French Polynesia

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Sorry no pictures from here we are on tortoise dial up broadband and it keeps crashing when I try to add them

We left Auckland for Papeete (Tahiti). Go to the airport and the golf was on the television so Alan parked himself and I went off to wander around the shops. Took a look out of one of the viewing windows and an 767 had smoke bellowing out of its belly and was surrounded by fire engines, apparently it got to the run way and someone had noticed it so it came back in. Not a good thing to see just before you are about to fly. Anyway off we went, Air New Zealand, another brand new plane and not a bump all the way there, if only all flights were like this. We crossed the dateline a truly uninspiring moment and are now 11 hours behind UK time. Checked in with the tour rep, and a garland of flowers is placed over our necks. Found out that some of our internal flights had changed which meant we would lose a day’s sailing, they couldn’t help as the office was shut and said someone would contact us tomorrow, not good enough as we had another early morning flight. Not happy. Met at the hotel by the concierge, body covered in Polynesian tatoo’s and wearing a sarong tied up like a sort of nappy. Not sure what to make of it all and then his mate joins him, obviously this is traditional dress. Start to unpack, we can see the island of Moorea from our window, it is very close and then realise that I have left my bum bag on the plane, purse, credit cards, phone, diary with loads of valuable information. Etc. Mad panic, well me that is, hotel ring the airport, haven’t found it, then I have to speak to someone and they have found it. Jump in a taxi and hurtle back to the airport. Find ‘Gilbert’ who hands it over intact, a passenger had handed it in. Phew, blood pressure drops by several numbers, back to the hotel and a stiff drink. Down to the bar which is heaving, as there is a Polynesian dance routine going on, it is dark by the way so we can’t really see what it is like here. Drinks menu, cocktails start at £15 a drink, beer is a mere £5 a glass, not going to be cheap here then. Fruit cocktails are more expensive than the ones with alcohol in. Go in to dinner and then back to the room to ring the tour operator in England to find out what is going on. Hit the sack, a long stressful day and everyone keeps telling you to chill out you are in Tahiti.

Day 2. Al has left his phone on as we are expecting a text from the UK. 5.45am the phone goes, leap out of bed, he has a message about a Screwfix catalogue!! Words fail me, any way an hour later having just got back off to sleep another message comes through, someone will contact us. Now that we are awake we get up and take a walk around the grounds. Hotel looks out onto a reef with pool and a lagoonarium ( this word is used a lot here, it is a small lagoon that is fed from the sea with fish in it which you can swim in ). Very green they must get a lot of rain. Get a phone call from the agent Air Tahiti have changed flight times so we have to go with it. Head off to the airport for the flight to Raiatea. Prop plane but looks reasonably new, 35 minutes flying time. Beautiful day, Tahiti is surrounded by a reef, as are all the islands here and the sea inside is turquoise, blue/green. We fly around Moorea and then out across the ocean. As you come into Raiatea you can see Tahaa another island in the group from the window. Looks really beautiful. Raiatea and Tahaa are sister islands as they share the same lagoon and there are only two passages out. There are 179 islands that make up French Polynesia and they are divided into five archipelago’s. We are in the Society islands. French is the main language.Each island is surrounded by a lagoon then a ring of small islands called motu’s and finally a reef. Get picked up and taken to the marina and our boat which is called Danger Mouse. Provision the boat and head across to Tahaa for the night. The lagoon is huge and every shade of blue/ turquoise imagineable. You can see the reef in the distance. The motu’s are all owned by local people, some are inhabited other aren’t. They consist of white coarse coral sand, a bit of scrub and lots of coconut trees. There is a lot of local industry based around these. There aren’t many fish about and the visibility is great, you can see the bottom about 10 ft below really clearly. A few boats anchored in the distance and the odd passing shower, really peaceful just the wind, ocean and waves gently lapping against the boat. It so hot down below that Al and I sleep in separate bunk, another first.

