotted a strange rainbow coloured cloud above Tahaa. We’d never seen anything like it, neither had our captain, Julian. Wikipedia later told us it’s an irridescent cloud and not that unusual.

Final stop was a vanilla plantation. 99% of the world’s vanilla comes from Madagascar but Polynesia contributes a small part of the remaining 1%. I had my own guide in English who explained that yields had been falling over the past few years because of climate change. The vanilla flowers in winter when it’s sunny during the day and cool at night, without the flowers there are no beans. The changes in weather patterns have shortened the flowering season. Yields in the past have been as high as 300 tons per year, it’s now down to 16. Vanilla production is very labour intensive. The flowers are members of the orchid family and look very impressive but they have no smell so don’t attract bees and have to be polinated by hand. Once picked the pods are dried in the sun for 45 minutes a day then stored in wooden boxes. This is repeated daily for 3 months. Florence decided to stay on the boat and was entertained by local kids trying to outdo each other diving off the dock. I found a hibiscus flower with rich pink flowers and picked one to put behind Florence’s ear, to match the pink skirt she’s wearing today.

Back to the hotel around 4pm, time for our afternoon swim. We had been planning another bike ride but as we got ready there was a tropical downpour so we settled on a game of scrabble instead, the letters wouldn’t come out for me today and Florence won easily.

Finished the day with dinner and another bottle of Tahitian wine. There’s a lovely
pink wild ginger flower on the table.

Sometimes I look around me and can’t quite believe we’re here. I guess that’s the issue with flying; in Central America we travelled from A to B overland. In this case, I mean, how is it possible that places like this exist?

We had breakfast in the open-air restaurant, with the view of the ocean in the near distance. It’s early morning in February. It’s warm and sunny.

At 8:45am, our taxi arrives. Destination Uturoa, the second largest town in French Polynesia after Papeete in Tahiti. ‘Greater’ Uturoa has over 8,700 inhabitants. But we only glimpsed at the town. After a quick visit to the ATM and a rapid walk through the market (mostly fruit stalls), we boarded our boat for our half-day excursion.

We picked up another couple from a hotel on the other side of the island. It’s near a small fishing village, there are only four people staying at the hotel right now. Why go there? If it’s peace and quiet you’re after, this is the place to be. It is isolated. There are fewer people living on this side of the island. The rooms are gorgeous bungalows, colonial-style. I’d be quite tempted to stay here next time… but then again, I really like our lodge, and the food is very tasty.

Our first stop, and the one I had been looking forward to most was Taputapuātea. We docked and explored a number of marae and other structures. This was once considered the central temple and religious centre of Eastern Polynesia. Our captain and guide, Teva, was a mine of information.

Raiatea has much cultural and historical significance. It is believed to be the original birthplace of Polynesia, and is rich in ancient legends and temples. 

Raiatea means “faraway heaven”. Its original name – or mythical name – is Hawaiki, “the homeland”. It is thought that this is where the great Polynesian migration began towards Hawaii, Easter Island and New Zealand. Rocks from the site were taken to establish marae in these new islands.

The migration was only made possible when five kings came together in Taputapuātea to sign a peace treaty. This brought about a period of prosperity and new possibilities.

The site is believed to be the final resting place for the spirits of the ancestors and archaeological research was stopped so they would not be disturbed. 

One structure has a gruesome past. This is where enemies were skinned – grated on the rocks. This would deprive them of their identity, which they wore on their body; the ink telling were they were from, how many battles they had been in, how many they had killed.

And this is something that is still very much evident today. Men and women have intricate geometrical and ancestral tattoos. Men are generally topless; women wear bright floral dresses and most sport a flower behind their ear.

One thing we didn’t quite appreciate when we planned this leg of the trip is how big French Polynesia is. Surface wise, it’s as big as Western Europe. The ring road in Raiatea is 100 kms (too much for us to cycle!). A flight from Tahiti to one of the remote islands in the Gambier archipelago takes 3.5 hours.

