I arrived back on Tahiti from Mo’orea on Tuesday and spent four lovely nights in a studio apartment overlooking Mo’orea to the west. I have to give it to Tahiti for having the best sunsets I’ve ever seen. Clouds perpetually stretch across the sky to catch the colors as the sun slips behind the horizon and beyond. I’m not one to be moved to try to capture nature’s beauty in paint and canvas, but even I can see how the beauty of a Tahitian sunset would ignite a painter’s passion for recreating the subtle and nuanced colors that streak and smudge the twilight sky.
Thursday, I rented a car and drove around the entire northern part of the island and much of the southern peninsula.
I started out driving east from my apartment through the capital of Pape’ete and its eastern suburbs. Like any big city, the rush hour traffic was a nightmare. I was discouraged early on in my endeavor as I wasn’t able to locate any of the historical sites that are said to lie just outside Pape’ete to the east. Once past the city, though, I was able to enjoy the beautiful scenery as the road ran along the ocean to the east and mountains to the west, sometimes climbing up hills that opened up onto gorgeous coastline views as they crested and descended back down. At a few places around the island, the road ran right along the water’s edge with nothing in between – just asphalt and then water with nothing to stop you driving straight in if you got distracted and slipped a tire off the road.
One of the attractions I did manage to visit on the eastern coast were the blowholes. Where the mountain face meets the Pacific Ocean, holes in the cliff blow a high pressure mist of ocean water when the waves crash against the cliff face. It didn’t sound all that impressive on paper, but it was actually quite entertaining and enchanting to sit and watch as each new wave triggered a furious explosion of ocean mist from the cliff face. You can catch a couple of my short videos of the blowholes here.
Adjacent to the blowholes are three waterfalls you can hike to. Unfortunately, the waterfalls were closed to the public while I was there due to construction in the area. I continued driving south, across the Isthmus of Taravao and into the southern peninsula of Tahiti Iti.
On the western coast of Tahiti Nui are the lovely Botanical Gardens and the Vaipahi Water Gardens.
Also on the western side of the island are a few popular marae sites (ancient temples), as well as marae grottos – caves in which marae were erected. The grotto caves are full of water, however, so you can’t go into them to see the marae; you just stand at the edge and peer in. The largest cave was a popular swimming spot for children, however, despite the “no entry” signs posted there.
While on Tahiti, I also had to take note of the street art I saw there. There seems to be both a big street art and a big tagging scene on Tahiti. Most of the art I saw was from behind the steering wheel, but here’s a few I managed to snap while walking around the city of Pape’ete:
Friday night, I treated myself to dinner and a Tahiti Ori dance performance at Le Meridien resort down the road. This was the highlight of my time in French Polynesia. Everything about the performance was arresting and beautiful. Talk about a soulful dance! It began with intense, rhythmic drum beats matched by hip gyrations by the female dancers that are the hallmark of the dance and by aggressive, angular movements by the male dancers suggestive of battle preparations. The dancers would whoop and holler when the music got especially intense. The costumes were stunning. I absolutely loved it. Word to the wise – most of the Tahiti Ori performances are at hotels, so scope out the venue before you make any reservations. At Le Meridien, for example, you can grab a drink at the foyer bar that sits above the dinning room and stage and watch the show from there, skipping the hefty dinner bill.
The show ended early due to rain (the dinning room is covered, but the stage is open air) and I was about to leave when a few of the musicians returned to the foyer bar to start playing there. I decided to grab a drink and enjoy some of the local music before heading back to my apartment. The music had that chill island element to it and the singer had a sweet and almost sorrowful voice. It was extraordinarily pleasant.
TL;DR: Enjoyed Tahiti’s natural beauty and incredible dancing; I’m starting to see a pattern here.
