Tahiti

Ted. After three relaxing days exploring Brisbane, we boarded our cruise ship, Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas, bound for Hawaii by way of French Polynesia. It took a week to reach our first stop; Papeete on the island of Tahiti. 

Port of Papeete

This town is the capital of the semi-autonomous “collectivity” of France called French Polynesia. Tahiti is the largest and most populous island and about 2/3 of all French Polynesians live here. I thought it was interesting to compare the two island groups that we would visit. 

Island group      # of islands  Area, sq mi  Population    % Polynesian

French Polynesia       121             1,360          279,000               74

Hawaii                          137             6,423       1,455,000               11 

We had prearranged a full day, small group tour of the west coast of the Tahiti with a company called Unique Tahiti (uniquetahiti.com). Our guide, Dominick, is a native Tahitian. He did a great job leading the six of us (four Americans and two Australians) to a number of interesting sites and we can recommend the company.

Dominick & Judy

Paea city hall

Black sand beach

Fern cave

Teahupoo River

The lagoon, protected by the reef

4' long eels - yum!

We stopped for lunch at a little seafood restaurant right on the water. 

A native Tahitian, Dominick spent a lot of time describing the lives of Tahitians before the arrival of Europeans 400 years ago as well as their lives today. While we enjoyed the beauty of the island, it was the people that dominated our conversations.

Though Tahiti has a colonial past, life here is very much dominated by the majority Polynesian population. The French provide administrative support but daily affairs are managed by the Polynesians themselves. This is quite a contrast from New Zealand, Australia or certainly the US where the indigenous folks have been largely pushed aside.