Tahiti

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Papeete, Tahiti

We spent a pleasant day in Tahiti visiting James Norman Hall’s home, Point Venus which is the site where Capt. Cook recorded the passage of Venus across the face of the sun in 1769, a local market, and later, watched people congregating near the ship where vendors set up stands selling all kinds of food.
James Norman Hall wrote the Mutiny on the Bounty series. We learned that not only was he a writer, but also quite an army pilot, serving in three armies - French, Spanish, and American (with Eddie Rickenbacker). There is a room full of medals and military memorabilia. His son was famous in his own right as a cinematographer, winning Oscars for such films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Road to Perdition. James Hall knew Zane Grey, who lived on the island but did not write here, he fished. There is a picture here of him with a 1,000 pound marlin that he caught, a pretty ugly looking fish, if I do say. There are sketches of Fletcher Christian’s descendants, as well as plenty of pictures of Hall and his family. There is a wonderful poster of Marlon Brando’s movie of The Bounty, with his Tahitian co-star. As you may remember, he fell in love with her and the islands, so he bought her an island for the two of them where she lived until her death.
The site of Capt. Cook’s Point of Venus is where he set up a South Pacific observatory to witness this eclipse of the sun by Venus a long time ago. It is near this point that Capt. Bligh landed after the famous mutiny. The first movie with Gregory Peck and Charles Laughton was filmed here, as well as the Brando version and Mel Gibson’s latest one.
After seeing those sights, we joined Bruce and Brigid for a walk around the town. We went to the market where just about everything is sold from fruit, meat, and jewelry, clothes, and other stuff as well. The natives are very friendly, and very willing to take our money. Things continue to be quite expensive, but we stopped for a beer which was worth every penny! We were docked here, so we went back on board for a bar-b-que before going back on shore to watch the people and get some ice cream. Then, on to Moorea.

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