Tahiti Islands, French Polynesia Nov. 7-14, 2012

Tahiti.  Nov 7-14, 2012

Airline connections back to the United States from Australia became difficult so we modified our trip to fly through Tahiti on the way back home.  We like to think that we were optimistic and when we were faced with difficult connections through Asia we decided to go spend a week in the South Pacific instead.  In our family we call this “finding a horse under a pile of horseshit”.  We flew from Sydney to New Caledonia and on to Papeete, Tahiti and connected to a 30 minute Air Tahiti flight to the island of Huahine.

Tahiti

Barb getting off the plane in Huahine

Scott at the airport

Barb gets greeted with a lei.

This is our water taxi that takes us from the dock to our hotel.  There isn't a road that goes to the hotel.

As we were flying into Huahine we flew directly over the harbor and the start of the biggest sporting event in Tahiti:  The Outrigger Canoe Race with 6 rowers in each canoe.  They race from the island of Huahine to the island of Raiatea and spend the night.  The next morning they race to Taha’a Island.  The following morning they race onto Bora Bora.  They train for this all year and teams are entered from all over Polynesia.  There are lots of boats that follow them and the hotels are full for this event.

Out the plane window looking at Huahine Island

Our first glimpse of the rowers with lots of boats watching and following.

You can see the rowers in the center.  They are amazingly fast.

 We were met at the plane and transferred to the dock for a boat ride to the Te Tiare Beach Resort.  We made these arrangements the day before arrival.  We were pleasantly surprised by our choice of island and hotel.

On the water taxi with some local kids.

This is our hotel called Te Tiare

These are the beach bungalows

These are the over water bungalows

 Huahine is one of the Leeward Islands and there are very few tourists.  

Map of Huahine

We have an overwater bungalow for the first two nights and a beach bungalow for the third night.  We are very content to swim, lie in the sun, and snorkel for a couple of days.  We also tried to paddle the outrigger canoe but we found it to be difficult to steer.  The oarsman at the rear had to use his paddle as a rudder and brake to keep the canoe moving in the intended direction.

Arriving at the hotel

Barb arriving

Our bungalow is on the left

Scott

Checking in

Barb waits in the bar

The dining area

Bar area

Our bungalow inside

Bedroom

Pool area

Barb

On our private deck

Scott checking it out

First things first, a swim

This photo was NOT taken with an underwater camera.  That is how clear the water is!!!

These are the beach side bungalows

Flower on the left side means married or taken, on the right is available.

Another beautiful sunset

Every evening there are amazing sunsets

 On the third day we got bored and went into town and rented a car for 4 hours and drove around the island.  It was a beautiful drive.  There were ancient ruins and beautiful stretches of coastline.  This is the Tahitian equivalent of the Australian Great Ocean Road and maybe more scenic, with all due respect to the 8 Apostles.

Scott waiting in the water taxi to take us into town

One of the main town roads

This is the amazing car we rented for 4 hours

What the island looks like

Ancient ruins are found on the island

Barb at more ancient ruins

Beautiful beaches along the roadside

Nice 20 mile road around the island

Typical homes

Barb

Ancient fish traps

Fish traps

Great scenery

They have sacred blue eyed eels.

Small boys were feeding and playing with the sacred blue eyed eels

Interesting palm tree

The colors of the water were spectacular.  It is shallow and sandy where it is lighter blue.

Banana tree

Beautiful drive

Fishermen

Beautiful flowers

Getting a bath

Back at the dock, the children wave to us

Self portrait.  Looks like rain.

Scott waiting at the dock

Arrive back at our bungalow in time for another sunset.

 Sailing:

We flew from the island of Huahine to the island of Raiatea

Scott at the Raiatea airport

We arranged to pick up a 40 foot Catamaran sailing vessel in Raiatea.  We want to sail between and visit the leeward islands of Bora Bora, Taha’a, and Raiaitea.  We also arranged to take an experienced skipper with us since these are 20 mile or more open and deep-water crossings with hidden reefs and possible storms.  It is the beginning of their hurricane season.  

We rented through the Moorings company.  Scott has sailing experience and we could have taken the boat alone, but we wanted a skipper for the big water crossings and because of all the reefs.

The boat is roomy enough for 8 but the sleeping quarters are small and the showers and cooking areas are all small.  For the same length boat the monohull boat would be much tighter.  The catamaran has roomy areas outside, judged by sailboat standards.   The trampoline netting in front is great for lounging and enjoying the view.

