An excerpt from the Princess Patter:
Think of anything superlative, beautiful, stunning, magnificent, spectacular and you’ll just begin to describe Tahiti, that island paradise countless have written about and even more have dreamed of. Part of the Winward Islands, Tahiti makes up more than one-quarter of the total surface of French Polynesia and two-thirds of the population. Tahiti is actually made up of two islands: Tahiti Nui (Big Tahiti) and Tahiti Iti (Little Tahiti), properly known as the peninsula of Taiarapu. Most of the modern day urbanisation has been limited to the larger island, centering in Papeete, the capital, as well as Faaa and Pirae. Once outside of these towns, you’ll still find the magical world so often talked about: high cliffs and cascading waterfalls, dark lava rock, dense forests, breathtaking flora and of course, beautiful people.
Papeete looked alot like Fremantle. There wasn’t much of a tropical feel until you looked beyond the buildings and at the mountains and jungle in the distance. I didn’t go onshore with Noel and Fleurette today so that I could have a much needed sleep in. In the early afternoon, I met up with Reuben and Brad #1 and we set out together.Without a map, we just hit the streets, hoping to come across something of interest. We found the local markets and I ran around taking photos like crazy.
After the markets, we walked down the street that ran parallel to the wharf where our ship was docked.
We were on the hunt for somewhere that could make an iced coffee for Reuben. We came across this sign:
We walked past a park and had to stop to take photos.
We had heard that there were four Macdonalds stores on the island (or perhaps just in the whole of Tahiti) and we were happy to spot one. We decided to have lunch there. Chickens have the run of the place but the locals seem oblivious to them. We looked like quite the tourists trying to get a photo of them.
We continued walking around in no particular direction. I found a store that sold imported gourmet foods and wines. They have lasagne in a can for about USD$14 each! I came so close to buying one just to try it.
We started to head into the residential area and came across a local store. We went in to have a look to buy snacks. We bought some fresh bread sticks (oh they were still warm and so delicious!), pate, cheese and drinks. At the counter, my credit cards weren’t working and we didn’t have enough Tahitian cash between the three of us to pay for our purchases. Luckily, Reuben’s debit card worked so we ran out of there, victorious and waving our bread sticks around.
Later in the evening, I went back out to Papeete with Brad #1 for some dinner. We’d seen the locals setting up little makeshift eateries from their vans along the wharf and they were serving up some local cuisine. I didn’t realise that there is a huge Asian influence on the islands we’ve been to. Brad was drooling to have some noodles but unfortunately they didn’t have what he was looking for.
We went around checking out the menus and finally decided to eat at the place with the suspected ‘he-she’.
It started to rain as soon as we got stuck into our meal, so we asked that it be packed up to takeaway. It cost us USD$52 for these three dishes. *Ack*
We took a stroll down the street to where the bars and clubs were. We stopped outside a karaoke bar to take a photo and Brad got mauled by a he-she.
Nearing midnight, we had to head back to the ship because Brad #1 was required to be onboard and Brad #2 was then allowed to get off the ship. We were stopped by security who told us we were not allowed to bring our food onto the ship. We went back onto the wharf and weren’t able to eat, nor did we want to because we didn’t want to be sitting on the bitumen eating. We tried to board the ship a little later on and were stopped once again because they x-ray our bags. Luckily we were onky made to throw out the prawn dish because security didn’t actually search Brad’s bag. This incident really angered me because we had paid alot of money for the food and we had not been stopped bringing food aboard earlier on. We had been waving the bread sticks around in our hands! I read in the Princess Patter that we were not allowed to bring any food items onto the islands when disembarking the ship due to customs regulations, but it said nothing about bringing food back onto the ship. NOT HAPPY JAN.
We did the switcheroo and I headed back out to Papeete with Brad #2. We went to the night club where most of the crew were going to be to celebrate their night off the ship. We weren’t sailing until 3am in the morning, so this was their ‘shore leave’.
I stayed and danced for an hour or so but it was getting too sleazy for my liking so I left with a few other passengers to head back to the ship. Back on board, I showered and met the Brads for supper by the pool.
We polished off the leftovers from earlier tonight and I had some soup from the kitchen. I don’t remember what it was, but it must have been good because I finished it all.
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