This blog covers our 2024 trip to French
Polynesia, starting February 13, and ending March 3. It was a welcome break from the persistent
fog and cloud we had experienced for the last couple of months on our mountain. Besides, we had so much fun last time we had to try it again.
Our flight landed in Tahiti early in the
evening on February 16 and we had two nights and one full day to acclimatize to
the heat and humidity. Our hotel, the
Pearl by Tahiti Resorts, was extremely comfortable, but the biggest pleasure we
got was dining in the open air restaurant.
The bulk of the tables were covered overhead, but you still got the
outdoor experience.
This was a view from one of the tables.
The hotel property included a beach with
black sand (typical volcanic beach) and sounds of the surf were a constant
backdrop.
February 17 Welcome on board the Aranui
5
We were driven from our hotel to the dock, where we were quickly processed and conducted on board.
Just after being welcomed aboard, we were
treated to a traditional dance demonstration showing the fierceness of the men
and the beauty of the women.
Here were some highlights:
First the drummers:
Then the entertainers:
The men had a number of tattoos to show
their strength (endurance of pain, I think)
The ladies were not far behind:
And finally, my new (but brief) hero:
This passage was a little different from
the last one in that our ship carried no cargo:
they were not licensed to deliver cargo to/from the islands we were
visiting. We, the passengers were the
focus of attention, and they treated us royally.
There were only 100 or so passengers, and
the French were less numerous than last trip. Many of the people chose this trip because of the significance of
Pitcairn Island, so the bulk of the passengers were from the Americas and
former British Colonies.
The first day included very little other
than the mandatory lifeboat drill. Each
day, we got a briefing of what we would be doing the next day, accompanied by a
briefing sheet such as this:
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February 18 Anaa: Walk to village atoll located in the Tuamotu Archipelago, 350 km east of Tahiti.
The French Polynesian Islands are of
volcanic origin, ranging from mountainous islands to tiny atolls. Anaa Atoll was 6.5 km wide by 29.5 km long,
and home to about 500 people. Since
there is only 38 square km of actual land area, that made it more than 10
people per square kilometer (downright crowded by some standards!). It was basically an oval coral reef
encompassing a huge lagoon. For
snorkellers it was a blast.
Our trek took us overland to a small cave
that was notable for being a freshwater outlet.
Given that the opening was only 4 feet square, it did not top our list
of World Heritage Sites.
February 19 Amanu: Walk to village
Amanu was another atoll: 10 km wide and 32
km long, with a land mass of 9.6 square km.
The 195 inhabitants made it even more crowded!
I have to say this was my favourite island
stop of this voyage. The people made a
point of involving their children, who were charming. First, we were greeted with leis from the
kids.
Then, we were assembled on the beach and
treated to a dance demonstration from the kids.
The island band tuned up to begin.
Brian immediately noted that they had an unusual performer: a gut-bucket player. (For the more artistically inclined, he could
be called the Washtub Bass.)
Then the dancers assembled. The group is
posing here, along with the mayor of the island (who was playing guitar), and
joined by a really little dancing wannabe who insisted on performing as much as possible with
the “big kids”.
I could have just shown you pictures of the
kids, but they would not have done the performers justice.
Just a brief video instead:
(Man, could those little girls move their hips! And the look of concentration on the faces was priceless. They all earned a big E for Effort)
The atoll had 2 openings to the lagoon,
although they were too narrow/shallow to allow our ship through.
February 20 At sea
Our favourite part of the ship (other than
the dining room) was the bar with the veranda deck where we could sit outside
and watch sunsets. Happy hour was from
5-6 pm each evening, and no vacant seats were left. Each night there were three feature cocktails
and a mocktail to choose from, changing every night.
The ocean water looked very benign on surface with no waves or whitecaps, but underneath there were large swells, causing the ship to tilt from side to side. Passengers also lurched from side to side in the corridors, while everything in the rooms needed to be battened down to keep from flying/rolling to the other side. The next day, you could see the refrigerators in the restaurant had the wine bottles swathed in tablecloths to prevent breakage. In the meantime, sleep felt like being rocked in a somewhat violent cradle.
