Impressions of Tahiti

Finally we have dropped our mooring lines at Marina Taina in Papeete, Tahiti and are headed for the island of Huahine. We have been in Tahiti for a week now and are bored stiff. First, there was major concern as to whether we were even going to get to Tahiti from Calgary on June 15 as there was a big general strike here in Tahiti that had everything - literally everything closed down. But as we entered each new phase of our flight schedule, the planes were flying so we made it as initially planned. Georgia is with us, a grad gift to her for finishing one phase of her education - she is an Animal Health Technician now. Because of the strike, we delayed having some repairs done on our whaler because we needed to be here to have it done, so that kept us until Friday and then the weather decided not to play along with our game and heavy rain, winds and seas kept us tied up. We broke out one day and rented a car for a driving tour of the island of Tahiti. It only takes 4 hours to circumnavigate, but we stopped for lunch and to see the botanical gardens and to hike up to some lovely water falls, so we filled the day. There are a few beaches along the way, they have black sand beaches, but it was a rainy day and nobody wanted to get wetter. The vegitation is of course very lush as all we have seen it do is rain, so now we know why it is so green. The grocery store is very nice, things from all over the world, but because this is an island i the middle of the ocean, everything has to be shipped by boat or plane and so everything is very expensive here. The down town Papeete is rather small and after 10 pearl shops, you pretty much have covered it (or rather don't want to see anymore). We have been filling our afternoons/evenings by visiting new boat friends from Italy/Australia and swapping boat and travel stories. But now as evening is closing in, our boat is wobbling along in 11 foot seas with a three foot chop on top (great fun). The boat is handling it very well and we are contemplating having a nice plate of kokori (pearl oyster meat) for dinner with a bottle of wine. We are very excited to set our eyes on a new place when dawn arrives tomorrow.

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