Day 3 – Tuesday

We started the day off by heading over to Mahana Park to go snorkeling. Unfortunately, Keith did not want to get into the water. 

Because of the recent full moon, the current was unusually strong. Christi and Eric had bought new fins for the trip that were attached rugged water shoes. The selling point of these fins is that they are easy to walk in, making it much easier to enter via the beach; the downside of these fins is that they don’t provide as much power while swimming as full length fins. Christi only went in for a short time because she felt like she couldn’t fight the current with those little fins. 

Keith and Christi hung out on the beach looking for beach glass while Rose and Eric snorkeled. Here are some pictures that Rose took: 

Afterwards, Keith and Eric went to the playground in downtown Papeete while Rose and Christi rested.

In the later afternoon we ran to Carrefour for more groceries. We forgot to mention in the last post that nowadays, Carrefour has a huge selection of prepared meals in the refrigerator section and frozen dinners in the freezer section. In fact, Eric and Christi both think there are more refrigerators and freezers in the store than there were 12 years ago. Eric and Christi remember being frustrated that there were no heat-and-serve meals available to purchase, forcing them to cook everything from scratch.

We laid low for the rest of the evening. Here is the sunset:

Day 4 – Wednesday 

Finally feeling acclimated, we decided to be more adventurous and go on a tour of the island. Our first stop was Mara’a Grotto, a series of caves with pools of water just off the main road. Eric and Christi had visited it before, but for some reason we only saw the first two caves: 

Cave 1 is apparently much bigger inside than it appears to be:

Cave 2 was closed, but this was taken near the cave mouth:

Check out this giant tree in the path between the caves. You can barely even see Keith underneath it:

Cave 3 had a larger pool of water than the other caves and was loaded with water lilies. This is a good shot of the cave mouth:

This one gives you an idea that the pool is quite large, but it cuts out a majority of the pool:

It was interesting for us to look at the pictures from twelve years ago. Tahiti is currently at the end of the dry season. Tahiti looks amazingly green to us right now, but it was much greener in the old pictures, which were taken in July, at the beginning of the dry season.

Across the road, where we parked the car, was a lovely swim spot dotted with coral. Eric decided we’d return there tomorrow to snorkel:

Our next stop was at a Taharuu Beach, which has black sand and a break in the reef, one of the few beaches with real waves. We watched some surfers while Keith played onshore in the breaking surf. 

Next was the Vaipahi Water Gardens. There was a waterfall that was easily accessed from the parking lot. The surrounding grounds were a lovely botanical garden with signs telling about the ancient legends and customs tied to this location. We’re not totally sure that we understood the signs, but we think this used to be a mortuary of sorts. When elites in the nearby tribes died, the deceased person would be embalmed and brought here. The deceased would be dipped into the special waters that were purified by the eels, thus cleansing their spirit for the eternal afterlife.

The waterfall:

Even before we’d read the signs, one of the first things that Rose noticed was an eel in the pool of water under the waterfall:

Lonely Planet (tourist guide book) had said that you could hike up to see several pools of water and more waterfalls. The hike up was a steep staircase.

The views from up high were spectacular:

On the way up, we got one quick glimpse at the waterfall and didn’t see any pools of water… though, that may be due to it being the end of dry season. The trail was muddy; we can’t imagine doing it during the wet season. 

We stopped for lunch at the Gaugin Museum Restaurant. Our timing was perfect. Right after we sat down, it started pouring rain. Glad it didn’t rain during our hike!

When we chose this place, Eric and Christi believed it was the same restaurant that we had eaten at when a local Tahitian resident had taken us on the tour of Tahiti. Back then it was a Snack (snacks usually serve pizza, burgers and sandwiches) with dirt floors and plastic chairs. This was a real restaurant with a full menu and upgraded interior. And when we left, we realized it was near the museum, not actually on the museum grounds. So we aren’t sure if this was the same place with a facelift or a different restaurant altogether. But it doesn’t matter. The food was good. 

We decided to skip the Gaugin Museum and Botanical Gardens. We knew Keith would not enjoy either. 

Tahiti is shaped like an 8. The bigger part, where Papeete is located, is called Tahiti Nui, and the smaller part is called Tahiti Iti. There is not a road that goes all the way around Tahiti Iti, but there are roads on both the north and south sides that each cover about 1/4 of the island. The only way to access the large stretch of land in between the roads is via boat or foot. 

We turned off onto Tahiti It’s south road. We made a stop at a nice white sand swimming beach called Maui Beach, but found it was too shallow to actually swim in. It was more of a kiddie pool. 

We moved on to the world-famous surf spot Teahupoo, a popular pilgrimage location for avid surfers and where surf championships are held. According to the sign, the word Teahupoo means “Altar of skulls.” It was originally named Matahihae, but was renamed after a battle between two tribes in which the winners cut off the heads of the losers and made a literal wall (altar) out of their bones. Christi and Eric were un-phased. While they’d never heard this particular story before, they’ve heard quite a few other gruesome stories from the cannibalism days.

Here are Keith and Eric at the outlet of the river. Brackish water caused by rivers are what create the natural breaks in the reef, so every break has a river. The left side of the rocks is the river and the right side is the ocean. Today the sea was calm; normally, there’d be waves breaking.

Here is Rose a little bit father down the beach:

Unfortunately, it started pouring again shortly after we arrived. We waited for a while, but finally gave up and left. We’ll go back another day to explore further. 

Once we made it back to Tahiti Nui, there was a long stretch of road without any major attractions to stop for.

Our next stop was Arahoho Blowhole. The word Arahoho means “roaring grotto.” This blowhole is a lava tube with a perforated ceiling that formed millions of years ago when the island was still an active volcano. When the seas are rough, water enters the underwater cavity and compresses the air until pressure triggers the expelling of the water out of the blowhole.

This stop which was nothing like Eric and Christi remembered it from twelve years ago. In the linked blog post about it we had written: “had the water been spurting, we were looking in the wrong spot anyway. The water travels under the road and spurts out on the other side of the highway, drenching cars as they go by… We cannot imagine driving on this scary narrow ledge overhanging the ocean and suddenly being shocked by a huge spray of water from nowhere.”

Now there is no scary narrow ledge… and the blowhole is on the same side of the road as the parking lot, inside a scenic park that we don’t remember from before … and the highway runs through a big tunnel that parallels the park. We guess they must have moved the road inland a bit by creating the tunnel and turned what used to be the road into a park? 

The blowhole:

The Tunnel:

The Park. This overlook is right next to the blowhole, and there is a scenic walkway that parallels the tunnel.

Just like twelve years ago, the seas were calm and there were no eruptions. We did hear an ever so slight roar, which scared the heck out of Christi!

Here is the beach located on the east side of the Blowhole Park:

Keith enjoyed that beach and played there for quite a long time:

After the blowhole, we headed back to the condo for the evening.