4/23/18
After arriving into Papeete, after a flight delay, we took a bus to where our next air bnb was to be. It was dark and the driver accidentally had us get off the bus at 5km early. We were kind of at a loss of what to do, it being dark, buses done for the evening, and not having a phone. But we met some nice people on the street. They called our air bnb hosts, and then they drove us to our airbnb. If I haven't mentioned this before, Polynesians are so crazy nice. One thing that always stuck out was how, even during rush hour traffic when there was a line of cars, as soon as a car would see you pull up to the road, they'd slow down or stop so that you could pull into the road with your car. Pretty much the opposite of rush hour traffic I'm familiar with. Our air bnb hosts were Tatiana and Robert. We were supposed to be at a different air bnb, but it cancelled due to a family emergency. But it turned out to be a great thing as Robert and Tatiana were so friendly and generous! Their English wasn't the best, but we managed. Tatiana works at a prison (and loves gambling and cruises). Robert is a retired policeman turned postal worker, and he loves his Hinano beer. They were both previously married and found each other later in life. They each have several children (not together), and said they are too old now to get married. They have a beautiful 2-story gated house with a nice patio and pool. Robert immediately took us to the store, and then he shared beer and lots of yummy cheese with us.
4/24/18
Robert and Tatiana offered to us to use one of their cars, which was super nice of them, but we had already paid for a rental car. However, they gave us their car so that we could go pick up the rental car at the airport without having to take the bus. They had a good breakfast of cheese and baguettes for us. After we got the car, we did a loop around Tahiti Nui, and drove the 2 roads on Tahiti Iti. The first stop was at a marae. It was the fanciest marae (ancient spiritual/community gathering place) we had seen. The next stop were some grottos with pools in them. We then went to a nice garden that had information in front of each tree and flower and what they are/were used for. It also had some healing springs, and a waterfall. It had been raining a ton and rained hard the night before, so the waterfall was chocolate colored. We had a snack under a pavilion, and then the rain finally stopped. We drove to a nice viewpoint on Tahiti Iti with nice views towards Tahiti Nui. I was super excited to see a view of the mountains after all the rain, so I ran out to a clearing and jumped onto what I thought was just greyish mud. Turned out it was a huge pile of manure, and I was now calf deep in it! No idea what kind of manure, but boy was it stinky. I had to fish my sandals out of the pile. I only had a small bit of drinking water to try and clean off, so it made the car smell terribly!
The next stop was Tehaapo'o, famous for its big surfing wave. We checked out the wave, it's black sand beach, and beautiful jagged mountain scenery. We then completed the island circuit in the rain, stopping to see a blowhole and getting caught in the rush hour traffic of Papeete. Robert was waiting for us back at our place with beers and some yummy stew that he had made. We had some nice conversation with him and Tatiana. They told us how very happy they were to have us staying with them.
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After arriving into Papeete, after a flight delay, we took a bus to where our next air bnb was to be. It was dark and the driver accidentally had us get off the bus at 5km early. We were kind of at a loss of what to do, it being dark, buses done for the evening, and not having a phone. But we met some nice people on the street. They called our air bnb hosts, and then they drove us to our airbnb. If I haven't mentioned this before, Polynesians are so crazy nice. One thing that always stuck out was how, even during rush hour traffic when there was a line of cars, as soon as a car would see you pull up to the road, they'd slow down or stop so that you could pull into the road with your car. Pretty much the opposite of rush hour traffic I'm familiar with. Our air bnb hosts were Tatiana and Robert. We were supposed to be at a different air bnb, but it cancelled due to a family emergency. But it turned out to be a great thing as Robert and Tatiana were so friendly and generous! Their English wasn't the best, but we managed. Tatiana works at a prison (and loves gambling and cruises). Robert is a retired policeman turned postal worker, and he loves his Hinano beer. They were both previously married and found each other later in life. They each have several children (not together), and said they are too old now to get married. They have a beautiful 2-story gated house with a nice patio and pool. Robert immediately took us to the store, and then he shared beer and lots of yummy cheese with us.
4/24/18
Robert and Tatiana offered to us to use one of their cars, which was super nice of them, but we had already paid for a rental car. However, they gave us their car so that we could go pick up the rental car at the airport without having to take the bus. They had a good breakfast of cheese and baguettes for us. After we got the car, we did a loop around Tahiti Nui, and drove the 2 roads on Tahiti Iti. The first stop was at a marae. It was the fanciest marae (ancient spiritual/community gathering place) we had seen. The next stop were some grottos with pools in them. We then went to a nice garden that had information in front of each tree and flower and what they are/were used for. It also had some healing springs, and a waterfall. It had been raining a ton and rained hard the night before, so the waterfall was chocolate colored. We had a snack under a pavilion, and then the rain finally stopped. We drove to a nice viewpoint on Tahiti Iti with nice views towards Tahiti Nui. I was super excited to see a view of the mountains after all the rain, so I ran out to a clearing and jumped onto what I thought was just greyish mud. Turned out it was a huge pile of manure, and I was now calf deep in it! No idea what kind of manure, but boy was it stinky. I had to fish my sandals out of the pile. I only had a small bit of drinking water to try and clean off, so it made the car smell terribly!
The next stop was Tehaapo'o, famous for its big surfing wave. We checked out the wave, it's black sand beach, and beautiful jagged mountain scenery. We then completed the island circuit in the rain, stopping to see a blowhole and getting caught in the rush hour traffic of Papeete. Robert was waiting for us back at our place with beers and some yummy stew that he had made. We had some nice conversation with him and Tatiana. They told us how very happy they were to have us staying with them.
4/25/18
Our plan was to climb Mount Aorai, so we woke up at 5:00am,
but it had been raining hard, and it looked cloudy (no stars or moon), so we went
back to bed and woke up later to have a nice breakfast with Robert. After
breakfast, we decided to drive to the trailhead since the trailhead itself was
a viewpoint, and it had started to clear. We were following directions from
Google Maps, but it led us in the wrong direction, so we had to get a lot of
help from people, including one person jumping in the car to lead us.
When we got to the trailhead (known as O Belvedere) at
10:30, the weather looked good, so we decided to hike with the plan of turning
around when the weather got bad. Well, the weather never got bad, so we ended
up making it to the top! It was a great hike with beautiful views into the
interior of Tahiti, the coast of Tahiti, and the island of Moorea. We passed 2
very basic huts on our way to the top that people use for attempting the summit
in order to break up the long hike. Between the 2 huts was a pretty crazy knife
edge saddle known as Devil’s Ridge (Rocher du diable). Because we had started
so late, we made it down just after dark, and joined Robert back home for
several beers and a fest of chicken, breadfruit, and pineapple.
4/26/18
We got up early, dropped off the rental car and Robert drove
us to the ferry for Moorea.
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