Everyday Seems Like Sunday*

Here we are in Tahiti – don’t really know what to say except that in terms of tourism it’s everything Rapa Nui isn’t. Here the tourist is king and yet there is still an island life that goes on irrespective of us, so alongside McDonalds, International Banks and walls sprayed with French graffiti there are market stalls selling the necessities of daily life, innumerable clothes and shoe shops and a Champion supermarket (French wines and cheeses); but the one product that dominates is the black pearl – necklaces, earrings, rings and bracelets made from them, some quite tasteful others very kitsch. But the thing that we noticed most was people just sitting around in the most congenial manner, talking, laughing and drinking – in fact it is all reminiscent of French café life, suppose the oysters are doing all the work. The town of Papeete which is near to our hotel - have we mentioned that it is a five star luxury place fronting on to the black sand beach with terrific ocean views and an infinity swimming pool and that our room has a balcony looking out to one of the other Polynesian islands over which we shall soon be watching a magnificent sunset while sipping our evening drinks ... where were we? Oh yes, Papeete is not a terribly attractive place (Gregg took only two photographs) - a bit like Marseilles without the menace – but it is very friendly. When James Micherner wrote, in Return To Paradise: “To those who insist that all picturesque towns look like Siena or Stratford-on-Avon, Papeete will be disappointing, but others who love the world in all its variety, the town is fascinating” he was probably right. He also wrote “Tahiti has unique sexual freedom. A bitter critic of the island has sneered that its charm is explainable solely in terms of the “erotic mist” that hangs over the island ... I remember as a boy poring over the accounts of early navigators and coming repeatedly upon that cryptic phrase “so we put into Tahiti to refresh the men.”
The “erotic mist” may well be the haunting smell of the Tiare flower which is a mixture of orange blossom and gardenia which is enhanced by the warm humid air and the thick foliage that grows everywhere – an enchanting, sensuous and relaxing place – despite all us tourists!
On Friday we had another exhausting morning, walking along the beach, swimming in the pool and generally relaxing in the very hot sun – in fact it was way too hot for us and we had to keep retreating into the shade of the palm trees.
The only reason we came to Tahiti is because we wanted to continue flying onwards from Rapa Nui to New Zealand rather than going back to Chile, however there are no direct flights so we had to change at Tahiti – we could either have done that two days ago in the middle of the night or spend three nights in Tahiti and take a morning flight. We opted for the latter. However as we are not sun, sea and sand people for anything more than a couple of hours we decided to see a bit more of the island and took a 4x4 drive into the centre of the island in the afternoon. We drove along the north coast which has a very different environment to the rest of the island because a cold river flows down from the interior which cools the sea enough to prevent the coral reef that encompasses the rest of the island from forming. Consequently that part of the coast is more rugged and wild with huge waves crashing against the rocks. It was here that we turned inland to follow the river valley into the centre of the island. The whole island is a relatively young volcano and it is really only the shoreline that is inhabited. Only a few hundred metres into the valley and the climate and flora changes to become tropical forest with huge cliffs on either side with numerous waterfalls gushing down into deep pools in the river. We saw the devastation caused by the cyclone about ten days ago – trees shredded and broken and numerous landslides caused by the torrential rain – it seems that all the weird weather we have been having as well as all the very wintery weather in the UK and along the east coast of the USA is being caused by el Niño. Despite the destructive force that the valley had so recently experienced there was still an amazing variety of plant and bird life to observe including wild orchids, a large number of ferns (including the silver leaf which can be used to make a temporary tattoo) and a plant that was introduced into the island’s botanic gardens from Mexico in the 1960s which not only ‘escaped’ but also flowers and seeds four times each year in this climate and so is gradually taking over the island and choking the native plants – their very own Japanese knotweed (plans are afoot to introduce a fungus that will destroy it... then they will have to introduce something that will destroy the fungus). As we neared the centre of the volcano, after driving along the most treacherous roads and fording the river a few times, some of the vertical lava chimneys reared up dramatically from the valley floor; it also became very humid as the cloud hangs over the central peaks for most of the day but the plus side to this is that we saw several complete double rainbows. The sun set out over the sea and we made our way home
* A song by The Smiths