Oct 10. - Pape’ete, Tahiti

 Oct 10 - Pape’ete, Tahiti

Land at last!  

Today we are in Pape’ete, Tahiti, the capital of French Polynesia.  French Polynesia is a semi-autonomous territory of France, who oversees some aspects of government such as defence, foreign affairs, law and order, monetary policy, certain parts of education and research. French is spoken throughout

Yvonne is our guide and Yvette is our bus driver for our excursion, Undiscovered Tahiti.  It was a pleasant drive to our first stop.  Plumeria (or frangipani) are in full bloom and in a variety of colours.  The ocean is calm today, so we didn’t see many surfers as we drove the coast.  Rain had been in the forecast, but it turned out to be sunny and temps around 22°.

We visited a private almost 100 year old colonial home originally built in the early 1920s by a known English writer, Robert Keibel.  It is now owned and preserved by a Chinese Polynesia woman and her English husband.  Juliette gave  us a tour of the gardens, explaining the medicinal uses of many of the plants.  We were served a refreshing glass of orange/ mango juice as we listed to her recount the story of how Robert Kiebel came to own the house.  The grounds were magnificent. 

We then went to Vaipahi Gardens with its picturesque waterfall for a photo op, and on to Fern Mara'a Grotto Cave to view the fresh water spring pool.  Mary has posted quite a few photos from today’s excursion on Facebook.

Our next stop was at the ancient "Marae Arahurahu" - considered to be one of the most significant archeological sacred open air stone temples of the island

Our final stop before returning to the ship was at the Museum of Tahiti and Her Islands, set into a coconut grove with a picturesque view of the lagoon and Moorea in the background. This ranks as one of the best museums in the South Pacific that focuses on Polynesian history, people, language culture.  The exhibits were so interesting; a half hour stop did not do it justice!

We didn’t get back to the ship until 2:30 and we were starving!  We made a quick stop at the International Cafe for a little snack to tide us over until dinner!

We had an early night as there was no show in the theatre due to a later departure from Tahiti.  Back to the high seas tomorrow!

M & D