Next, we sailed into the Faaroa bay and up the Faaroa river. This is the only navigable river in French Polynesia. The landscape’s instantly different. It felt like being on the Amazon. Lush vegetation around us; a small passageway… a real sense of adventure. We only went up for three miles, after this, the river narrows down further and goes up steeply. Our boat’s not meant for this type of adventure. The hotel manager had suggested we canoed up the rest of it to reach the waterfalls. We did well not to laugh in his face.

Leaving the river behind us, we headed straight for the Iriru motu. It is public and owned by the community; everyone has access to it. Most land in French Polynesia is private and you need permission to access it. Lunch for us was watermelon and we tried sugar apple. It’s like a ball with a thick rind with knobbly segments. It’s green, the flesh is fragrant and sweet and quite creamy (some people think it tastes like custard).

We walked around the motu; it afforded great views of Raiatea and Huanine. I went for a swim; a ray glided by.

Back at the hotel, I went for a quick swim in the pool. My (non-alcoholic) cocktail arrived, ‘L’île Sacrée’. Of course.

Andy made the mistake of asking me what we should be doing next. Without hesitation, I said ‘let’s canoe to the motu near the hotel’. In the hotel guide, it says it’s only 10 minutes away. We know we’re not very good at canoeing so we estimated 30 minutes. A few seconds into our journey, we ran into difficulty. The tide was low, which meant it was quite tricky to navigate around the corals. Once there, we walked around the motu which we mostly had to ourselves, and made the journey back. Let’s keep this simple: we are not canoe people.

After a welcome shower, we went to the bar and treated ourselves to a bottle of white wine from Tahiti. Yes, you read that right. Andy was doubtful. I had done a tiny bit of research and decided we should give it a go. Verdict: a good move! You can read about the vineyard here, and here are tasting notes.

The 6:00 alarm wasn’t welcome this morning. It had been raining overnight so it was warm and humid when we got up. Finished packing then breakfast before a 7:30 pickup for the airport for our next flight. Today, we were travelling to Raiatea, another short flight away. We got to the airport about 7:45; it took 5 minutes to check-in then a short wait until the plane arrived. We were soon boarded and on our way – it’s only a 15 minute flight this time. We were on the right of the plane so we saw Raiatea’s sister island – Ta’haa – as we landed. They share the same lagoon and were formed from the same volcano a few million years ago.

Our driver was waiting for us; she hugged us like long lost friends. We arrived at our new hotel – Raiatea Lodge – at about 8:45. It only took 1h15 door to door from our previous hotel – Air Tahiti are very efficient. The room is hay fever sufferers nightmare – there are flowers everywhere, it seemed a shame to sit anywhere and spoil them.

We decided to take it easy this morning – even more so than usual. We caught up with emails and the news, and wrote a frew diary pages. Florence wrote a list of all the things we wanted to do while we’re here. Soon enough it was lunchtime, we shared a tasty goat cheese salad and a couple of juices.

It might have been a lazy morning but the afternoon was all action! The hotel owner had recommended snorkelling off the end of the pier opposite the hotel. We found some fins and were soon in the water. There were plenty of fish to see. I’m sure we see new ones every time we go in the water. One stood out though – a long thin bright yellow one about 75cm long – it wasn’t at all bothered by us and let us get as close as we wanted – it appears to be Chinese Trumpet Fish.

We returned to the hotel for a quick dip in the pool before changing for our next adventure – another cycle ride. The bikes couldnt have been more different from Huahine; only one gear, back-pedal brakes and most importantly, comfortable saddles. The road’s flat and smooth with very little traffic so it was a very easy ride. We rode a few miles down the coast, crossing a couple of tree lined rivers that disappeared into the jungle. One house had a sign on it ‘A Vendre’ (For Sale). Florence slowed down to have a good look.

