Tahiti
and Moorea
This continuing travelogue is mainly for family &
friends who want to find out where I am and what I'm up to. Click
to enlarge any of the thumbnail photos in this journal for
better viewing. All photos are my own unless otherwise
noted.
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After
visiting around New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island
during the first few weeks of October, I set out for New
Zealand. Because I was using accumulated flyer miles to pay
for the plane ticket and had enough, I treated myself to
Business Class. This meant the difference between surviving
the ordeal of long flights crammed into a tight coach seat,
subsisting on packaged pretzels, or luxuriating in a wide
reclining chair with its own multi-channel movie screen
while smiling stewardesses brought delicious hot meals and
free drinks, not to mention entitling me to the exclusive
airport lounges, which provide free food, beverages,
comfortable sofas and other amenities. First and Business
Class are styles to which I would like to become accustomed
when flying long distance. It turns a grind into part of the
holiday. |
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En
route to New Zealand I spent a week in Tahiti and Moorea,
just because I could. It came about this way. When I booked
my flight they routed me through Papeéte International
Airport in Tahiti. I was to land in the evening and fly out
again early the next morning to Auckland, with barely enough
time to get to a hotel for a half-night's sleep. Well, that
seemed kind of dumb to me considering I'd never been to
Tahiti and wasn't in any particular rush. So I persuaded the
airlines to schedule a 6-day layover for me there.
Using
the Internet before I left New York, I found and pre-booked
a pension (pronounced pen-see-own, not pen-shun),
budget accommodations for cost-conscious travelers like moi.
So, when I landed at Papeéte around 10 pm (on October 24th,
my birthday!), after I forget how many hours and time zones
traveling from New York via LA, the pension owner was there
to meet me and drive me home. Frederick, a native of France,
had been stationed in Tahiti when he was in the army and had
decided to stay. Now he has a pretty wife, a happy child,
the Pension Te Miti and a lifestyle he considers to be about
as good as it gets.
The
Pension Te Miti is tucked several hundred meters back from
Tahiti's west coast road, in a quiet residential community
about 20 minutes drive from the airport and one minute from
a palm-fringed beach. Catering mainly to French backpackers
and surfers, it's a ramshackle collection of low buildings
partitioned into assorted rooms and small dormitories. Each
building has a communal kitchen and guests share the
bathrooms & showers.
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I
had reserved a "small private room," and
it was just that and no more. Still, it served the
purpose, a place to sleep, and at around $60 a
night it was cheap for infamously expensive French
Polynesia. Anyway, there were pleasant and
sociable common rooms and areas for daytime
lounging. For the next few days Pension Te Miti
was my home base while I explored the island of
Tahiti Nui.
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There
was no way I was going to sleep late my first day in
Polynesia, jet lagged or not. I was up at the crack,
reorganizing my pack and quietly checking out my new digs -
lush foliage around the yard, a few pecking chickens, a
couple of friendly dogs. T-shirt, shorts & flip-flops
were about right for the climate and ambiance.
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Gradually
my fellow travelers began to stir and soon we were
all saying bon jour at the communal
breakfast. There were a few tourists like myself,
a couple of buff surfers and a young family.
Everyone was cheerful and friendly and tried out
their limited English on me before turning among
themselves to chatter in French, which is as Greek
to me. It is one of my few regrets in life that I
didn't study more foreign languages than Spanish
in school.
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One
Frenchwoman there did speak fair English and, mon dieu!,
she was alone. Well, one thing led to another and lovely
Isabelle and I spent the day sightseeing together, using the
not-too-reliable island bus system to get around.
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First
I explored the main city, Papeéte,
which was quaint but crowded, noisy and polluted
by heavy traffic belching diesel exhaust fumes.
Meanwhile Isabelle went job hunting, it being her
intention to live there. We rendezvoused for
lunch, then caught a bus to a hiking trail well
out of town on the north shore. This we followed
to a fine waterfall.
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Just as we were heading back to the road, we met a
local fellow on the path who said there was a
nicer fall farther up another trail, and he
volunteered to lead us there. Off we went through
the Tahitian rain forest, following this tattooed,
machete-wielding native. The trail ended at a
tall, powerful cascade in a picture-postcard
setting. Our guide went off to chop bamboo or
something and Isabelle and I stripped and dove in
for swim, giggling at our happy circumstances. Not
a bad beginning to my little Pacific adventure,
hey?
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The
last bus back to town never came. We had to hitchhike in,
catching a ride with a Tahitian fisherman who seemed to know
everyone on this side of the island. He kept waving and
calling out to people along the way. The rest of the time he
and Isabelle chattered merrily in French. I smiled and
nodded whenever it seemed appropriate. Back in Papeéte
we just barely caught the last bus home to Te Miti. It seems
the whole island bus system quits running for the day
between 4 and 6 pm and doesn't resume again until the next
morning, which struck me as an odd, limiting schedule
for such a large, populated island.
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The
solution to the awkward bus system was simple. I
rented a motor scooter for the duration of my
visit. The first thing I did was to circumnavigate
Tahiti, which took all of one day. There is only
one coastal road around the island and once I was
clear of Papeéte's urban sprawl
the traffic thinned out and scenery improved. On
one side dense, tropical foliage climbed steeply
to the mountainous interior. On the other, the
pure blue South Pacific ocean sparkled and
occasional, palm-capped islets called motus
beckoned from just offshore. I stopped here and
there, taking short hikes to points of interest or
just lazing for a while in some pretty spot. The
road passed through scattered villages where
people seemed inclined to smile and wave. Having
just come from a month in Manhattan, it was a near
psychedelic experience.
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The island of Moorea lies within sight of Tahiti
and I decided to visit it. I stashed most of my
belongings at the pension and with only a light
pack drove my motorbike onto one of the ferries
that ply daily between Tahiti and
its nearest neighbor.
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I
found Moorea to be much more laid back than Tahiti, much
quieter with a lot less traffic, and I determined to spend a
few days there. I found lodgings in a cozy pension on a
white sand beach, near a small village that provided the
necessities - a grocery store, a couple of cafes, a
restaurant, a pub, even a sporadic Internet connection for
hire in one of the shops. As I had done on Tahiti, I drove
all the way around Moorea, snapping pictures and stretching
my legs on short hikes along the way. Here are a few of the
photos I took:
After
a few lazy days on Moorea I reluctantly returned to Tahiti,
but at least I got to spend the last evening with Isabelle
before boarding an early morning flight to Auckland, New
Zealand.
Next
Entry: 12-04-04
