Pacific Dawn Cruise/Tahiti - Papeete

I had organised a taxi driver Carl to take us around the island of Tahiti, but due to the change of itinerary he wasn’t available, so Geri and I had organised a lady on the wharf called Popo, she had a lovely 8 seater air conditioned bus and did round island tours. I had paid her 5000XPF deposit the night before so we were hoping she turned up!!
We had arranged that the girls, Julie, Barb, Sylvia Geri and myself would meet at the buffet for an early brekky at 6.15am then go across to La Marche, the local market, then meet Tom and Graham at 8am for the tour. The markets were bustling, mainly fruit and veges and pastries and bread. There were a few woven baskets and oils and the most beautiful flower arrangements for around $20 which you can bring back to your cabin.

We met up with the men and Popo arrived, she is a large Tahitian lady, with a big flowery dress and flowers on her hair and speaks great English. She drove us around the island of Tahiti Nui (Big Island) visiting the blowhole, waterfall, Captain Cooks landing place, lovely botanical gardens, the Gauguin museum and many other places of interest. We had discovered ‘Tahiti Drink’ an alcoholic punch sold in juice cartons, Popo made a stop for us to get some before the supermarkets closed and we drank this along the way, sharing it with the Welshies. Popo was fantastic, we had a fabulous day with lots of laughs. It cost us 5000XPF ($68AUD) and the tour was for 5 hours. The island has black sand beaches, and is very mountainous in the centre.

Back on the ship, Geri and I decided to grab some lunch and lay on the back deck, which had a fabulous view as the ship was backed in, then our early morning caught up with us and it was back to the cabin for a nanna nap.
We awoke at 6pm after a 3 hour sleep, showered and headed ashore for dinner at the Roulottes. These are caravan type trailers set up in the main square on the water and they sell food ranging from hamburgers, chips, pizzas, kebabs, Chinese, poison cru (Tahitian Marinated Raw Fish) and pancakes. We settled on hamburgers, chips and a crepe suzette!! Yum!! The food is great, as with everything in French Polynesia, it isn’t cheap, our 2 burgers, chips, 3 cans of sprite and a crepe to share was around 3000XPF (about $40AUD) but compared to other restaurants it is cheap, and we just had to try it!! Sitting at a bench on plastic chairs in Papeete under the stars with all the locals........priceless!!

We loved Papeete, found it clean, safe and the people nice. Not a place to come for a long holiday, but good for a stop over on the way to the outer islands. Since it was a Sunday all the shops were closed...I think this saved us lots of money.
Geri and I have found this little wooden statue which is of a god in Tahiti, (aTiki) he looks like he is bending over and needs to go to the toilet, so we have named him “God of a little bit of wee came out” When we find one cheap enough we will buy him, so we can pray to him..........and hope that when we laugh so much a little bit of wee doesn’t come out!!
Early to bed for an early start in the morning to Moorea, we leave Papeete at 3.30am, you can see the island of Moorea from Tahiti Nui. The weather has cleared, no rain, sun shining and no wind! Yippee!! Fingers crossed for tomorrow!!