February 21 Rikitea,
Rikitea is a village on the island of Mangareva,
and is the capital of the Gambier Islands.
Noted for the huge cathedral of Saint-Michel which can accommodate 1200
worshippers, it was built entirely of coral blocks between January 1839 and
August of 1841. (Sounds to me like a
French Polynesian Pyramid!)
Rikitea is home to pearl farming, and is
more prosperous as a result. Inside the
cathedral, the altar and woodwork are inlaid with mother of pearl in a rich and
detailed display of artistry.
Of course you can buy pearls, here and the ladies, as usual, laid out their wares on fold-up tables for cash sales only.
On the dock, you could see many bags of
oyster shells lined up for export.
The view from the island was typical of
Polynesian seascapes.
February 22 and 23 Pitcairn
The mutineers from the Bounty had chosen Pitcairn Island
because landings were extremely difficult, and only possible by swimming or
with canoes. We were conducted on and
off shores with the use of barges holding about 40 people and 4 seamen, a guide
or two and the nurse or doctor. You
remember how I mentioned the swells?
These persisted throughout our voyage, and the barge transfers were
often difficult as a result. Barges were
brought alongside the ship, and passengers were transferred one by one with 2
seamen assisting from the ship and two on the barge. Timing had to be exact because the barge
could rise/fall up to 4 feet on a swell.
The Pitcairn Islands are the only British
Overseas Territory in the Pacific Ocean; the territory is the least populated
political entity in the world. Of the
four islands, only Pitcairn Island itself is permanently inhabited, with about 43
islanders belonging to nine families, the vast majority of which are
descendants of the nine mutineers from the Bounty and their Tahitian wives. That number appears to be shrinking; there
were only 37 islanders to be counted when we landed. Because of a steep climb up the only paved
road on the island, 4x4 “taxis” were available for transport. Paved with concrete, islanders had been able
to mark the road with their own patches—only possible with the very small
population.
Once you got to the top of the road, you had an excellent view of the Aranui (teeny tiny…)
Arriving on the island involves some culture shock: our first greetings come from a local who spoke with a British accent (at least to my ears). We were given a brief walking tour through Adamstown, with a quick look at John Adams’ grave, which was the only grave for any of the mutineers.
Other residents who attended lunch also had
the “British” accent. We were joined by
Steve, the local island administrator; he described himself as just another
British civil servant.
There were few artifacts from the Bounty,
which had been stripped and burned, but a cannon did survive to be displayed on a
main road.
One of the strange things about the island
was that they had a Galapagos Tortoise as a resident. Several had been brought to the island some
years ago, but they became less welcome once their taste for local gardens
became known. The only one left was
known as Mr. T, until a specialist visited a couple of years ago and correctly
identified the tortoise as Ms. T.
A large area around the 4 islands,
extending 375 km out into the ocean, has been set aside as a marine reserve.
The islanders are noteworthy for their
continuing efforts to remain as self-sufficient as possible. Most islands use generators to create
power. Pitcairn island was no different
until a couple of years ago: they
installed solar panels on the roof of every house, and now the islanders use
the generators for backup only. They
were also very proud that they had a very good satellite link up providing fast
Internet service.
The Education System
French Polynesia generally has a problem in
educating children in that they only have schools for the youngest children on
the individual islands. Once a child
hits middle grades, they are sent away to a larger center, sometimes as long as
5 years away from their families.
Islanders wishing to go to university must go overseas; if and when they
return there is little employment for professionals when an island population
constitutes only a couple of hundred people.
Tattoos
A second day was available to spend on the
island, but we chose to opt out because a) we felt we had seen everything, and
b) the heat and humidity were starting to be a bit wearing. Besides, we had something else on our minds.
This is the point that I should introduce Moana Kuhomoetini. He is wearing a very manly boar tusk necklace.