Scott on the front of the boat

Barb relaxing on the trampoline netting

Sail up

Islands in view

Interior lounging area

Kitchen

Our bedroom

The shower

Another bedroom

 Our Skipper is Thierry Vander…?  He has been sailing the world’s oceans since he was 26 years old.  He and his friends built a 70-foot boat and sailed from France across the Atlantic to South America and through the Panama Canal to the Pacific Coast of Mexico where he sold the boat.  Since then he has made many voyages across the world’s oceans for fun and for profit.  Lately he has been delivering boats from South Africa to Australia and from Miami to Europe.  He is a salty sailor that knows a lot about the oceans and sailing.  He was great to have with us.

Thierry

Our other captain, Scott

 On the first day we had a good wind from the northeast and we sailed from Raiatea past Taha’a and onto Bora Bora making about 7 knots per hour.  It took us about 5 hours to make the sail from Raiatea to Bora Bora.  It was a beautiful day and the sailing conditions were perfect.

White sail against a blue sky

Bora Bora in the distance

Scott working the boat

Bora Bora is an old volcano

In this picture you can see the crater left from the volcano

 We were in Bora Bora in 1986.  There were only 2 hotels that we remember.  We stayed at the Club Med and the other hotel we remember was the Hotel Bora Bora.  The Hotel Bora Bora is now closed but still is situated on the nicest beach in Bora Bora.

Hotel Bora Bora has been closed for 4 years.  Someone else bought it, but is waiting to rebuild.  It was pretty run-down.

There are now 14 big hotels on Bora Bora and they look like they are stacked on top of each other.  We are glad to be on a sailboat and not in a sprawling hotel.

The over water bungalows just keep on going........

 The sailing is good.  Thierry said that we are lucky because the usual wind is from the east, which would have been directly on our stern and not comfortable or efficient.

Lookout duty

Captain Scott at the helm

We sailed all the way around Bora Bora.

 Bora Bora is known for its beautiful lagoon and majestic ancient volcano mountains.  Sailing in these waters is beautiful.

These island have lagoons all the way around them

Once inside the lagoon the water color changes.  It is soooooo clear!

Close-up of Bora Bora

 There is only one opening in the reef that surrounds Bora Bora.  We sailed through the opening and into the lagoon.

Skipper Scott

This small island was owned by the Club Med and in 1986 we took a power outrigger canoe and would hang out on the island all day.

There are many small islands called motu's

 Views of the lagoon and the Bora Bora mountains are fantastic.  After World War II some American GIs were stationed here and Bora Bora has been a favorite of Americans ever since.  

Barb goes for a swim

 We anchored in about 2 meters of water and we took the dinghy to go explore.  We tried to find an old ruin next to the shore but couldn’t spot it.  

Captain Scott setting the anchor.  Things get easier with technology....you push a button to lower or raise the anchor.

The Polynesians are believed to have come from Southeast Asia a couple thousand years ago.  They are believed to have used large catamaran boats and were excellent sailors and navigators.  They settled in a great triangle stretching from Easter Island to Tahiti to New Zealand.  Thierry lives on Raiatea and told us that the Polynesians have lost the secrets and knowledge that would have allowed their ancestors to make such long voyages and navigate to such small specs of land in the vast Pacific.  Thierry believes that their ancestors must have been very sophisticated and accomplished sailors.

Thierry made us Tuna Carpaccio...

The next morning we took the dinghy and went snorkeling.  Thierry tied the dinghy to the underwater reef and we jumped out and snorkeled for an hour.  We saw a very big stonefish.  It was very hard to tell it was a fish because it looks just like a rock.  They say this is the most dangerous fish in the Pacific.  If you step on it they say it can kill you.

Scott Snorkeling.  We took some bread in a plastic bag and fed it to the fish.  They all come around you to eat the bread.

The water is so clear, you can see very clearly to the bottom.  We watched big sea rays swim around.

After snorkeling we were caught in a tropical storm in our dinghy on the way back to our sailboat.  The weather looks threatening so we decide to spend another night on the opposite side of Bora Bora.  We anchored near the old Bora Bora Hotel and took our dingy to the beach.  We had fun looking at the old Bora Bora Hotel that is now abandoned and beginning to fall down.  Bora Bora has suffered in the economic downturn and a lot of the luxury hotels are empty and look like they have deferred maintenance.  We are happy that we are sailing and not in one of the hotels.

Fun fun fun

Storm is on the way

Barb isn't too concerned

Another beautiful sunset

The next morning Thierry was surprised to see that we still had winds from the Northeast.  Normally they are from the east and we need to sail back directly east to Taha’a.  This northeast wind allows us to shave close to the wind and cut the waves and set a course directly toward the island.  The seas have about a 5 foot swell.  We had to tack across the wind only once as we got close to the break in the reef that would allow us into the Taha’a lagoon.  We stopped at the Taha’a Resort and Spa and had a look around.  It is probably the nicest hotel that we saw but there were too many people and I think you would get bored after a few days.

