Category Archives: Guided Tour

Where we paid for someone to guide us.

Bird Island, Suwarrow

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(continuation of the day we arrived in Suwarrow) We were excited to be on land and decided to walk around the island. Like the Tuomotus, some of the shoreline was dark, jagged lava rock, some was rocky broken coral and shells. There were a few small stretches of white sand with the small bits of shell and coral. The foliage was thick and went all the way to the edge of the water in a lot of spots. We spent most of our time walking in the water, sometimes as deep as Christi’s mid-thigh.

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Tour of Tahaa

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This morning we met the tour guide at the gas station in town at 0830. He is a Polynesian fellow named Vincent. Vincent was driving a four wheel drive pickup with benches in the bed, which seems to be standard for tour companies in these parts. We loaded into the back and we drove for a ways. The road parallels the water, with scenic views of the lagoon. Most of the area around the bay had development of some sort on it, mostly houses. Of course, it was very green and lush.

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We pulled into a church parking area where another 6 people were waiting. Once everyone was loaded into the bed of the truck, Vincent gave us the stats of the island 5,000 people, main industry vanilla farming, etc. He showed us on a map where we were going and told us what we would be seeing. Then he played Continue reading →

Tour of Tahiti

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Today we rented a car and took a tour of the island. Our car was brand spanking new we were the first ones to ever drive it. Eric did all the driving. It is the first time he has been behind the wheel of a car in two and a half months. A friend of ours put us in touch with a local on the island he knows. The local is named Peter and Peter and his wife (whose name we cannot pronounce, let alone spell) were kind enough to escort us on our tour of the island.

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The sun was shining and it was pretty out, but it was kind of cold. Christi actually put on a jacket. The road around Tahiti parallels the ocean the entire way. Our first stop wasMaraa Grotto, a series of caverns with pools of water at the bottom. The caverns are right off the main highway, in a small, pretty park dripping with a variety of foliage. Check out the giant, funky looking bird of paradise. Continue reading →

Papenoo Valley Tour

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Yesterday we had decided to go on a guided tour of Tahiti’s undeveloped interior. We booked a tour of the interior of the island with Tahiti Safari Expedition. Our tour guide picked us up about 9:00 am at the marina that we are anchored near. There were supposed to be five more people on the tour with us, but none of them showed up, so it was just the two of us. We are getting used to having private tours and will be sad when the day comes that we have to share a tour with others. Continue reading →

Nuka Hiva Guided Excursion

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May 25, 2007 We want to begin with a correction to a previous blog post. The statues in the park along the water were carved in 1989 for a festival celebrating the Marquesan culture. We guess the park already existed and they permanently put the statues at the park location. The 2000 year old statues are mentioned below.

On Friday, we got up early and went into shore. We went back to the gas station to take care of the fuel tax exemption paperwork and pay. Then we took a guided tour of Nuka Hiva in a 4×4 with a local tour guide, Dean Richard that speaks excellent English.

They only began putting roads on the islands in 1981. Parts of the island are still only accessible by boat. The roads that exist are mostly dirt. They are actively working on making new roads and paving the existing ones. We have seen work crews doing both. We were glad to be chauffeured because we would have not been too comfortable driving those steep, muddy mountain roads. Continue reading →