Tahiti

Regrouping in Tahiti AKA Time to get over it and get on with it

It's all good

I was lucky. I got the last seat on the weekly flight from Hao to Tahiti. And my bag, weirdly, weighed in at 10 kg so I didn’t have to pay extra.

I arrived after dark and sat in the almost empty airport looking online for the perfect place to stay but didn’t find it. The airport is 10 km from town and the buses had stopped running for the day and most places seemed only to accept phone reservations and I was without a phone and my skype is broken and so in the end I splurged and stayed at the airport hotel - which was wonderful, btw, with heavenly sheets and an endless granite bathroom countertop and a fabulous breakfast included – and I didn’t go into town until the next morning to look for a more convenient and cheaper option.  

In the end, of course, I chose to stay in the only hostel in the city. It is not, in any way, like a 5 star beachfront resort, which is, I assume, what most people think of when they think of Tahiti, but it is cheap, and clean, and within easy walking distance of the town, and has tiny bedrooms but a huge communal lounge, with six or seven tables and as many couches, where everyone gathers to relax, use the internet, eat, drink, and play cards…

Hobo, Tahitian style...

Canoe racer, Tahitian style.....

The first few days I was still reeling, in shock at finding myself kicked off of the boat. I rushed around trying too hard to pretend that I didn’t mind, taking lots of photos but not getting any pleasure out of anything. Then, slowly, I settled down and started to chat with my fellow hostellers  (one of whom had crewed from South America on a Danish sailboat and another of whom rented a car for the day and drove all round the island and took me with him) and other tourists (I walked past a young woman at a sidewalk cafe having a HUGE sundae and stopped to comment on the size of it and she was so happy to meet someone else who spoke English she invited me to join her and I had a Sundae too and we chatted for hours) and even, since I speak the language, the locals.

In Chile everyone said, ‘Go hiking!’, and I did, and it worked out well enough.

Here everyone says, ‘Go visit the other islands!’, and, though a wee voice inside me says that that is what I was supposed to be doing on Sven’s boat, I nonetheless decided that I ought not cut off my nose to spite my face, and so bought an Air Tahiti ‘pass’ for $480 CAD which allows me to fly to 7 different islands. Ben, bless his soul, managed to re-book my flights home for me a bit early both letting me have a stop-over in Vancouver to visit my best friend and getting me back in time for Summerfest. So, given my new fixed timetable, I set up my ‘pass’ flights to the various islands and booked accommodation on each of them – a few campsites on the beach, a couple other hostels, a home-stay, a guest house or two, and even one honest to goodness, though not 5-star, resort – and I have as my only goals for the next few weeks to do a bit of snorkelling, climb to a few look-outs, relax, and, of course, try to get one facebook-postable brag-photo from each different island!

It will, I think, although it is not exactly what I had intended to do during the month of July, be good. In fact, the more I get used to the idea, the more I like it. I love being a tourist and will be able to be one to my heart’s content. I won’t have to waste any time waiting on anyone else’s itinerary, I will free as a bird. A bit lonely, perhaps, but, let’s face it, I was lonely on the boat too. (And at home, come to that. I guess wherever you go there you are.)

Yes, I have decided, it will be fantastic!

And, then, in August, my only goals will be to see friends and family, make up for lost time over the spring… also fantastic!

(I’m not sure how all of this will fit into the new fiscally-responsible budget that I set at the beginning of the year but I will worry about that later. Roll on September - it will definitely be time for me to be back earning money rather than spending it!)

Me, hot and sweaty on a hike...

A random view downwards.

So now, knowing that I will be lounging in lagoons most of July, and visiting friends and family as much as I can in August, and working in September I have suddenly gone into ‘super tourist’ mode and am ‘doing’ Tahiti like no one ever has before! Seriously. Yesterday, for example, I took the bus 49 km to the water gardens, amazing tropical water lilies and the like, and then did a 2 hour hike straight up a stream into the hills and then out onto a pine covered ridge and back down, and then hitch-hiked to the best snorkelling beach on the island, where, of course, I snorkelled. I then hoofed it 4 km in the hot sun to the small but fantastic island Museum. And, after a quick respite at my hostel for a shower and such, went out with my roommate to a 3 hour Heiva performance, Heiva being the annual Tahitian song and dance competition. I was so tired I almost didn’t go but was glad I did because the positive energy there was totally contagious. There were dances with 100 dancers on stage, solo dances, traditional singing, lots of drumming, bits that were more like theater with myths being acted out... The costumes were out of this world. Also, this being Polynesia, the dancers, unlike in Las Vegas, were not all rail thin. Many were large. Often the lead dancer was large. Very large. And man could they move!

What you can't tell from a photo is how heavenly the flower market smells!

Yes. It is all good.