Moana is head of the dining room on the
ship, and is in the thick of everything to make sure all goes well. He is ridiculously fond of children, despite
his fierce appearance, and the 2 year-old little girl passenger on our voyage got
all of his attention and care.
Moana does tattoos on the side,
specializing in Marquesan tattoos (one of the chains of islands). He is an absolute artist, and all his designs
are original. I don’t know what it is
about him, but whenever Brian and I get near him, we feel a need for a
tattoo. This time was no different. While everyone else was boogeying further on
Pitcairn, Brian and I added to our souvenir collection.
Would you consider this a senior crisis? Brian’s tattoo is apparently really the real
thing, because all of the male crew members were very very admiring and
complimentary. He didn’t get a chance to
ask Moana what the different symbols meant, but my tattoo had symbols of love,
caring for someone, travelling on a journey, and strength. Wow! I was the one who got off lightly: Moana drew mine in about 10 minutes and did
the tattoo in 40 minutes. Brian’s design
took 45 minutes of drafting and an hour and a half in execution. No wonder the men admired Brian’s tattoo; he
had clearly demonstrated strength in adversity.
That night, for the Happy Hour, the ship’s
Gift Shop asked for volunteers to model clothing, so several of us got to strut
our stuff around the bar before dinner. We
were treated to rum punch while we were getting gussied up (probably to dispel
stage fright) and the ladies did a fine job of outfitting us with complete
ensembles including headdresses and purses.
(I laughingly said I would represent the
seniors, only to be outdone by Janet—a diminutive 81 year-old who had the
enthusiasm and drive of a teenager. She
had even tried bungee jumping! I am
sorry Brian didn’t get a picture of her as well.)
February 24 Rikitea Day 2
If one didn’t buy enough pearls on the
first time here, we had lots of opportunities to buy more again.
This time, tents were set up for lunch,
catered by the ship. As usual, the
locals had decorated all the tent poles with beautiful leaf and floral
decorations. As I stopped to take
photos, the volunteers were pleased to get the appreciation, and acknowledged
me by saying “thank you”.
Because Rikitea is a more prosperous
island, the appearance of buildings was much improved over that of other
islands.
The tents were erected behind City Hall,
which housed a number of services.
I took a picture of a typical home on the
island with its neat well-groomed yard.
Many homeowners planted a number of flowering plants, bushes and trees
on their property. Homes were still
quite small, and fairly open to outside.
This was in complete contrast to some other areas, where the homes
looked abandoned, even though they were still occupied. The tropical sun and rainfalls took a toll on
the exteriors, making them look weathered and desolate.
February 25 At Sea
February 26 Hikeuru
Another day, another atoll. The municipality of Hikeuru is made up of 5
atolls, the largest of which is called Hikeuru.
This was another biggie, 15 km long by 9 km wide, with a land mass of 8
square kilometres jammed with 179 people.
Again, cultivation of pearls is a major source of money. However, in 1903, the atoll experienced a
cyclone which devastated the atoll and killed 377 people. It has taken considerable time to rebuild the
oyster farm.
We were greeted, as usual with beautiful
flower and leaf leis. The abundance of
flowering vegetation is amazing.
This time, we were treated to a new band as
well as demonstrations of weaving palm leaves for hats and headbands and of
preparing coconut milk from scratch.
The women were decked out in beautiful
coconut frond hats which were light and practical as well as featuring a number
of fancy garnishes to make them the ideal bonnet for the tropics. They got some of the passengers up to try
making headbands, which didn’t turn out to be as easy at it looked. The fronds were tough and resistant, and it
took a special touch to make them align together in a nice pattern.
Making coconut milk was an extremely
labour-intensive project. The lady doing
our demonstration first pounded some rebar in the sand, and then used the
upright pole to help remove the husk from the coconut.
Once it was husked, she then took a
(honking big) knife to crack the shell of the coconut held in her other hand
(cringe). Once cracked open, she sat
down on what looked like a breadboard with a metal fitting on the short end and
a half moon shape of metal extending from the edge; with that she hollowed out
the coconut meat from the shell into shreds.
