Tahiti Looks Nice

The Society Islands, French Polynesia

For most people mention of Tahiti conjures up images of cocktails, beautiful sunsets, coral reefs, bungalows over the crystal, clear blue waters etc. For a cruiser, particularly if you have just spent a couple of months in the remote islands of the Marquesas and Tuamotos, you think of “civilisation” ie the chandleries and the spare parts you need, collecting parcels that have been sent (more spare parts…) and of course the well-stocked supermarket shelves. The Carrefour supermarket in Papeete is legendary amongst cruisers, a huge supermarket and variety store stocked with mouth-watering French cheeses, French wine, NZ meat etc all at eye-watering prices. I won’t bore you with the details of the multiple excursions to this and other supermarkets, needless to say it lived up to expectations. Our fridges and freezers were restocked again!

After visiting most of the Society islands I would have to say that Tahiti is probably the least exotic and interesting of them. However we did enjoy spending some time here and experiencing the sights and sounds from a cruisers perspective.

ITIKI making good time on a beam reach; Credit - SV Mehalah

ITIKI TO TAHITI

The 256nm sail from Fakarava was fairly uneventful. We left with Mai Tai and along the way we passed Beez Neez and Mehalah who both left a little before us. Mehalah took some lovely photos of us under sail, and as you can see we had great reaching conditions. We had two nights at sea and started seeing lights on land around midnight on the second evening. By 4am we were just off Point Venus on the NW corner of Tahiti. We slowed right down so we would come into the main port of Papeete, with good light.

View of Mo'orea from the Airport Anchorage

The Airport Anchorage

It’s close to impossible to get a marina berth at Papeete, unless you are willing to barge in as someone leaves, so most cruisers will “do time” and the infamous “Airport Anchorage”. The name is a dead giveaway for its location. The harbour entrance takes us through the fringing reef and just outside the entrance the Papeete Port Control officer called us on the VHF. We had to report our intentions and call them back at the South Cardinal mark which is just to the NW of the busy runway. We did this, got clearance to pass by the end of the runway and were given 5 mins to do so. The anchorage is on the NW corner of the island off the main town of Papeete. The fringing coral reef protects the anchorage from the swell it gets the trade winds wrapping around the top of the island and funneling through the channel . It’s also very crowded, with lots of boats on mooring buoys but we find a spot to the north of them and happen to be right near our buddies Kumo.

Waka-style party boat

On the east side of the anchorage is the airport runway, which is really not that bad, it’s hardly LAX and if you have visitors arriving you can watch their flight land. Across a short stretch of water to our west we can see the towering peaks of Mo’orea, the next island we will visit. It’s a spectacular sight, particularly at sunrise and sunset, and at times thick clouds cling neatly top of its peaks. From the anchorage it’s a long dinghy ride the dinghy docks in either direction, to access the town and the supermarkets, so if its blowing 25kts through the anchorage you are in for a wet and wild experience. If conditions are nicer there is some interesting snorkeling in the bay with a few plane wrecks – ones that fell short of the runway - as well as eagle rays on the coral reefs. Dive boats head out to the reef and day tripper boats (super-sized “wakas” – the Tahitian equivalent of the Turkish Gulets) ply the waters here as well. Out-rigger canoeing (less traditional wakas) is very popular in these parts and mornings and evenings the channel and anchorage sees dozens of teams out doing their training.

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Papeete Town

Cheese section at Carrefour - if you know, you know...

We wasted no time going ashore to the Carrefour Supermarket. It felt like Disneyland after the remote places we have been. Fresh fruit and veg and well stocked shelves. The cheese section is amazing, they have appliances including bread-makers! (I am tempted… but unknown brands). We spend a small fortune and afterwards treat ourselves to a café lunch.  The next day spend a day of traipsing around the industrial zone looking for anodes & various other bits and pieces for repairs, maintenance and boat projects – in keeping with usual practice we tick off about 30% of items on our wish list and add a few that weren’t there. As a bonus we find a lady selling home-grown pamplemousse out of the back of her car! Just when we thought we would never see one again after leaving the Marquesas!

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Highlights of the island

We hired a car and headed off around the island with Ollie and Sally from Mai Tai. First stop was the lighthouse at Point Venus. It was designed by Robert Louis Stevenson’s father. It’s a square affair and as light-houses go, not really earth shattering design wise – I guess there are limitations. There is a black sand beach here and a great view over to the island of Mo’orea, which will be our next destination. We find here a memorial to the crew of the Bounty, who apparently also made a visit to this anchorage.

Point Venus Lighthouse

We continue on to some waterfalls, via a supermarket to get some bakery treats. There are 3 waterfalls, one with a small pool in front of it and another 2 that we can see from a viewing platform. They are surrounded by beautiful rainforest.

