We visited here in 2013 and did a Motu Picnic and some snorkeling with sharks and rays, so this time we decided to take a 4-wheel drive tour to the inner island for scenic beauty and maybe seeing some wildlife.
Early sail in:
We didn’t have a plan for here either since it was an
unscheduled port so I jumped online and booked a “stock” tour on Viator. I have
never used them before as I prefer to eliminate the middle man whenever
possible, but I wasn’t wasting precious time on a ship and expensive internet minutes
researching a local company. We went with a 4X4 Jeep tour of the interior of
the island.
Since the tour didn’t start until after 9:00, we took our
time at breakfast and walked off to find our meeting place for the tour. On the
way the locals were dancing and grabbing us as we walked by to dance with them.
So, off I go with one and we all danced together and I thought it was over. He
said to wait and we all formed a circle and each local took their partner one
at a time to dance in the center. Everyone was being taken all around me and
I’m thinking…I gotta go, I have a tour to meet. He holds my hand and keeps
saying to wait. I was saved for last. He takes me out and does a long routine
which I try to follow as best I could. (yes, there’s video) Some girl in the
audience came up and joined us?!? After the dance I turned to leave and he
stopped me to put his lei over my head. How nice! It smelled so good!
I'm in the middle in aqua shirt
Here is the video Greg took: Tahiti Annette Dancing
We found the building we were to meet the tour and the
locals there tried to find our guide for us. French is spoken here, so it was a
bit of a challenge. Finally, one gentleman called the company listed on our
sheet and they told us to wait there and they would come pick us up. They were
meeting other people at the pier. We got in the 4X4 with another couple and off
we went. We made one more stop for 2 more people at a hotel and we were off on
our adventure.
Zebra Dove
Myna
a stop for refreshments
We traversed rough roads (nothing compared to Panama)
experiencing the rainforest.
the road
Our first stop was at Mount Marau, a former 19th-century
French fortress. It was a gorgeous vista of the lush rainforest-clad Punaruu
Valley which has the island's highest peaks: Orohena, Aorai, Tetufera and
Teamaa. We entered the Faaurumai Valley near Tahiti’s north coast to visit the
three waterfalls of the Cascades of Faarumai — nestled in nearly impenetrable
rainforest of hutu and mape trees.
Tahiti had a typhoon about 9 days ago and the road had only
been open 2 days and swimming that was scheduled wasn’t a good idea due to the
churned up water. It also limited walking out to the Vaimahutu Falls, which
plunges 100 feet (30 meters) into a crystal-clear pool below. We also couldn’t
take the 20-minute rainforest walk to reach the other two cascades, Haamaremare
Iti and Haamaremare Rahi and couldn’t spend time at the final waterfall for a
refreshing swim.
Along the way we stopped for numerous photo ops and to watch
the locals enjoying the water.
our guide & the Jeep
catching the waterfall
water shooting out of the lava tube to form the waterfall
This really didn’t impact us as the waterfalls and views we
saw were gorgeous! We continued to a hotel in a crater of a volcano and had a
very nice lunch at their restaurant. What a great spot that was!
After a leisurely lunch, we continued to drive all the way
to the top until we came to the “end of the road”. You could drive all the way
around, but the government doesn’t not allow that so we had to turn around and
go back on the same route. (which we knew in advance. The guide said he hoped
that one day they would open up that side of the island to tourism.) At the top
we saw a lava tube and after stopping for our photo ops we drove through it to
the other side and then got out for a short walk to see some birds and flowers
and the beautiful view of the lake in the crater. Then, it was time to drive
back down. We did make a couple of stops for photos and to stretch our legs.
Before returning to the pier we stopped to see the Arahoho Blowhole, an
unmarked roadside attraction created over eons by liquid lava, when battering
surf undercut the basalt shoreline and eroded a tunnel-like passageway. It
wasn’t really good conditions for seeing it, but we did see some local surfers
and the black-sand beach.
inside the restaurant
my lunch - curry shrimp
Greg's lunch - tuna
the hotel
the cabins
lava tube
driving through the lava tube
Greg said to act goofy....
pig along side the road
We hit rush hour traffic and luckily we had ample time as it
was slow going getting back through the city to the pier. We were glad we spent
the day out of the fray of the city of Papeete and the serene beauty of the
inner island of Tahiti.
We had some time so we took a short walk around for some
more photos before boarding the ship.
We showered and went up to the champagne sail away party on deck. What a beautiful sail away from paradise. They poured liberal champagne and there one of the duos was playing music. To cap off the day some dolphins decided to give us a show leaping through the air. We also were rewarded with a pretty sunset.
Papeete is a crowded busy city, but the rest of the island is Paradise! It's a short distance from there to take the ferry to Morea which is also very beautiful.
Since we missed our dinner time we ate upstairs and Bill
& Fran from our dinner table joined us to chat about our days. Actually, 6
of us skipped the dining room to eat upstairs. We missed the early show of the
night so we went to the game show and then hit the late show with Rich Shydner
a comic.
We normally just watch the game shows, but they really
needed one more team and we were “forced” to play the “Majority Rules
Gameshow”. No right or wrong answers, just the answer that is written down the
most by the teams. We didn’t win, but we did a good job. The comic was
entertaining, despite how tired we were.
We are looking forward to 5 days at sea before we hit New
Zealand. 
Annette, there was a Ray out there somewhere looking for you!
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