Day 3 - We motor round the island to our next spot. The wind has completely died so no sailing today, you can see Bora Bora in the distance. The islands are covered in vegetation and are very green. Most of the people here live on the shore with terraces behind their houses climbing up the hillside. On these they grow vegetables to supplement their diets. Everything unless it is to do with coconuts or fish is imported, primarily from New Zealand. The lagoon ranges from 1 to 40 metres deep in places. We anchor in some beautiful clear turquoise water and take the dinghy across to a channel running between two motu’s. The snorkelling here is supposed to be very good. The channel is very shallow and is covered in sea urchins so we have to careful. Poisonous stone fish are also prevalent. They lie covered in the sand so you don’t see them and can give you a nasty sting if you tread on them. There are huge coral heads in the channel but not nearly as good as the WhitSundays and lots of fish, many that we haven’t seen anywhere else before. Spend an hour here snorkelling in and out of the coral heads and then head off to Point Toamaru, the most southerly point on Tahaa where we will spend the night. There is a restaurant here which has a Polynesian evening on Tuesdays. It is very rare to see turtles here as the Polynesians eat them. There are laws now about taking them but unfortunately there aren’t many left. There are lots of dolphins and sharks particularly on the ocean side of the reef. Whales and their calves come into the lagoons between August and October. We go across to the yacht club for dinner. The food is all local dishes and is excellent. The show is performed by a local extended family who just live down the road and is completely authentic. The music and singing is soft and lilting, the girls are dressed in bleached grass skirts, tops and headdresses decorated with flowers and they were garlands of local flowers around their necks. The boys wear sarongs around their lower regions in various different ways and also have headdresses and garlands. They perform various dances and then there is a fire show. The boys use long poles lit at both ends with kerosene and twirl them round really fast so that they look like circles of fire. One of the boys can only be about 9 years old. They perform a fire eating routine and then create a pyramid by standing on top of one another. It’s really good.

Day 4 - Best night’s sleep ever on a boat, the anchorage was flat calm, woke thinking I was in a normal bed. Off to Bora Bora today. Head off through a gap in the reef called the PaiPai pass. Huge swells coming off the ocean and breaking on the reef, spray being whisked off the tops by the wind. Saw a pod of about ten dolphins as we were heading out, several of them weaving across the front of the boat riding the bow wave. There is very little wind out on the ocean so we end up motoring most of the way. The swells are very long but not too deep but you still feel like you are climbing up one side and dropping down the other. The depth out here goes down to seven thousand feet. As we approach Bora Bora there are lots of sooty terns gliding across the tops of the waves looking for fish. There is only one passage into the lagoon here and it is on the other side so we motor round the island. It is really small with one big mountain in the centre which is very green and surrounded by the lagoon, motu’s and reef. Bora Bora was discovered in 1769 by Captain Cook. We stop in Vaitape, the one and only village to pick up a few bits, not much here other than a few shops selling black pearls which are farmed throughout these islands. There is a huge cruise ship in, looks totally out of place here. As the navettes take the passengers into town young lads ride the stern waves in canoes with outriggers on them. We anchor inside the lagoon near a small motu. The water is unbelievably clear even at 20ft. Have a swim and then take the dinghy out to the motu to explore. Not much really just like a small castaway tropical island. Coarse coral sand again, all the natural beaches consist of this. Some of the hotels have soft white sand but these are artificial, the sand being dredged up from the floor of the lagoon.