We continue on around the end of the island, looking for somewhere for lunch but don’t really find anything much and end up at a food truck for some baguettes with grilled meat and lots of sauce (and fries). Not so healthy and huge. Final stop is the Botanic Gardens but sadly it closed last week, for 2 years(!), for renovations! We sit by the shore and eat our lunch, feeding the local ducks. A local guy comes by and warns us not to sit under coconut trees, as they can fall on your head and cause death… Ooops!

​Of course we finish the day with another trip to Carrefour and do a big shop. The car is packed to the rafters with Ollie’s beer and food for the four of us. It is a bit of a drama pulling up at the Marina where we left our dinghies - we have to do an illegal U-turn in heavy traffic to get onto the other side of the road! It’s all good though and we quickly unload whilst Keith takes the car back.
 
With lots of fellow cruisers arriving in the airport anchorage at the same time, we have invited friends over for a pot luck BBQ. It is quite a feast as everyone has been stocking up thanks to Carrefour! It’s a really fun night - lots of washing up though and quite a few empties!

Waterfall

Danger in the dinghy

​We go ashore again in the morning for yet another foray into Carrefour -  Sally from Mai Tai comes along with us. There was some live entertainment in the shopping mall with traditional singing and dancing - such a treat. Teams are in warm-up mode for Hieva, which is a festival of traditional singing and dance that is coming up shortly in these parts. More on that when we get to Bora Bora…

We loaded up the dinghy with all our loot and took off back to the boat. Keith decided to follow in the wake of a dive boat which gives us a smoother ride in the flat water behind them. All good until they started heading off in a different direction and we came out of their wake with a splash, ended up coming out of the channel and next thing we know we are in the middle of a bommie! Another boat went past and their wake washed over the back of our dinghy and nearly swamped us. We quickly had to lift the shopping off the floor so that the bread and weet-bix etc would not get too soggy and start bailing. Got the oars out and tried to gondola our way out of the bommie, with a fair bit of scraping and scratching on the way. Some interesting looking coral here and I guess that saves us a snorkelling trip. Finally got into deeper water and could start the engine and take off again. Phew! That could have been a bit embarrassing!

Locals at the markets

Mid-town Municipal Markets

​When it comes to shopping, it’s not all about the Carrefour. The local markets are colourful, lively and offer a great selection of fresh produce, fish and meat, cooked meals, crafts, flowers, souvenirs, fabrics etc. It’s a fun opportunity to mix it with the locals and practice my French, chatting to the ladies on the stalls.
 
Its open every day but an early Sunday morning excursion to the markets is a must. Unlike most places where everything is shut, this precinct is quite lively. The under-cover market area itself is a bit more low-key than usual but the surrounding streets are closed off to host stalls selling home grown produce and home cooked meals, treats and crafts. It’s all very animated, a little chaotic and very entertaining. Walked back through the town which we had not really seen much of, there are some lovely parks which are well kept and enjoyed. By the Marina Papeete we find a memorial to the victims of nuclear testing. Of course the Muraruoa Atoll in the Tuamotus is a well-known venue for French nuclear testing. Montebello and Maralinga are also mentioned here, as are Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  

A warm but wobbly welcome

Finishing touches on the guest cabin

​It’s a long time since we had a visitor so we are very excited that Pam is coming to join us for a week! It’s her second time on ITIKI, having joined us in the first season for a week or so in the Balearics Pam’s flight arrived at 22h15 and we watched it come in from our vantage point in the airport anchorage. Wanting her to have a warm welcome I booked what I though was a private transfer to the dinghy dock. Turned out to be a shared transfer with a maniac driver who didn’t speak English, talked and texted the whole time and drove like a bat out of hell! Also he didn’t have change of a XPF50 which caused quite a bit of drama at the time. The 2nm trip in the dinghy in the dark was challenging to say the least. Navigating at night with so many shore lights around and some unlit navigational marks is pretty difficult but fortunately we had Google maps to avoid complete disaster. We took it slowly coming in a bit too close to shore by the runway but made it eventually around the point and to the dinghy dock. Pam was pretty tired and frazzled by the time we finally picked her up and the drama with the taxi driver didn’t help. The dinghy trip back was a little easier but we still had to keep our wits about us to find ITIKI in the dark amongst hundreds of boats. We were all pretty tired and emotional but we had a tot of rum before heading to bed around 2am. Hopefully things can only get better! Well maybe…

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Sunset over Mo'orea

At 5:30am we woke to some strong winds. A squall went over which brought us 38kts. Went back to bed once the worst of it had passed, but it blew dogs off chains all day so we could not go into the dock in the dinghy. Instead we had a lazy day on board, admiring the views of Mo’orea and hoping we can get there soon! We had to wait until the next morning for the wind to back off so could do a trip ashore to the markets and bakery, and square up with Sally who sorted out the taxi driver for us. Finally we can up anchor and say farewell to Tahiti for now, head out past the runway again and make for Mo’orea.