The wind has kicked up to 25 knots and it is beginning to rain.  We sailed around to the protected side (leeward side) of the island and dropped anchor in 20 meters of water.  There were a few lightning storms with rain and wind until about 11 pm and then it was calm again.

Storm lapping waves against the reef

Rain clouds

Barb watches the rainbow

We looked for the pot of gold, but couldn't find it.

Sunset

 In the morning we sailed in Taha’a bay.  It is beautiful water.  You can see Bora Bora on one side and Raiatea on the other. 

Our captains will take us wherever we want to go

It's a hard life out here in Tahiti

This guy in an outrigger canoe rode our wake for a while.  You really have to concentrate and watch your balance.

I don't think Scott would fit in one of these canoes

 We took the dinghy to some of the Motus.  We saw dark sea rays and light colored southern rays swimming over the sand in about 2 meters of water.  We also saw what looked like an albino moray eel that swam aggressively toward us while we were walking in the water near the beach.  Thierry said he had never seen an eel that color or that aggressive.

Heading to the motus

Heading to an island

It is time to get the sail boat back to the base so we head back to Raiatea using engines since the winds are very light.

Sailing art

Tahiti is the end of our amazing adventure.  We have had a blast.  We were very fortunate to be able to pull off this incredible trip.  Life is such an adventure no matter where you are.  We will have fun all along the way.

 

THE END of our ROUND THE WORLD trip.

Why go home?

The terms of our international airfare are that we have to continue flying in one direction. We purchased first/business class airfare around the world using award miles.  We chose to fly East for no particular reason.  We started in Salt Lake City in March and every major flight has taken us further east.  When we landed in an area we wanted to explore more fully we purchased multiple flights to hop around a country or a continent. 

We have run out of ports of call west of our point of embarkation.  From Tahiti flying east you fly over the vast Pacific Ocean and eventually run into the west coast of the Americas.  Only the Marques Islands are a possible stop along our route and although they are terra firma paradise for sailors navigating their way from the South Pacific to the Americas, they hold less appeal for us.

Sailors spend a month navigating from Tahiti to the Americas.  Our flight will take 8 hours.  We learned from Thierry, our skipper in Tahiti, that your time on a sailboat is spent navigating to friendly winds and currents, fishing, catching rainwater, reading, and enjoying the company of your companion.  He told us that unless you have a good relationship and commonality of interests with your companion that being stuck with someone on a sailboat averaging 5 knots per hour crossing the vast Pacific Ocean can be hell on earth especially in the “doldrums” which is that area in the middle of the Pacific that has no trade winds.