Day 5 - Very warm last night, no wind, sea is like a mirror, flat calm. Sitting eating breakfast and saw a shark cruising about not far from the boat. Al went off to do a couple of dives and we moved the boat so that I could go into town to post some cards. We had to go back to the same anchorage as that is where the dive boat was going to drop Al back. Motoring back through the passage we stopped the boat in about eight feet of water, two large manta rays were gliding through the water a couple of feet from the boat, unfortunately we couldn’t follow them as they were headed into shallower waters and we would have grounded the keel. Wow. Al comes back from his dives, sees all the normal stuff and lots of sharks on the second dive, one about ten feet long but no mantas. Just proves that I don’t need to dive. Motored round to the most southerly point on Bora past numerous hotels set on motu’s with hundreds of overwater bungalows. They look awful, they are set in semi-circles and all overlook the lagoon and each other all be it at a distance, glad I haven’t wasted a fortune to come and stay in one of these. We take the dinghy out to a great snorkelling spot with lots of huge coral heads and tropical fish in all sorts of bright colours. I see a couple of small sea snakes weaving in and out of a large anemone, apparently they are harmless!! There are hundreds of small clam shells, their lips have the most amazing vivid colours, violet, turquoise, cobalt blue and lime green. The dinghy is attached to a mooring line so when you want to get back in you have to haul yourself out of the water and over the side, could I do it, no, didn’t help apparently that I had taken my fins off. Ended up with skipper hauling me in by hand from the boat and Al shoving my bum to give me a bit of lift. Should think I looked like a beached whale. We move off again to anchor for the night by a large motu, Al and I take the dinghy and spend an hour walking along the beach to see the reef which is still a long way out. The water is a great temperature here, warm enough but refreshing as you get in, could spend hours in it.

Day 6 - Great sunrise this morning, you can see the clouds and mountain mirrored in the water it is so calm. Set off early for a deep valley in the lagoon to see if the mantas were there, visibility wasn’t very good and no sign of them. Off to another snorkelling spot, quite a strong current here and it has clouded over so I sit and read whilst Al goes in again. Move again and anchor for the night at Point Raititi, we have a couple of passing showers and then Al and I take the dinghy ashore and climb to the top of the point. The skipper says it’s an easy climb and flip flops will be ok. The track is very overgrown and the path crumbling away in places. Thank goodness it is cloudy as it is very warm and humid. Finally get to the top and there are get views across the lagoon on either side. In the distance you can see Raiatea, Tahaa and Maupiti. I slip on the shale on the way back down but don’t sprain anything fortunately. Then it’s off to Bloody Mary’s, an authentic Polynesian bar with great cocktails for a drink. The building is roofed in thatch and the ceilings inside are covered in weaved pandanus leaves. Walls are made of thick bamboo poles and the bar and stools are all highly polished pieces of local lychee wood which is beautiful. Great atmosphere. There is also a restaurant here but we have loads of food on the boat so have to drag ourselves away unfortunately.

Day 7 - Head back to Raiatea today, still no wind so it is about five hours of motoring. Headed out of the lagoon and were met by a pod of dolphins including two babies who insisted on doing back flips in the air. Four of them ride the bow wave for a while and then head back into the lagoon as we head out into the ocean. Long small swells again, next we sight a small pod of about fifteen pilot whales cruising along. They are dark grey/black in colour and are bigger than the dolphins but not huge. Find some wind in as we cross the channel between Tahaa and Raiatea and manage to sail for about an hour. Into the lagoon for a bit more snorkelling then anchor outside the marina as we have an early flight to Moorea in the morning.
Day 8/9 - Catch the plane back to Tahiti, nice and flat again. Then a ten minute hop across to Moorea in yet another tiny plane, probably held about 20 people. Five minute transfer to the hotel, which is far from full and jobs worth tells us we will have to wait till 2pm for our room. Eventually allowed into it, a bungalow on the beach. Very nice. You can see across to Tahiti and watch the ferries crossing the channel, almost constantly. Spend the rest of the day and the following one on a sun lounger in the shade as it is so hot.
These are islands are beautiful but very over developed particularly Bora Bora and we definitely wouldn’t come back to stay on land. Apparently there are small French ‘ pensions’ dotted about on the islands which are good value however to see the islands as you imagine them to be you need to be on a boat, preferably of the sailing variety. There are lots of other places in the world that we have been to that are equally beautiful, nearer to home and

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