Great mix of city live and breathtaking nature inTahiti

21/07/2019

It was a very nice sail to Tahiti, except for the bumpy waves off course, but we managed to arrive just at 7pm so in the dark… Too early to wait around at sea for the sun to come up again and just too late to comfortably search for an anchorage. So we decided to advance slowly and trust on the gps and the many books we read. 

 

In the morning we realised we had been very lucky as we were surrounded by big trees! When we drove around with Bob, we didn’t even have enough depth around us. It was because there had been a breach in the river dam recently! 

So what have we learned today? Don’t check into new places in the dark 😱

 

The river was supposed to be navigable by dinghy, however we only got up to about 20m ... A shame!

The Tautira village has seen it’s better days. It was described as a romantic and authentic place. I guess authentic is the better word! We had a good feeling about the way of live and the inhabitants are very nice. In Tahiti it's again all about a huge gap between rich and poor...

 

 

 

But whatever their wallet contents, they all seem to be able to enjoy rowing 😍

 

22/07/2019
As it's not the best stop to go for a swim or a hike, we set off to check out the water behind the reef. First test with Bob to see if there are no more surprises as the one we had two night ago 😌 It looks great! Wonderful scenery, navigable even though tricky at some places and the corals are plunging in a deep blue water. 

So we decide to leave the next day with LouiseAnna through the channel behind the reef towards the North.

I'm on a two hour lookout for bommies (coral heads not on the chart 😎) in the channel. 

And off course I get to shoot 'one or two' pictures 😳

Very difficult to see the reef as for once the sea was flat!

There aren't many houses along this coastline...

And while cruising you get to dream about where you want to put your next house 😜

There might actually be more churches than inhabitants 😲

 

And then we see the small island we wanted to 'shelter' behind 😀

A look from a bit higher up !

The back right at the edge of a 2m depth reef. Full off gorgeous fish, black and white tips, ...

And this is how we snorkel, pulling the paddleboard with the two girls!

Dad the Hulk!

And dad, the paddledriver 😎

And you get so much in return. Besides great smiles, they clean too !!!

25/07/2019

Time to go and shelter at Papeete. A new big storm system is coming. The 2 hour cruise to Papeete is an active one.

I make my chocolate paste myself with coconut oil and a spice mix. Don't know what they like more, the making off or the paste itself 😋

A bit of grooming in my garden. 

A show for their granddad!

 And oops we forgot the flag 😎

Ah Papeete, a city, ... it's been more than three months since Panama. We are excited to get here and yet after a few days, we are just as happy to go back to the calmness of our remote anchorages 😳 Oh my we’re not used to it anymore! The dust, the noice, the cars … 

 

A view from the Papeete marina. Moore'a in the background 😃

28/07/2019

After some shopping (still sales for swimsuits yeay 😎) and fine dining in the city, we rent a car for two days and go on a trip around the island. 

Well actually we used the car first to shop for the next two months up to Fidji in the maxi giant Carrefour. We did 4 caddy's in three hours time on a … Saturday! We are heroes right?!

Aaaargh, luckily the girls could stay with my dad so it went quite smoothly. 

So the tour around Tahiti is wonderful! Every 10 to 20 minutes you can stop to check out a Marae (ancient praying ground), museum, caves, botanical garden, waterfall, lighthouses and surfing heaven! All through a mix of lots of sun and rain … 

Stop 1: Tahiti museum

   

Wonderful garden around the museum.

 

With a good view on a nice surf spot and Moore'a in the background.

There are supposed to be many whales around French Polynesia, but we didn't see any unfortunately, well no live ones anyway 😳

Here the drawings are a game but in the city you can find them everywhere on the tall buildings. Very good!

Stop 2: a Marae (forgot the name, there are soooo many 😳)

Stop 3: caves and waterfalls

A bit impressed by the tattoos 😂

Stop 4: the botanical garden

A small lesson about these roots... school all day long, poor girls! 😏

And with the rain and the brown-yellow-orange leafs, we have a feel for ... autumn 😝

Lelies in autumn?!

This is the West side of Tahiti. Seems nice too, but no time anymore to explore it by boat...

And the garden has it's pets, a few cats and ...

 

somewhere lost in a corner, ... a Galapagos turtle! So we saw one after all! And for free !

Stop 5: All the way to the South we get to Teahupoo, THE worldcup surfspot.

This is the side for the kids to practice on.

And far far away, where it's very dangerous over the reef, the jury admires the REAL surfers on their waves.

We tried to get there by foot as the road actually stops at this point.

However a new rainshower made us run back to the car 😎 And that was already enough for Anna. Second nap of the day!

But we make the most of our car and try to get all around back the East side towards Papeete. As it's still not dark: Stop 6: a blowhole along the road. The 'blowing wasn't that impressive, however the double rainbow was ! 😍

And as the rain disappears as quickly as it comes we get to squeeze a stop 7: the three waterfalls of Fa'aramua'i.

The next day, we only have time for the lighthouse before having to return the car. Too bad you can't really go on a hike in Tahiti. We didn't find any road and apparently it's only possible with a guide...

30/07/2019

While Geoffrey borrows a bike to try and find the parts we need to repair some stuff on the boat, I 'enjoy' a long overdue in depth cleaning (with help from my daughter) and the girls especially enjoy the boathopping as many boatkids are bored with their parents doing boatjobs 😌 

The Papeete harbour also has a beautiful park for the kids to play, where the parents can meet and complain about the hard work they did during the day 😂

1/08/2019

Time to leave for Moore'a so my dad can enjoy his last two days exploring another island, 5 islands in 4 weeks, not too bad right? 😎