Sat-Sunday July 3-4 Arriving in and exploring Tahiti

We set off from Santa Barbara at 7:55 AM and drove down the coast through Malibu to Santa Monica and LAX and dropped off our rental car at Avis at 9:55. The bus took us to the Bradley Terminal where we met Hilary and Ann at the Air Tahiti Nui counter, checked in and immediately found Kent and Alice. We sailed through Security and Bob and I went in search of Arnie and Anita. Past security there is very little in way of food and shops, but there is one tiny bar where we joined them for a drink and a bit of the World Cup.

At 12:15 we were loaded onto a bus and driven quite a ways to a far corner of LAX where our beautiful turquoise Air Bus, named Bora Bora was waiting. The seats were rather small with not a lot of leg room but the service was very attentive with water and drinks offered many times and a reasonable lunch of tilapia and pasta. The in-flight entertainment was pretty limited and mostly in French, but 8 hours later we started our descent in pouring rain which fortunately stopped for the brief time it took us to walk to the terminal in the warm damp tropical air!

Arnie & Anita and Kent & Alice were presumably whisked off to the snazzy Intercontinental in their bus, while Bob & I and Hilary & Ann rented a SUV at Hertz and set off in the dark to drive through Papeete to the Radisson 10 miles north. We drove through fairly seedy outskirts and around several rotaries getting rather lost, but with Bob and Hilary’s good sense of direction we found ourselves on the correct road. Pretty amazing as there seem to be very few street signs anywhere! We pulled into the Radisson and Bob and I got a beautiful suite with a large verandah overlooking the pool and maybe the ocean. We ordered room service, and spit a chicken sandwich and collapsed into bed.





Sunday, July 4



I got up at 6:30 and walked out onto our balcony to get my first view of lovely Matavai Bay with its curve of black sand leading to a jungle-covered headland. This is where Captain Cook landed in 1769. Bob soon joined me and got his first life bird of the trip: the beautiful, fork-tailed, pure white Common Fairy Tern.

We went downstairs to join Hilary and Ann at the open air restaurant where a large buffet was being offered, but at the price of $40 a head which made Bob blanch, but fortunately we were able to order a couple of omelets and coffees for considerably less.

At nine we all set off to drive clockwise around Tahiti Nui, the large island, that is connected by a narrow isthmus to Tahiti Iti, the much smaller and more remote half. Tahiti consists of very steep mountains surrounded by a narrow band of relatively flat land where all the houses and commerce are located. Most of the houses are small bungalows surrounded by pretty gardens, with groves of coconuts, papayas, breadfruit and bananas along with a few goats, horses and cows.

The sky was partly cloudy and we couldn’t see how well forested the highest (about 8000’) mountains are. The hillsides near the coast seem to be second or third growth forest. Using our guide book, we turned off the perimeter road at a sign marked “Cascades de Faarumai” and drove up a mile along a river to a large sign explained the legend of a princess, her lover and her angry father and how the two lovers were turned into waterfalls. We walked up a slippery trail past shear walls of brilliant green vegetation until we came to the amazingly high narrow waterfalls. Quite spectacular!



We arrived at the isthmus in a heavy rain storm and turned east along the southern coast. We turned off at the Botanic Gardens and Paul Gauguin Museum. The parking lot was full of motorcycles and colorful souped-up cars; apparently a lot of people were eating at the café there. We joined them as it was past noon and entered tent-covered patio where a well-amplified small band was playing dance tunes loudly enough so we couldn’t talk while they were playing! We ordered mahi-mahi and hamburgers and watched huge platters of food going by and finally got ours filled with French fries, rice, taro and bread, plus fish! Enough carbos for the week! The rain and wind gusted around, but cleared when we entered the Garden which was quite lovely with a wide variety of palms and other tropical plants - unfortunately with little information as to where the plants originated or what they were, but it was very pretty nonetheless

We walked through the Gauguin Museum with photos and details of his life and set off towards Papeete and home. The weather seems to be improving and we saw an enormous rainbow as we entered town.

We returned to the Radisson where Hil and I tried out the pool with its infinity edge, and had a couple of Pina Coladas. We split some room service stir-fry chicken for dinner and then went down to the pool for Magnum Classic ice-cream bars!