Once we’d returned the bikes and Florence had re-organised the bike racks so the same colours were all together, I got us a couple of beers to cool us down. It was soon time for sunset. The hotel looks out onto the lagoon and the sun was quickly sinking into the palm trees.

There are a number of boats along the coasts suspended in frames with a rope and some wheels to lower them in and out of the water. They look particulalry good silhouetted against the last of the light. The lagoon water is very smooth, the waves all break on the reef surrounding the islands, so the colours of the sky were perfectly reflected in the water.

There weren’t a lot of vegetarian options on the menu but the chef managed to put together a plate of vegetables for me that was very tasty. After all our exertions this afternoon we treated ourselves to caramelised banana profiteroles for dessert.

Good news. Florence’s missing laundry has turned up at our previous hotel and will – hopefully – be sent on to our next one.

We were in reception at 9:00am, waiting for one person to arrive from the airport. He had been caught in a snow storm in New York and after a convoluted route and four days, he arrived in Huahine to be re-united with his wife. The poor chap only had time to drop his luggage in reception, and we were off.

We had a half day tour of Huahine ahead of us. We would explore both Huahine Nui (Big Huahine) and Huahine Iti (Small Huahine) in a figure of eight – the two islands are separated by a narrow channel and connected by a bridge.

Just like the other Society Islands, Huahine has a beautiful lagoon surrounding a lush green interior.

Our guide, Manava, told us about Polynesian origins and migrations, some aspects of traditional Polynesian culture, religion on Huahine (in one village, there have eight different denominations) and Marae (temples). He talked about archaeological finds, explorers, missionaries, colonial France, flora, fauna, island formation and some aspects of life as it is today and he even speculated as to the future of the island. It was a non-stop flow of information… in just over four hours.

We visited a vanilla plantation, stopped to looked at a mangrove and learnt more about how they grow, observed a motu from a distance (a motu is a reef islet formed by broken coral and sand within an atoll). And then we stopped to look at the sacred blue-eyed eels from Faie. Weird things if you ask me.

Up to the Maroe belvedere, where we stopped for the obligatory photos. And then  on to the 400 year old fish traps (which we saw yesterday), some of which are still in use today. Our final stop was the Maeva Marae where we visited the museum, which we didn’t have time to do yesterday. The museum is in a fare potee (open traditional house). We learn that each temple was dedicated to one god – there was a fishing god and a sports god amongst others.

Huahine is a less visited island and yet, it is rumoured to be one of the most picturesque of all the Society Islands. Around 7,000 live on the island. Tourism is less developed here, and consequently, people live a more typical Polynesian lifestyle.

After the tour, we walked five minutes or so along the beach to Fare. This is the biggest ‘town’ on the island. There’s a total of four restaurants, a big supermarket… and not much else. We stopped for a late lunch at ‘Chez Guynette’ (our first choice had zero vegetarian options). By the jetty, we had our best view of the “Pregnant Woman” – every island finds character in the shape of their hills, and in Huahine, it’s a pregnant woman!

Fortified, we decided to check out the archeological site next to the hotel, the Tahu’ea Marae (that took fives minutes) and then we borrowed the Botanical and Historical Tour guide to the hotel’s garden. Initially, this was something to do… but we were soon impressed by the variety of plants and trees, including fruit trees: banana, mango, breadfruit, coconut, passion fruit and papaya. The guide also explained all the medicinal and nutritional properties. The trees are also used to make tools, canoes and the bark can be used to make clothing. And then, right in the middle of the complex, we have the earliest ceremonial marae identified so far in East Polynesia, dating back to 1,000 A.D. – the Vaitotia archeological site.

We finished the afternoon with our now traditional swim in the sea and the pool.

We were seating on our terrace with a Mai Tai cocktail (me) and a beer (Andy) when our laundry turned up. Please explain to me how we had to fill in a laundry form when we handed our clothes in this morning (this is the first time we’ve had to do this) and yet two items are missing (another first).