Then the shreds were wrung in a cloth to force out the coconut milk.
All I can say was that this took
considerable effort, resulting in no need for a gym workout for the upper body.
By the way, if you gathered some coconuts and then forgot them before processing as above, soon you would have a new grove.
Tropical Beaches
People dream of tropical beaches with white
sands, but that was not the case here.
We did experience both red and black sands (typical of the volcanic
eruptions on particular islands), but many islands had coral beaches. These were more challenging to walk on since
not all the coral had been pulverized, and going barefoot was only a painful
worst option. On the coral beach at
Hikeuru, a natural sculpture of coral was left standing while the rest of the
beach was made of smaller pieces.
The final evening meal on board was
special. The local band, joined by other
crew members, gave us a musical procession in the dining room while all the
staff participated in a greeting line.
The food was fabulous, as usual.
Each evening, we were given an appetizer (eg shrimp salad), a main
course (eg beef tenderloin) and dessert (pastries with ice cream and a tropical
fruit sauce). Weight gain was
inevitable. Oh yes, and bottles of red and white wine were placed on each
table. I can’t begin to describe that
hardship we go through to deliver an interesting blog.
During the voyage, there had been free ukulele lessons on board and our new musicians treated us to a very polished performance. The look of concentration on their faces showed their dedication.
Regarding the onboard band, I have to
mention the drummer/ lead singer who was an absolutely huge man towering over everyone else
on the ship. He probably outweighed
everyone else on the ship as well. He
liked to sing loudly. I finally got a
picture of him to give you an idea of scale.
This picture is not out of sync—remember me telling you about the swells
we experienced? Just for another sense of scale, check back 4 pictures ago to the welcoming band in the hallway--the drum he is beating is about 4 feet tall.
February 27 Sailing to Papeete in Tahiti
It was time to end the trip. We essentially spent the day at sea, arriving
at 6 pm in Tahiti. The crew had gone to
great lengths to keep us occupied, including a session of making jewellery with
sea shells (earrings, bracelets and hat bands), which even kept some of the men
amused. Most of the shells were tiny,
requiring great concentration.
In the bar in the afternoon, we were served
a variety of appetizers, fully guaranteeing that we would be considerably
overweight as we left the ship. (Moana
was serving and gave Brian and I twice as much as anyone else! We were clearly in his good books…..)
We got our last glimpse of the sea as we
pulled into the harbour.
Le Tahiti by Pearl Resorts
Our last three days in French Polynesia
were spent back at the Tahiti Hotel. I can
focus on a few highlights that I didn’t mention earlier.
First, in our open air dining room, we were
visited by a number of moochers, although not the kind I usually see. Normally one might expect sparrows—they were
replaced by Mynah birds here.
The unusual one for me was a “Mooch Poult”,
a young chicken who relentlessly went from table to table to find good things
to eat.
The other beast was a “Mooch Cat” who
seemed to hang around for more substantial stuff.
He apparently didn't consider poultry as an option.
Entertainment
A highlight that I remember well from last
time was a Haka. Every Thursday evening,
the hotel invites a group in to do the Haka, and have been using the same group
for a while. The performers are good
enough that the locals make an effort to come here for the show. I tried to take a short videos since
snapshots come up a little short in this area.
The band would start out to get everyone up tempo.
The performance begins with the men showing
how mean they are and what kind of things they can do.
Then the women come in to add a little
softer touch.
Then they all get together to show what
beautiful people they are.
Once the formal part is ended, the troupe
got the males involved to show how manly everybody was. I call this the Huff and Puff dance. To give you a couple of things to notice,
watch how the two little boys on the left get a little out of sync. It’s like watching puppies play.
Also, you will see the lead dancer in the
middle slap his body to make sound. By
the end of the performance, and the men have pink chests and thighs from all
the hits they have taken. Nothing like
being real men! And those tattoos! I will save this as a training video for
Brian.
Finally, the experience was done. What a wonderful and dramatic way to escape winter!
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