(You'd think that by now that I'd be good at booking flights. But no. I'm not. I'm too indecisive. My modus operandi goes sort of like this: look up prices, wait a couple days to think things over, decide something, realize prices have gone up in the last few days, panic, start the process over. It often results in me staying longer than I'd intended to. So then I feel I ought to do something. Today I hiked Fautaua Valley.)
Fautaua Valley AKA Flowers, Ferns and Falls
Step 1. Recommended. Put on bikini or at least colourful undies. (I didn't do that.) Take food and water with you. (I did do that.)
Step 2. Recommended. Buy a pass at town hall. You only have to visit about 6 offices to find the right one, and, though no one will ever ask to see it, it only costs $6 and it's the right thing to do. (I did do that.)
Step 3. Take Avenue Pierre-Loti to get to trailhead. I walked right from my hostel, which took about an hour, but you can also drive or take the local bus.
Step 4. Hike the narrow gravel road along beside the river. The vegetation is lush and verdant, a plethora of greens caressing the eyes, and the air is heavy with the fragrances of various flowering trees. This also takes an hour.
Step 5. Cross the bridge to fairyland.
Step 6. Hike the steep rocky and rooty path up past bamboo stands and enormous ferns and all manner of weird and wonderful plants to the lookout. Beware the tiny coloured lizards that scurry away spooking you on occasion. One more hour.
Step 7. Go past the lookout, turn right at the stone wall, and gird your loins. The next section down to the pools is very steep and very slippery and just a little scary.
Step 8. Swim (even in white bra and panties if that's all you've got), eat your lunch, and enjoy!
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| The forest was lovely, cool and dark with flowers strewn about. |
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| There was a rope along this part of the path because it was practically vertical. Also slippery. It was a long rope. There were several sections like this. Fun! |
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| One of a string of pools above the waterfall. |
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| You could slide from pool to pool... |
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| ... right to the very lip of the falls. |
Bonus: Once around the loop.
Tahiti is made up of two volcanoes joined together by an improbably small flat low isthmus. Unlike the Hawaiian islands which tend to be very wet on one side and very dry on the other Tahiti is almost uniformly lush and verdant. Many moons ago the Polynesians had quite isolated communities in the valleys that cut up from the shore but now there is a narrow strip built up almost continuously along the coast and the interior is left wild and wonderful. That's an oversimplification of course, some streets do lead off the main road, especially near the capital, but almost everything, houses and churches, shops and schools, cows and coconut plantations, tin-roofed shanty towns and five star resorts, is squished into a thin band between the ocean and the rugged green hills. Travelling the road you feel you've seen it all. Certainly no trip here would be complete without a quick trip at least once around.
There are different ways to accomplish the loop. If you have $100 extra and can drive confidently in foreign places you could rent a car. That would be the best plan. (I fail on two counts.) Alternatively with $100 extra and the patience of a saint you could take a tourist day tour. (Again I fail on two counts.) If you're lucky you meet someone else who's rented a car and will let you schlep along. (Didn't happen this time.) Or you could hitchhike - though 120 km is quite a long way for that. Another option is to do the circle on the local busses. They are pretty beaten up, with the seats ripped and torn, but that just makes them feel (if I can say this without being too racist or elitist) more authentic. And they have one great plus, they're cheap, less than $10 for the circuit. But it's also an agonizing choice for those of us who list indecisiveness as our best quality. The busses don't run on a set schedule. They leave endpoints between 5 am and 5 pm when 80% full, likely about once an hour, but it depends. So when you start the circle in the morning, you have to have at least some idea how often you're going to jump off, because each stop may, or may not, include a long wait for the next bus after you're done visiting. Is it worth getting off at the the blowhole? the three waterfalls? the one dirt road that cuts right across the island? the lovely little museum you remember from last time you were here? and oh, oh, oh, look at that amazing craft fair! (Though, please, don't get me wrong, I freely admit that any day this is your greatest problem is likely to be an awesone day.)
It rained the day I did the loop, and I had to wait more than once for the next bus, but I'd forgotten how interesting it is to stand huddled under the bus stop shelters and chat with the other people waiting (a grandmother, two teens, a pineapple farmer who invited me to stay on his ranch for a week…). Usually when I'm travelling I have far too high a ratio of interaction with other tourists VS locals, and I can attest, I have first hand experience to back up this statement, not many tourists do the loop on local busses. (I wonder why not.)
