Tahiti Nui - October 20

The island of Tahiti is shaped like a lopsided figure eight. The larger loop is Tahiti Nui, or Big Tahiti, and the smaller part is Tahiti Iti, or Little Tahiti. Our tour today took us in a large circle around the perimeter of Tahiti Nui.

Gary, our guide, was an American ex-pat who has lived in Tahiti for more than 30 years. He provided loads of information as our bus drove around the island and made numerous stops along the way. There are no roads into the interior of the island. The center of the island is an extinct volcano and the terrain rises so sharply that the interior is not usable and is unsuitable for a road. Two things that stood out were the black sand and the large number of small rivers flowing down from the mountains/volcano. The land is very lush and green.

Our first stop was an abandoned hotel with a panoramic view. When Captain Cook sailed into Matavai Bay in 1769, a single tree with bright orange flowers served as a beacon high above the bay. This became known as One Tree Hill. The tree is no longer here, but the lookout point remains.

Panoramic view of Papeete, with Moorea in the distance

This beautiful African Tulip Tree is an invasive species in Tahiti. I’m not sure it would have been here when Captain Cook arrived. He must have seen a different species of tree with orange flowers - perhaps a mimosa.

Our second stop was Point Venus, where Captain Cook tracked the transit of Venus across the sun. This undertaking was part of a project involving a series of measurements in various places around the globe to calculate the size of the solar system.

A monument to Captain Cook and his expedition. Kind of underwhelming, isn’t it?

Outriggers on a black sand beach

Close-up of some outriggers

The Point Venus Lighthouse was built in 1867, the first lighthouse in the South Pacific

Next up: Arohoho Blowhole.This blowhole is a lava tube, created when hot lava flowed into the cold ocean. Air gets trapped inside the blowhole by waves and pushes back, sending a powerful geyser out of the tube with an explosive sound. (It is hard to photograph.)

I loved this green plant near the blowhole. All of the leaves had white sawtooth borders. I believe it is a variety of Acalypha wilkesiana.

We stopped for some fresh juice at the Gauguin Restaurant and we took a few moments to drink in the luscious views. There used to be a Gauguin Museum nearby, but it is now closed.

The Gauguin Restaurant

A lovely view of a thatched pavilion across the lake.

At Vaipahi Gardens we saw a waterfall, some gorgeous flowers, and lots of pleasing landscaping.

This large, waxy flower is called Torch Ginger. By the way, I discovered that the Photos app has a (new?) feature that will look up a plant for you and tell you what you have taken a photo of!

Soon we arrived at the Mara’a Fern Grotto - three natural caves, a permanent trickle of water, pools of cool, clear water, and ceilings covered with ferns and moss.

In our loop around the island we did not see a lot of tourism infrastructure. There were only a few hotels near Papeete, no restaurants, no evidence of tourists using the beaches, no junky souvenir shops. This is not necessarily a bad thing. My point is this: Tahiti is not Hawaii. 

It was a long day, and we were happy to get back to the ship. The last time we were in Papeete, we had really enjoyed “Les Roulottes”  -  a nightly gathering of food trucks in a park next to the pier. I think Covid took out most of the food trucks. There are only four or five food trucks there now, but it is still a lively adventure to eat dinner there.

After dinner we waddled back to the ship, not wanting to miss the folkloric show with the fabulous dance troupe, Tahitian Cultural Expressions. They were phenomenal. The dances came across as very authentic and it was such a privilege to see this performance. I had a hard time winnowing down the photos to a reasonable number.

The Hawaiian hula uses more arm movements and is more graceful in appearance than the Tahitian dance, which uses more hip movements and appears to be more aggressive. Nānā and Shabbat Shalom.

Today’s fabric is Tahiti Dream, by Kitty McCall. Isn’t it gorgeous?