Tahitimaxxing

It’s time Mel gets out her thoughts about Tahiti in one of her long, rambling posts! Prepare for long sentences with lots of commas and a gazillion photos with informative captions! And many, many exclamation points! No punchy-perfect AI sentences here!

Jerry is currently moored in a marina for the first time since leaving Panama in April. He is backed up right next to a park, with Mel and Greg’s performance of their aft cockpit chores, such as hanging laundry and upgrading the starboard alternator, providing entertainment for the boatwatchers slowing their pace as they jog by. Jerry’s beautiful Leopard 48 butt, with his exotic non-French ensign flying in the breeze, his strange “Shell Knob, MO” home port displayed prominently between the transoms, and his sweaty crew strewing the cockpit table with toolbags and sewing paraphernalia has become a magnetic cultural attraction, a tableau of life on a modern ocean-going multihull, set in a land originally populated via Jerry’s ancient multihull ancestors.

Mel and Greg took a nontraditional route from the Gambiers to Tahiti, spending only a few days on the rarely-visited island of Hao in the Tuamotus before beelining it here for the Heiva Festival and the imminent arrival of their children. Ask most cruisers which location is preferable, and they will unanimously vote for the gorgeous Tuamotus. They will be shocked we didn’t stay there longer. Don’t worry, Jerry will get there some day! Many will say, to the point of it becoming a “Cruiser Meme”: “When visiting Tahiti, you get your stuff done, and then you get out.” After spending a couple of weeks here, Mel disagrees. It’s frickin’ Tahiti!

So Tahiti doesn’t have the plentiful gorgeous waters, quiet anchorages near palm-strewn beaches, and small-town feel of the less populated islands. Its main city, Papeete, with its 200,000 people and cruise ship port, has the usual city baggage of noisy traffic, police sirens, loud bar chatter, and people sleeping on sidewalks, reminding one of how terrible most nations are at supporting their remote island territories that no longer have any natural resources to exploit. However, Mel has chosen to optimize her experience here — to “Tahitimaxx”, as it were. After all, she travels not only to soak up Earth’s natural beauty, but also to expose herself to novel experiences and all the different ways humans have chosen to live on this planet.

To paraphrase a line from the fantastic TV show Ted Lasso (which we are re-watching now that we are in soccer country):

“I try to love Tahiti for what it is and forgive it for what it isn’t.”
–Leslie Higgins

And so here are some glimpses of how one experiences Tahiti with an open heart and mind:

We have a wonderful view of a park with a walking/biking path that goes right by our boat. We love to see people out enjoying the 78-degree weather. We have been impressed with how many Polynesian men are out walking in the parks with their kids.

Mel has identified, through a Spotify crawl as she builds her Mel’s Polynesian Breeze playlist, some talented French Polynesian musicians. This playlist includes Barthélémy, primarily because they met the brother of this late musician on Hao. It also includes songs in French by the duo Vaiteani and the lovely, up-and-coming singer Papehau. After learning Papehau was playing at a local bar, Greg and Mel joined SV Drishti for a night of lovely live music.

Nightly, Mel watches the sunset over beautiful Moorea, which sits to the West. Every sunset is different, and every sunset is apparently un-photographable?! Mel’s iPhone is not good at pink!

Rooftop bars! Bakeries! We have enjoyed finding wonderful restaurants off the beaten track that take care to provide delicious food and a fun atmosphere – one of the benefits of visiting a city with plenty of restaurant competition. Mel has had her first good hamburger since she left the States!

There are colorful murals painted on many buildings in downtown Papeete displaying the beauty of Tahiti – and they are free of graffiti!

Drivers are nice here! They stop for people in crosswalks and merge in civilized fashion. They smile and use lots of hand signals.

The festivals! We’ve seen indigenous games, dancing, singing, a parade…

There is still more to explore! Once our kids arrive, we will tour the inland peaks, waterfalls, gardens, and museums. We might take in a surfing competition. Mel is also interested in learning more about the town of Punaauia, home of the “passionate orange carriers.” This town happens to have the best municipal website Mel has seen in a while.

Once again Mel has let her photo collection build up to bursting, so here’s a few!

Canoe practice in Phaeton Bay, Tahiti

Sunset over Moorea from the airport anchorage

We watch the fruit races. We bought a bunch of bananas just before this. They are heavy!

Coolest. sweatbands. ever

It’s stalk-and-stalk!

We see a very sedate Bastille Day parade with Miss Tahiti and her court.

Tahiti is pretty progressive. We later saw Miss Gay Tahiti in a Tahitian dance.

French Polynesia has a cool flag.

There are two environmental groups here that are attempting to revive the coral population

We watch the coconut tree climbing races. It was won with a record-breaking 4.88 second time by Cook Islander Yaliloa Papitai, 22 years old

Mel, who has a fear of heights: Nope. Big Nope.

Stacia Cambra, from Hawaii, wins the Women’s division. She is a champion powerlifter!

Beautiful park for the games.

Coconut (Copra) processing race

This is hard work!

The javelin competition goes on for hours

More of the cool Polynesian flag. The crest: 5 people, representing the 5 island groups, are standing on a double-hulled outrigger canoe.

Stone lifting competition. Lift with your legs!

You can rest as long as you want…

You have to hold your arm out at the end or it doesn’t count

Getting it up over the shoulder is the hardest part

Would love to see his Valsalva on autonomic testing

Looking at the tattoos is half the fun here

There is a lot of firing oneself up

The guy makes me realize that you do not see a lot of people wearing glasses here.

Cook Islander

Each team has their own javelin markings.

Wrestling

Joshua Jim of the Cook Islands is in the black and white pareo.

Joshua Jim, in front, ends up winning the entire thing. The Cook Islanders cleaned up!

Demonstration of breadfruit processing

Enjoying sundowners and delicious food on SV Drishti

Party boat.

Projects in paradise

The murals were painted during the ONO’U street art festival, with over a hundred now scattered throughout French Polynesia

The coral gardening taking place right next to our boat at the Marina Papeete

A Johnny Hallyday tribute band is playing soon, and so Mel has been reviewing his setlist. French crooner.

Million dollar hamburger!

Papehau sings

Locals play pétanque in the park with balls that resemble giant black pearls

Greg doing the noble job of fixing the toilets. When they were switched from salt to freshwater, whoever did it left the saltwater piping and through-hulls in place, which are now backwashing and causing the heads to stink.