Papeete, Tahiti – Day 2 Sort Of

This morning, we were already in port in Papeete, having arrived yesterday evening, so there was no need to get up early to see the arrival. It was also an early sunrise in Papeete, Tahiti, at around 5:20 AM, so we missed that too, setting our alarm for 6:00 AM.

Today, we are taking a half-day 4 wheel drive vehicle ride up into the Papenoo Valley to see the rain forest and some of the waterfalls in the area. The tour was set to begin at 8:00 AM, and we were scheduled to meet in the Princess Theater at 7:45 AM. We arrived a little early and waited with the group of people to board the 4-wheel drive vehicles. They had forewarned us about the jarring ride, the dust, and the rugged terrain, stating that anyone with back problems should not go on this tour. We were actually amazed at some of the people who arrived in the waiting area for the tour, many were having difficulty walking, and were not in the best physical condition.

As it turned out, we walked quickly from the ship to the first vehicle, along with some of the other more mobile passengers, and eight of us hopped onto the back of the first truck. These trucks have benches in the truck bed along the sides, and have a steel tubing support overhead with a soft canvas top. We all introduced ourselves, and found it funny that we all felt the same way about the crowd for this tour, everyone of the eight of us that boarded this truck had the same thought, that some of these folks should not be going on this tour. We were all compatible, and we enjoyed the time we spent with them.

There was a little bit of delay in getting started, there was some issue with one of the vehicles that was being used for the tour. Several of the trucks had come over on the early morning ferry from Moorea, the next island over, and one of them was not on the “list” that the port authorities had because it was replacing a vehicle that had broken down yesterday in Moorea. There was apparently a big paperwork problem with this, so we were all delayed while things were straightened out.

Then there was another delay in getting out of the port itself. There was an automatic arm that required either a pass to open, or a call into a guard center to open. Something had malfunctioned, and the gate arm was not opening to let anyone out. Quickly things got backed up, there were buses, cars, our trucks, and other vehicles all trying to figure it out. After about 10-15 minutes, it started working again, and then everyone had to get sorted out, it was a big traffic jam in paradise by that time.

We were finally on our way through the city, and all of the morning traffic. It was at least a 20 minute drive until we turned off onto another smaller road to the Papenoo Valley. The road was paved at first, but eventually turned into a dirt road. The mountains were somewhat hidden by some low clouds at times. We made several stops to look at different waterfalls along the way. We had caught up to the other trucks who had been able to leave on time, and had not been delayed by the security gate issue. I think our driver had driven faster than the speed limit to make up some of the time. We also found out afterward that we did the stop at a scenic overlook called One Tree Hill on the way back, and most likely, the other trucks had stopped there on the way out to the Valley.

The road turned into a maintained gravel road as we drove along, and the river was in the valley the entire way beside the road. There were two areas where a low head (defined as dams that not very tall, nor have high pressure) hydro electric generating plant was constructed to generate power using the river’s flow. These were small dams that held back a small portion of the water, and they were probably only 50 ft. high.

There was also one area that was a holding pond for water, where the roadway was part of the concrete retaining wall. The road was also the spillway for when there are really heavy rains. It was unusual because there were some bright orange painted concrete pedestals that defined the edge of the roadway when the water was running over the spillway. I suppose the height of these barriers, about two feet, was intended to define when the water was not too high over the road/spillway to traverse the roadway.  If you could not see them, the water was too high to cross.  We found out from our guide that the  water from this valley is one of the main sources of drinking water on the island, which explained all of the piping and concrete retention areas we saw, these are used to support the potable water usage on Tahiti.

There was one beautiful waterfall flowing into the retention area that we stopped and photographed on the way out of the valley. When we passed by the first time, there were already some other trucks there so we bypassed the waterfall on the way into the valley.

We saw at least three or four other small waterfalls as we drove through the valley. At one point, the guide, Tom, removed the soft top off of the truck so we could get a better view on the ride. Unfortunately, about 10 minutes later it started to rain, and the Tom had to put the cover back on.

It never rained again, but the guide did not remove the cover again. It did get sunnier as the morning progressed, and there were still some periods of cloudiness, but we had no more rain.

We stopped at a clearing by the river and had some fresh pineapple and pineapple juice. There was also a small waterfall there, so Stephanie and I took our photo in front of the falls.

