Docked: 17º32.30′ S 149º34.20’W
Our excursion: circled Tahiti Nui, the big part of the island. Tahiti Iti is a little tail of land connected by a small isthmus. Tahiti Iti is much more primitive and rugged and has a road around less than a quarter of it. Our excursion only included Tahiti Nui—Big Tahiti. The heart of the island is Papeete. The farther out of town you go, the less expansive the real estate, the few people live there, and the more it looks like a tropical paradise.
We stopped at Vaipahi botanical garden, the Gauguin Museum Restaurant for refreshment—Hinano Tahiti biere—and rest stop, an impressively tall waterfall, and a final stop at a small blowhole. The flowers in the garden and around the island were beautiful. The beaches are black. Many of the waterfalls dry up if there isn’t much rain. It is the rainy season, but there has been a shortage of rain. I liked the beer, hoppy but not bitter. For some reason we didn’t hear, the restaurant had a dock beside which there were fish pens with a variety of fish, including a small shark.
Captain Cook came to Tahiti to observe the passage of Venus across the face of the sun. Captain Bligh came for breadfruit. Many more modern authors and painters came to Tahiti, too, including Paul Gauguin, Herman Melville, Robert Lewis Stevenson, Jack London, and Marlon Brando (who came to film The Mutiny on the Bounty, married a Tahitian girl, and bought an island.
Modern-day Papeete is not paradise, it’s a crowded, urban capital and largest city of French Polynesia. The island does have its charms however, especially its beautiful valleys. Unfortunately, we were on the ocean side of the bus, which had partially tinted windows and so no picture opportunities.
After lunch back on the ship, Janice and I walked around downtown and through the two-story, public market: colorful pareos, many shades of Tahitian pearls, carvings from shell and wood; fresh fruits and vegetables.
Entertainment: Australian singer Peter Cousens. We were too tired to go. The heat, high eighty’s, and humidity, high eighty’s, and the congested city were too much.
Sat and listened to Diane for a few tunes, including her attempt at Brewer and Shipley’s One Toke Over the Line.