French Polynesia: Tahiti, Moorea and Bora Bora

Cook's Bay, Moorea

French Polynesia: Tahiti, Moorea and Bora Bora
ms Amsterdam
January 27, 28, 29, 2013

French Polynesia---where you go when you can't take the stress and hectic lifestyle on
Molokai.

We stopped at three islands in three days: Tahiti, Moorea and Bora Bora.

Tahiti

Tahiti is the "youngest" of the islands as well as the most-populated. At dawn we
slipped silently through the pass in the reef to our berth in Pape'ete. There was another
liner in port as well as a mega-yacht, both waiting for passengers to arrive. The pier is
in downtown Pape'ete, the capital of French Polynesia. This was the first time since we
left Peru that A) we saw other boats B) heard car horns and traffic sounds and C) the
engines were off and the Amsterdam wasn't moving.

And it was our first real blast of tropical heat and humidity! As we all left the ship to
explore the island, a convoy of container trucks and lift trucks were pulling up with fresh
stores. Yay! Fresh lettuce!!!

Most of the population of Tahiti lives in Pape'ete. It is not a pretty place; very scruffy
and not too clean. We did some shopping at the big open air market but since it was
Sunday, not all the vendors were there. The first floor is fruits, vegetables, meat (with
the clerk waving a palm frond over it to keep away the flies, etc) and flowers. I bought
a fabulous bouquet of tropical blooms for 500 XPF (about $6 US). You can bring things
from the island to the ship but nothing edible from the ship to the shore to protect the
local agriculture. Of course, virtually nothing growing in French Polynesia is native so
that horse is pretty much out of the barn, but, hey, when in Pape'ete...

One of our well-traveled dinner table-mates strongly suggested that we get out of
Pape'ete to see the beauty of the island so we took a four-hour tour of Tahiti's natural
wonders and were ever so glad that we did. Outside of the capital the island is still
scruffy, but with an annual rainfall of 200" in the interior mountains, there are numerous
rivers and waterfalls and wonderful tropical plants everywhere. We climbed a slippery
rock path (it had rained for ten days before we arrived, bringing the sun with us) to see
a trio of waterfalls 200 meters high. There's a blow hole on one side of the island at
a popular surfing beach that had a break very reminiscent of The Wedge in Newport
Beach. At a stop at the Vaipahi Gardens we had a chance to wander amongst hedges
of torch ginger, hibiscus and the wonderful pagoda plant.

Lt. Bligh came to Tahiti to bring breadfruit trees back to Jamaica to provide a cheap,
nutritious food for the slaves. He eventually succeeded in getting the plants to Jamaica
where the slaves refused to eat the breadfruit. Bernie, our guide, said it is cooked
like a potato--baked, mashed, fried and even as chips. We had a chance to taste it at
Vaipahi, cooked with tapioca, chilled and cut into squares like Jello. Dipped into a bowl
of sweetened coconut cream it is quite delicious. There is certainly an abundance of
breadfruit trees, as well as coconuts, mangos, papayas and bananas. Every house
seems to have at least one of each plus there are little fruit stands (like lemonade
stands) everywhere. Which begs the question, if everyone has the fruit growing in their
front yards, who's going to buy it from a stand?

And speaking of front yards, that's where you bury the dearly departed, or used to on
this island until a couple of cemeteries were built. You can see rather elaborate grave
sites that take up a lot of space between the house and the road. Bernie told us it
makes selling your house rather tricky; no one wants someone else's ancestors under
foot!

Moorea

It's a short 12 miles or so between Pape'ete and Moorea, a nine minute flight or a 30
minute ferry ride that our captain had to turn into a 12 hour journey for our dawn arrival
at Moorea the next day. As we left the dock and headed towards the pass through the
reef, the ship came to an idling stop. The runway for the airport on Tahiti is on reclaimed
land with a flight path directly over the harbor entrance. As the captain explained,
Pape'ete is one of the very few ports in the world where ships must get clearance from
the airport tower and he had just been informed that a "heavy" international flight was
just about to leave. The sunset over Moorea dead ahead of us was just spectacular, so
many of us were already on the forward decks snapping pictures like crazy and even
I with my year's old point and shoot got amazing pictures of the airliner silhouetted
against the setting sun.

As we approached Moorea at dawn we picked up the pilot who guided the ship through
reefs at the Tareu Pass into the stunning Opunohu Bay where we anchored for the day.
Moorea is breathtakingly beautiful. It looks just like a tropical island should look with
coconut palms swaying along the shore, shimmering turquoise water and mists clearing
up above revealing the instantly recognizable Mt. Mouaroa or Shark's Tooth, even
better known as Bali Hai from the movie version of South Pacific.

Tendering to shore here was a piece of cake. Because we were inside the reef, the
water was flat. There were four tenders running from two platforms off the ship. The

stairway that was so treacherous to navigate off Easter Island was just a stairway now
leading down to a dry, stationary platform and a simple step onto the waiting tender.
Easy peasy.