We started on our way back out of the valley, stopping at an area on the river that had some deeper pools for swimming. The water was cool and refreshing, the only problem was that the smooth stones in the river were very slippery, so everyone was having trouble getting into the water without slipping down, including yours truly, taking a small spill myself. That was one way to ease into the cold water….not.

We were there for about 15 minutes, before starting back out again on the drive out of the valley. We made two more stops, one was back at the water holding area and waterfall that we had bypassed on the way in. It was interesting because we also saw some some very large freshwater eels that came up right to the edge of the concrete spillway.

Our guide Tom, who was a native French Polynesian, and had spent a lot of time growing up in the valley, had never seen eels that big before. They are harmless, they don’t really have any teeth. These are the same type of eels that are used by the Japanese for eel sushi.

We stopped at one other waterfall for photos.  By this time, it was really sunny in the valley, and everything looked very green with the sunshine lighting up all of the foliage.

We headed back to the ship making a stop along the coast to see the black sand beaches and surfers. Stephanie had been trying to get some black sand from a beach since we started this cruise, so she asked our guide Tom to make a special stop at a nearby beach access and she went down to the beach for a small zip-lock bag full of black Tahitian sand.

That was the end of the tour, it had been very scenic. The biggest problem was getting back to the ship, there was a lot of traffic on the roadway near the port, and it probably took us 20 minutes to go the last couple of miles to the harbor. We were the last truck in of our tour group, which was appropriate since we were the last one out. There was another tour to the valley scheduled for the afternoon, and some of the afternoon tour group’s trucks were already heading out.

During the tour, we found out some interesting information about our guide Tom.  He lived in Moorea, and had come over with his truck on a ferry early in the morning. He had not been back to Tahiti for 8 years before today, and based on the traffic in Papeete, we could understand his reasons. It was much more peaceful in Moorea. Tom’s father was Scottish, and his mother was Tahitian. When he was eight, he moved to Scotland for a while. At some point, he moved back to French Polynesia. His Tahitian grandfather had 25 children. Tom himself had 10 children. Tom was very knowledgeable about Tahiti and Moorea, having spent a lot of time hunting and fishing with his grandfather when he was growing up.

We headed back to the ship to change clothes before heading back out to visit the market that was nearby. We also went looking for a black Tahitian Pearl ring for Stephanie.  We visited a store that was part of the same chain of one we had visited in Moorea yesterday.  Stephanie had seen a ring in Moorea she likes, and they had a similar one here, so we negotiated a price and purchased it.  They gave us some paperwork so that we would not have to pay any Tahiti taxes on the ring.  We were supposed to get these papers stamped by the customs agents to validate them, and then mail them back to the store once we got home.   

We picked up a few items to spend some of the remaining francs we had, and stopped at a bar in the market to have a Tahitian Beer. We ordered a draft beer that was served in some special Tahitian Beer Glasses. We had about 425 franks left, so Stephanie negotiated with the man at the cash register to purchase the glasses for souvenirs. This used up all of our francs, so we headed back to the ship about 4:00 PM.

The ship left the harbor about 5:30 PM, and we had a nice sunny sail away. We went out on deck for some photos of the departure from Tahiti, and then waited for the sunset, which actually set over the island of Moorea, 15 miles to the west of Tahiti.

Once the sun set, we headed back to the room to put on our bathing suits and headed to the hot tub to relax after the three straight port days, and all of the walking this afternoon through the market in Papeete. The moon was rising, so we watched that from the balcony before heading to the hot tub.

After the hot tub, we dressed for dinner in the buffet, it was too late to get ready for the dining room, and we were too tired for going out for a long dining experience.

After dinner, we headed back to the room for the night. The seas were rougher, the wind was blowing in excess of 25 knots. It was actually pretty bumpy during the night, the roughest seas we have had on the cruise.

Tomorrow starts our eight consecutive sea days back to Los Angeles.  

On a side note, it was not until after we left Tahiti that we learned we were supposed to have the paperwork for the tax waiver on the ring we purchased stamped by the Tahitian customs agents that were apparently on the ship while we were in port.  We had not seen them and had  not known this was the procedure.  We thought it was for the US Customs agents to stamp when we arrived back in the United States.  That will be what we end up trying to do now that we did not get them stamped in Tahiti.  The paperwork is just to prove we are from the US and are not subject to  the Tahitian taxes.