April 24, One Day in Tahiti (First Day in French Polynesia)

Last night we went to bed dreaming of Tahiti. Today, we actually saw and experienced Tahiti.

Now, before I go into the details of the day, a quick brush up on geography would be helpful for some. Tahiti is an island, it is not a nation. The “nation” is French Polynesia (FP), and French Polynesia is a protectorate of France. It is an archipelago or a chain of islands, of which Tahiti is the largest and most widely known. (Another island which many people could name without knowing much about it is Bora Bora.) French Polynesia is almost 2500 miles northeast of Auckland, New Zealand, our previous port of call., Having sailed 2500 mile (2200 nautical miles for purists) over the course of five days, we have arrived at the first of two French Polynesian islands we will visit. Tahiti is today; tomorrow and the next day will be Mo’orea.

(Panorama view of the Port of Papeete, Tahiti)

(Musicians singing traditional Tahitian folk songs greeted us as we came ashore.)

About 9:30 am, we walked down the gangway, through Royal Caribbean control stations, past a Tahitian security station, and along with many other passengers of the ship,. We then wandered into downtown Papeete. To help orient you a bit to the language, the city name is not pronounced “Pa-pee-tee”, as most English speakers would be tempted to do. Rather, the Tahitian pronunciation is “Pah-peh-Eh-teh.” Papeete is the most populous city of Tahiti and also the most populous city of French Polynesia. Immediately coming from the ship we crossed the street from a small park and, after the traffic light changed, we walked on to the main street, Reine Pomare IV (or Queen Pomare) Boulevard (QPB). Queen Pomare IV was the reigning Tahitian monarch at the time the French declared Tahiti to be theirs. She protested, even to the point of writing to Queen Victoria of England and asking her to intervene to kick out the French. The English never came to the aid of the Tahitians, but they fought a 4-year war for their independence nevertheless. By all accounts it was a bloody affair and left Tahiti crippled for years. Queen P is still remembered fondly by Tahitians to this day.

Patrise and I walked down QPB, taking in the sights: the people, the shops, the little things and big things, which began to give us a flavor for these people and their island. We headed to a major market, in order to do some souvenir shopping. While there, we found several nice items for family and friends and proceeded to purchase some. The first vendor we dealt with accepted credit cards, which was good, since we did not have much cash of any type: American dollars Australian dollars, New Zealand dollars, or Polynesian francs. The second vendor we purchased goods from did not accept credit cards, but she showed us how to get to a nearby ATM. We did so and took out just enough money for the transaction. Big mistake! We should have taken out more, as we would soon discover that most of the merchants, even in stores, could not handle credit card transactions. (By the way, if you ever travel to the south Pacific – New Zealand, Australia, or French Polynesia – you will find Visa and Master Card more widely accepted than American Express. I love American Express, but just sayin’.) We purchased the items in cash, wandered to another vendor, but again they could not accept our credit card. And so for the rest of the brief morning, we had to ask whether a vendor accepted credit cards before considering a purchase.

(Walking down the main street in town, Reine Pomare IV Boulevard. Although there are roads off of this one, Tahiti only has one major highway and it follows the island's coast, but does not go all the way around.)

(Entering the major market)

(Lots of pearl vendors and pearl shops. Pearls are one of Tahiti's principal exports, especially gray and black pearls.)

(At the market stall, no doubt being a big help to mom. Smile)

(This vendor directed us to the ATM, so we could purchase some items from her.)

Once we left the market, we began looking for somewhere we could buy bottled water. Patrise was experiencing some discomfort due to the heat. Just two days ago, we were experiencing 70 degrees and very windy conditions. Now we were in 84 degrees (before 11am) with a heat index of 93 degrees and 80+% humidity. She had to sit and rest, because she was perspiring profusely and beginning to feel ill. While she sat on a bench on the street, I went into a nearby pharmacy, found that they did have refrigerated bottled water, and thank God, they did accept credit cards. I purchased the water and hurried back to her; she was barely hanging on. She drank the water, while I put some of it on the back of her neck, her ear lobes and her forehead. At this point, she thought it would be best for her to make her way back to the ship and not risk passing out from the heat. She assured me she could now make it, and she encouraged me to continue exploring the city, which I very much wanted to do.

At this point we parted ways. She made it back to the ship and texted me that she was laying down in the bed in our cool suite. She spent most of the rest of the day laying down, drinking water and other fluids, in order to recover from what we believe have been a case of heat stroke. She texted me throughout the morning, to assure me that she was alert and improving. I greatly appreciated that. Meanwhile, I continued walking along the main street, heading further from downtown and seeing the sites, the sights, and listening to the sounds of this new place. In some ways, this part of Tahiti was reminiscent of other island countries or societies, especially Caribbean places. However, in many ways it was distinct and different. With French being the main language and their Tahitian dialect being the second language, it sounded very different than other island nations we had been to. (We have not been to Haiti or Martinique; perhaps they would sound similar, although I suspect they would look very different.)

