Ocean Lady in Tahiti

Hello Everyone

 

Sorry for the delay in blogging, we have been busy exploring Tahiti.  Ocean Lady arrived in Tahiti last Saturday and we have all been enjoying the luxuries Marina Taina has to offer, unlimited electricity (well most of the time) unlimited water and a launderette.   The story of fixing and cleaning boats in paradise continues, and Ocean Lady is now sparkling clean with a mended generator!  Unlike the remote paradise atolls that we have become accustomed too in the Tuamotus, Tahiti is bustling and it’s nice to step back into civilisation (for a short while anyway!)

 

Stu and Laura took a bus ride to the main city Papeete, which is a fascinating city, bustling, vibrant, noisy and the administrative capital of the French Polynesia.  You can pretty much get whatever you need in Papeete, the city has a nice cathedral at the centre, and you can walk along the waterfront, see the cruiseliner port and all the shops it has to offer.  We went to the Pearl market which looked incredibly expensive so we stayed for about five minutes before one of the salesmen had a chance to corner us. 

Laura in front of the cathedral

 

We hired a car to do a tour of the Island, which saw Stu rise to the challenge of driving on the right hand side of the road!  We were slightly unfortunate to have almost torrential rain all day (a pattern that seems to be forming every time we do an island tour).  Basically Tahiti has one single road of 114km that surrounds the island, so finding the sights was fairly straight forward.  With the skies so grey and rain hammering down pretty hard, the views from all the famous viewpoints were naturally disappointing, however, these were made up for when we walked up to some incredible waterfalls.  Due to the amount of water that had fallen, the power of the waterfalls were immense.  It was really breathtaking, especially when viewing from a distance you could see the three big waterfalls in a row! Great for picture taking.

 

 

In 1768 James Cook set sail to explore the Pacific Islands to observe the transit of Venus across the solar disk and measure the distance between the sun and the earth, he named a point at the very north of the island Venus Point.  It was here he met the Tahitians for the first time.  It is marked with an old Lighthouse built in 1868 and is now a well-known paradise for surfers!  Even today with all the rain there were plenty of surfers riding the waves, and it was a fascinating little spot. 

 

We have enjoyed plenty of sociable evenings at the marina, and were treated to a fantastic meal aboard Sea Falke, and a great BBQ aboard Seazen (despite the rain).  For our last evening we treated ourself to a meal at the restaurant and were treated to some live Tahitian drumming and traditional Tahitian dancing.  Stu was a good sport and after a bit of Laura encouragement agreed to dance with 2 of the dancers, so he was wiggling his hips on stage under the command of two very attractive ladies.  We know he enjoyed it really!

 

It’s been great catching up with all the Arc boats, Sea Falke and Seazen!  We have taken advantage of the big shopping centre and despite the enormous costs of meat we have now provisioned the boat up with food!

 

Now we have arrived on the small island of Moorea just 12 miles from Tahiti anchored in Cooks bay and Stuart is cooking dinner!

 

Love to all at home,

 

Ocean Lady

xx