Moorea has a population of about 15,000, most living along the shoreline. The tenders
took us to a dock in one of the villages where the locals had set up a tent city to sell
pearls and T-shirts and wood carvings, etc. etc. The usual stray dogs and chickens
were everywhere. We took another island tour this time guided by Spiritu, a French
woman of a certain age. Jim was instantly in love. First we went up, up, up a narrow
winding road past a couple of agricultural schools and research agencies (lots of
pineapples grown on Moorea) to the Belvedere Lookout where we could see both
Opunohu Bay and Cook's Bay and the waves crashing on the protective reefs beyond.
The one plant native to the islands, white hibiscus which isn't really a hibiscus, grows
everywhere. It's like Polynesian Kudzu. There is also a native gardenia which I believe
is used in some medicine, but sometimes the words spoken by Spiritu were lost in
translation.

Coming down the mountain we stopped at the ruins of an ancient marae, a ceremonial
meeting place used in pre-European Polynesia as everything from a gathering place to
discuss community matters to a setting for sacrifices to the gods. Marae Titiroa is now
overgrown with huge trees, but the low stone walls are still in place. Spiritu explained
that even though the maraes and sacrifices were abandoned after the arrival of the
missionaries, the natives still believe the spirits are there and touching or removing
the rocks is strictly tapu, Tahitian for tabu. While some of our fellow travelers were
scampering over the walls for a a better picture, I gave the place a wide birth. Hey, you
never know and we have a lot of ocean ahead of us.

The road around the perimeter of the island is about 50 km so barely takes a couple
of hours to drive. Like Tahiti, Moorea is a young island and has only a couple of white
sand beaches. First the black sand beaches are formed as the volcanic rock breaks
down by surf and wind. As the volcanic islands slowly sink (Moorea is going down about
a millimeter a year), the lagoons take their place and the coral is ground into the white
sand.

There are hotels ranging from basic to fantastic dotted around the island, but it's all very
low-key. If I ever write a book and need a place to proof the galleys, I'm coming back to
Moorea. Spiritu gave Jim a big kiss on his cheek as we parted company, so I'm thinking
he'll be back, too.

As the ship slowly proceeded through the reef pass we could see a small outrigger,
empty and bobbing near the reef. And then we saw its occupant about 50 feet away
surfing the waves breaking on the reef. And that's living the life Moorea-style.

Bora Bora

Bora Bora is the oldest of the three islands we visited, with a small land mass (the
remnants of the extinct volcano that created the island) surrounded by a lagoon and
many small motus (islands). Once again we sailed at night this time about 160 miles
northwest of Pape'ete and once again, arrived at dawn.

Bora Bora is tiny; in fact the lagoon surrounding it is three times as large as the land
portion of the island. The waters in the lagoon are said to be the most beautiful in the
South Pacific. You'll get no argument from me. Because it is so old, there are white
sand beaches everywhere, especially on the motus. Bora Bora is where the very first
over-the-water-thatched-hut hotel was built. There are now many luxury resorts in that
style, most on the motus across the lagoon from the main island. There is the usual
road around the perimeter of the island, but it's faster and easier to get from point A to
point B by water. In fact, the airport is on a motu so arriving passengers are transferred
to a large water taxi that brings them to "town" where the hotel boats pick up their
guests.

It's hard to believe that such a lovely, quiet island was an important strategic WWII
Allied base. 5,000 American were stationed here and built the airport, island roads
and armed bunkers in the hills. The War didn't touch the island, but the infrastructure
remains (the bunkers are used as cyclone shelters) and after riding in the back of Le
Truck (a truck turned bus) around the island I can testify that not many repairs have
been made to the road in the intervening 70 years!

Fewer than 10,000 people live on Bora Bora. Unfortunately the sagging economy
has impacted the island a lot. Most of the luxury resorts are closed. We saw very few
tourists on any of the three islands. It's not hard to understand why. French Polynesia
is a long, long, long way from everywhere. They import about 80% of the goods and
services they need so prices on everything are high. And although it might look like a
Disneyland set, it's real and a bit worn down around the edges.

As we headed back to the ship we were chased by guys in slender one-man racing
canoes who paddled like mad to reach our speed and then surfed the tender's wake all
the way from shore to ship. And that's living the life, Bora Bora style!

Moorea was my favorite island of the three, and not just because I bought a pair of
Tahitian black pearl earrings there (score!), but unless I ever do have galleys to proof
I'm not sure that I would return. I think I'll just remember it instead.

And now we head towards Rarotonga in the Cook Islands and then across the
International Dateline to New Zealand. No one can quite figure out if we are going to
miss February 3rd entirely or what. We did learn that the Super Bowl will be played
about 1:30 am ship's time on Monday (Tuesday?) so the Captain has obtained
permission to tape the game and replay it at 8:30 am at a big Breakfast Tail Gate party.
Whatever. Whenever. Bulletins as they break.