I arrived at an important park, Bougainville Park – I do not say “major”, so as not to give the sense that it is physically large; it is not. However, it is important, because it has a monument dedicated to Louis Antoine de Bougainville, the first Frenchman to circumnavigate Tahiti. He also published a pamphlet describing Tahiti as “heaven on earth”, thereby promoting its allure and popularity for other Frenchmen and Europeans. After I wander through the park for bit, reading about more of Tahiti’s history, I exited the back side, to get off of the main street, in order to see parts of the city that were less commercial and less busy. I wandered some more for a while, before deciding I should probably head back to the ship and check in on my wife. I wanted to assure myself that she was not just telling me things to prevent me from worrying about her. I also needed to assess whether she would be in shape for our afternoon excursion, in which we were planning to do a snorkeling tour of a local reef.

(Another street view from my exploration)

(A plaque in Bougainville Park)

(A plaque in Bougainville Park)

(Chickens are free ranging residents throughout Tahiti.)

(Just for the historical record...)

(I left these guys a generous tip, brought big smiles to their faces. I like to support street musicians and other performance artists.)

I returned to the ship. She was still laying down as she said, but she was nowhere near as recovered as I was comfortable with. So I stayed in the room a bit while she dozed lightly. It was clear that she was not going to be in shape for the snorkeling tour. At that time, I decided to cancel my going so as well. Instead, I checked the organized excursions and found that they still had openings for a bus tour of the western coast of the island. Patrise came around, and I went to look for lunch for her; she wanted a simple turkey sandwich. It took a while to find one of the ship’s kitchen that would prepare one for her. What I brough back, however, was very unsatisfactory to her – and subsequently tasting it myself, I was in total agreement. Meanwhile I had also gotten myself signed up for the bus tour. We decided she should stay in the suite and continue to rest. Therefore, I ordered room service to try to get some food before I had to head out for this four-hour tour.

The crew had been doing emergency drills all day and the captain held the drills longer than was originally planned. Therefore, all of the ship’s customer-oriented services, such as room service, kitchen dining, guest services, room cleaning, etc., were all backed up. By the time room service brought my hamburger and Coke, I had less than ten minutes prior to leaving to get to the rendezvous point for the tour. I was not a happy camper. I wolfed down three large bites of a hamburger, 2/3 of a Coca Cola, and crammed some pistachios and Skiddles into the pockets of my cargo shorts, to have something to nibble on while on the bus. I rushed to the rendezvous point and turned out to be the last person on the tour bus, but I did make it.

I can sum the tour briefly. It was four hours. Bernie, our tour guide, could speak English, though with an accent that made it difficult for me to follow easily. (The problem was mine, not his; and certainly his English was much better than my French or Tahitian.) He obviously knew a lot about Tahiti, its economy, its history, its culture, its politics. This was more of an accomplishment, considering Bernie is a native Hawaiian (with one of his grandmothers being German, as he told us more than once.) Although Bernie was trying to convey a lot of information, between his style of presentation, his less fluent English, the difficulty of trying to hear him in the back sections of the bus, and almost becoming a personal tour guide for the people in the first few rows whose questions we could not hear: all of that resulted in me soon turning off to most of the spoken tour and just trying to capture interesting photos from a bus window that was moving 35-50mph down the road. Therefore, I present you some of the photos of what I observed in some of the villages -- Papeete is the island's only city; everywhere else are villages -- and at the three stops we did make. Have at it…

(Bernie, our tour guide)

(Mural seen on the highway)

(Some of the better housing near downtown)

(Coconut palms are all over the place.)

(Breadfruit trees are also plentiful. The real Captain Bligh, i.e. he of "Mutiny on the Bounty" fame, came to Tahiti twice to get 2500 breadfruit trees to bring to the British West Indies. The first time, he lost them all in a storm. The second time, they made it.)

(A stone idol used in worship rituals by ancient Tahitians.)

(This is a marae, a former temple used by ancient Tahitians and other Polynesians, before the introduction and transition to Christianity.)

(A plaque explaining the meaning an symbolism of the Vaipahi water gardens, our second stop on the tour.)

(A waterfall seen at the Vaipahi water gardens)

(This is the opening to the Fern Cove, a sacred place where Tahitian royalty bathed, out of sight of the common people. No one was allowed to see royalty naked, upon pain of death.)

(Peering into the water at the Fern Cove)

Here are some more scenes of Tahiti I captured on the return trip to the ship.

(A roadside fruit vendor, fairly common to see.)

(The ocean lapping the shore near the road)

(The sun setting behind some homes.)

(More views of the sunset)

(Night time traffic jam on Reine Pomare IV Boulevard)

(The Ovation of the Seas is the tallest structure in town, when in port.)

By the time i returned to the ship after 6:30pm, I was tired and ready to just stay in the room. Patrise was feeling much better. She had even made it to the late afternoon trivia game. Therefore, we did go to one of the dining rooms to eat. Still, all in all, Tahiti was a so, so experience for me. We went to bed early, believing that we had to wake up at 6:30am the next day for 7:30 appointment for our first excursion in Mo’orea.