Vacation - Easter Island and Tahiti - Day 4

The map below will show you where Tahiti, French Polynesia, is relative to the Americas. The group of islands to the north is Hawaii. Click inside to remove the Google dialogue box. Tahiti is broken in to two sections, Tahiti Nui (big Tahiti) and Tahiti Iti (little Tahiti).


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These were some ceremonial ruins that we went to visit. Unfortunately, that is about all I can tell you, as there were no other descriptions at the site. The planks with the faces in them were interesting, so I took a picture of them. This area was up a small residential side road, and was our first taste of local roads and signage.



Thi picture was taken by the side of road, literally. We had stopped to view some caves, nothing much, and saw fish in the crystal clear water when we went back to the car.


This image is very typical of Tahiti, with the soaring pointed peaks and lush green mountain sides.


Well this picture should have never been, but we got lost, big time, and ended up at the end of the road on Tahiti Iti (little Tahiti). There were a dozen or so of these boats pulled up on the black shore. If we had thought to bring a lunch, we could have eaten it here as this appeared to be a popular picnic spot. As it was we went back the way we came and eventually found our way to the lookout.


Ah, the lookout on Tahiti Iti. Took us about 2 hours to find this spot. It was worth it though. The drive up to this point takes you through a more temperate area that is very much like Ontario, with grass covered fields and stands of deciduous trees. It even has cows grazing.


This is the drive down from the lookout. Not at all like a tropical island.


As we contiued around the island, I kept getting these glimpses behind us of Tahiti Iti with the sun shining on the flat plain that we had just driven down.

This was one of the nice surprises on the island. First, it was relatively easy to find and there were signs at the site explaining the story of these waterfalls. To make a long story short, two other waterfalls that are close to one another and a 20-30 minute hike from this one represent the two forbidden lovers who finally found each other, against the wishes of the tribal chief. This single waterfall is the spirit of the guard who was unable to keep the chiefs daughter safe.


After a walk through downtown Papeete, we had to return the rental car early, so we ended up sitting in the airport for about 5 hours. Our flight left at 12:30AM, the next morning. This time we tried to sleep as much as possible, as we would be arriving in Easter Island around 10 AM, after a 5-6 hour flight.

OPINION: I am sorry to say that I found Tahiti disappointing. We tried to visit the recommended points of interest but it was very difficult to find them in many cases. When we did find them, some of them were not that interesting (the caves), not accessible due to private property or impassable roads, or not operable when we were there (the blowhole, due to tide conditions). There is also not a lot of useful road signs.

Also, it was very difficult to take a good picture of the island due to the constant haze that seems to cover most of it. Perhaps this was a bad weather day, or perhaps it has something to do with the widespread burning of yard waste that seems to occur. In some areas the slow drifting smoke made it look like the island was burning. The smell was also a turn off.

We visited Papeete, the main city as well. Now we are not city people, we would much rather be out in the countryside hiking and looking the scenery, but neither of us were impressed. There is some waterfront development going on that looked promissing and we had to leave just before all the food vendors came out for the night. Maybe it's a night city.

The topograpy is stunning, but unfortunately it was hard to see it some times. I would recommend moving on to some of the other islands with fewer air problems and more resorts and beachs, such as Moorea and Bora Bora. Perhaps some guided tours would show off the island better.