We have just spent four and a half months together.  It has been like an extended honeymoon.  The only times we have been apart were when one of us was in a public bathroom.  We have had so much fun together.  We have trekked in some of the most beautiful mountains in the world including the Torres del Paine, the Dolomites, and the Bhutanese Himalaya.  We have sailed the Croatian Dalmatian Coast in a 55-foot monohull and we have sailed through the beautiful Leeward Islands of Tahiti in a 40-foot catamaran.  We goofed around in a small sailboat off the Island of Koh Samui in the Gulf of Siam for four days. We drove 2770 kilometers on dirt roads (400 on pavement) wandering around the Namibian Skeleton Coast and Kalahari Desert in a 4X4 Jeep.  We got lost and cursed local maps and markers and worried about gas supplies and darkness.  We often asked directions from friendly locals driving donkey carts.  We saw lions kill and eat a zebra.  We saw leopards mate…for 3 hours.  We heard noises around our tent in the Okavango Delta and awoke at 5:30 am to find a big bull elephant sleeping next to a tree 15 feet from our tent.  He was breathing in and out 3 times per minute.  We took bikes into the bush south of Windhoek for some exercise and surprised a rhino.  We were dumbfounded by the harmonious confusion we found in India.  The Hindu liberal, tolerant, and inclusive approach to religion has provided millions of people with a peaceful way of life.  The gleeful look on the young boys faces while chanting happy thanks for another day at sunset on the banks of the Ganges River in Varanasi was instructive.  Westerners might have been focusing on the persistent abject poverty.  These young Indians were instead celebrating the end of another day.  We landed in Paro, Bhutan on the start day of a three-day national festival that reenacts in costumes and masks the stories of the Buddhist heritage of that isolated country.  At the end of every trek we entered a sacred temple or monastery and wondered at the devotion of these people.  The hike to the Tiger’s Nest Temple built high on some cliffs in Bhutan was steep.   We wondered how they built these temples on the side of a cliff.  We gratefully gave donations and received blessings from the Buddhist Monks, which consisted of words to promote health, happiness, and prosperity and a string bracelet.  The blessings made us feel good.  In Thailand we went into a tiger natural habitat enclosure and pet the tigers.  For that lack of good sense our kids lectured us.  Never approach a caged tiger from the front unless you think you can dominate him.  We went to elephant Mahut School near Luang Prabang, Laos and learned to ride on the neck of an elephant and control the elephant with words and leg pressure.  Riding an elephant bare-neck is like trying to balance on a bosu ball.  Every time the elephant would swing her head to look behind her we were in jeopardy of falling off.  We were lucky not to fall the ten feet to the ground.  In the river the elephants are as playful as puppy dogs.  A sunset boat ride on the Mekong River is an “ahhh” experience. The Khmers ruled Southeast Asia a thousand years ago and built a temple complex big enough to be seen from space yet their civilization vanished for failure to manage their resources and get along with their neighbors.  More recently they have survived a civil war that killed a large percentage of their population.  The War Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam made us uneasy but the people of Vietnam are very nice.  Mongolia was a voyage of discovery.  Outside of the capital city of Ulaanbaatar this is a horse-based society.  We rode horses for 4 days and slept in Gers and burnt cow dung in stoves all night in order to stay warm.  Mongolians don’t have our tradition of privacy and just before they walk into your Ger to see what there is to see they yell “Nakhoi Khor” which means, “hold the dog I’m coming in”.  Lord Howe Island, Australia is one of the most beautiful islands we have ever seen.  Diving with the Giant Potato Cod on the Great Barrier Reef was beautiful.  Lizard Island was a Robinson Crusoe experience with our own powerboat and two dozen deserted beaches to explore.  Uluru (Ayres Rock) gave us a sense for the spirituality of the Aborigines and Kangaroo Island and the Great Ocean Road in Australia showed us the beauty of the Southern Ocean and kangaroos and koalas.  Sailing in Tahiti between Bora Bora, Raiatea and Taha’a was the perfect way to end our trip.  When can we go on another trip around the world?

We are sad for our trip to end but we are excited to hug our children and grandchildren.  Grandchildren develop their personalities and grow so fast that you don’t want to miss any of their delightful journeys.

The Journey:

SLC to Santiago, Chile

Santiago to Buenos Aires, Argentina

Buenos Aires t o Trelew

Drive to Peninsula Valdez

Trelew to El-Calafate

Drive to Torres del Paine, Chile

Drive to El Chalten

Drive to Perito Moreno Glacier

Boat to Cristina, fish and horse rides

El-Calafate to Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires to Iguazzu Falls, Brazil

Iguazzu Falls to Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires to Paris, France

Drive to Provence

Bike Mt Ventoux and other rides

Drive to Monaco watch Monte Carlo Masters Tennis

Paris to SLC

SLC to Paris

Paris to Rome

Rome to Split, Croatia

Sail the Dalmatian Coast

Drive to Bosnia

Drive to Dubrovnik

Fly to Milan

Drive to Palazzo Arzaga and Verona

Drive to Cortina in the Dolomites

Drive to Venice

Fly to Paris

Fly to Windhoek, Namibia

Drive around Namibia in 4X4

Fly to safari camp in Okavango Delta, Botswana

Fly to another safari camp in Savute, Botswana

Fly to Johannesburg, South Africa

Fly to Mumbai and onto Udaipur, India

Drive to Jaipur

Drive to Agra

Drive to Delhi

Fly to Varanasi

Fly to Delhi

Fly to Paro, Bhutan

Drive to Timphu

Drive to Gangtey

Drive to Punakha

Fly to Bangkok and onto Koh Samui Island, Thailand

Fly to Chaing Mai, Thailand

Fly to Luang Prabang, Laos

Fly to Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Fly to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Fly to Bangkok and onto Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Fly to Seoul, Korea and onto Sydney, Australia

Fly to Lord Howe Island

Fly to Sydney and onto Cairns

Fly to Lizard Island

Fly to Ayers Rock

Fly to Adelaide

Fly to Kangaroo Island

Fly to Melbourne

Drive the Great Ocean Road

Fly to Sydney

Fly to New Caledonia and onto Papeete, Tahiti

Fly to Huahine

Fly to Raiatea

Sail from Raiatea to Bora Bora

Sail from Bora Bora to Taha’a

Sail from Taha’a to Raiatea

Fly to Papeete

Fly to LAX and on to PHX

Fly from PHX to SLC