This guest post is by Dave Tindell.
December 5, 2013 -- Wisconsin to Tahiti
It was early in the year that my wife Sue asked if I wanted to accompany her on her next trip to Tahiti.
This was not a difficult question for me to answer. My response: "When do we leave?"
On her two previous visits in 2010 and '12, Sue had gone as a representative of Travel Leaders Rice Lake, visiting the various islands in the Society Islands archipelago and their many resorts and attractions, hopping from island to island by airplane. This time we would take a slower route, a cruise aboard m/s Paul Gauguin, the flagship of Paul Gauguin Cruises. Gauguin was a French painter who first came to Tahiti in 1891. Inspired by the primitive art and culture of the native Polynesians, Gauguin worked in the post-impressionist style and had a great influence on art and artists of the 20th century, including van Gogh and Picasso.
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| Gauguin's "Tahitian Women on the Beach", 1891 |
Making the trip especially welcome was the fact that our northwest Wisconsin winter had started early and fiercely, with heavy snow and below-zero temperatures. So it was that we made the drive over to the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport and flew first to Los Angeles and then on to the South Pacific.
Tahiti is in the same time zone as Hawaii, four hours earlier than US Central Time, so it was late Thursday night local time when we arrived at Fa'a'a International in the capital city of Papeete. A primer about Tahitian words is necessary here. Many of their words have multiple vowels, and in pronouncing them you must insert a quick pause between each. So the name of the airport sounds like "fah-ah-ah." Fortunately, English is widely spoken in the islands, which are administered by France.
First settled by Polynesians who sailed eastward from what is now Indonesia around 200 BC, Tahiti may have been sighted by European explorers as early as 1576. An English captain, Samuel Wallis, arrived in 1767 aboard HMS Dolphin. Over the next hundred years the British, French and Spanish vied for control of the islands. The natives' relations with the Europeans often turned violent, but peace eventually broke out and France took control in 1880, which it retains to this day. The Society Islands are part of larger French Polynesia, a semi-autonomous territory of France. The locals run the show for the most part, with the French providing security, educational resources and a hefty annual subsidy. As we would find, there is an active Tahitian independence movement. I would think, though, the French would be reluctant to give up this jewel.
French Polynesia encompasses a number of islands, covering an area the size of Europe. The total land mass, though, is less than that of Rhode Island. The islands we associate with Tahiti are the Society Islands, of which Tahiti is the largest.
We checked into our home for the next two nights, the Intercontinental Tahiti Resort & Spa, and settled in to our over-the-water bungalow. It had been a long day of travel, about 20 hours and some 5700 air miles, and we were ready to hit the hay. The heat and humidity had been apparent as soon as we left the airport, but considering what we'd left behind, that was just fine with us.
We had arrived a day earlier than our original plan so that Sue could attend a conference hosted by Tahiti Tourism Exchange. She is a certified Tahiti expert and has clients from all over America who reach her through Tahiti 360. The conference is an annual event held in Papeete, a gathering of travel agents and suppliers.
Before her departure, Sue and I enjoyed breakfast at the Intercontinental's open-air restaurant, Te Tiare.
While Sue was working, I checked out the grounds of our home-away-from-home.
Our guide was a Frenchman who has lived on Tahiti for nearly 20 years, and when we reached the end of the road, deep in the interior, he explained we were now in the crater of an extinct volcano. All of these islands resulted from long-ago volcanic activity, and in fact they are now all sinking back into the Pacific, but since it's only by a few millimeters a year, we had time to finish our tour.
Sue returned from her conference late in the afternoon and we dined at the resort's specialty restaurant, Le Lotus.
Saturday, December 7th -- Tahiti
Since Paul Gauguin would not sail till nearly midnight, we did not have to board until mid-afternoon. No problem; we enjoyed the resort, starting with a hearty breakfast and then a workout at the fitness center. The resorts in the Society Islands are first-rate, but they are not all-inclusive, as many are in the Caribbean. Breakfast was included in our package, but other meals were not, and they can be pricey. Sue's lunch on Friday had been included in her conference, and when my tour returned to the Intercontinental I hitched a ride with the guide to a nearby mall, accompanied by Josephine the German and Gil from Chicago. Gil, an avid bird-watcher, was on the hunt for a book on South Pacific bird species. I was looking for a relatively inexpensive lunch, and found it, sort of; "relatively" means my ham sandwich, french fries and drink were about half the price of what I would've paid at the resort. As it was, it cost about 1100 Polynesian francs, the equivalent of $14 US. When our tour guide had stopped to fill up with gas, I'd noticed the price per liter was 165 francs. In US terms, that would be $7.90/gal. Even at those prices, the streets of Papeete had plenty of vehicles, mostly small European- and Asian-made cars and motor scooters.
We had plenty of time after our workout to enjoy the sun and the "infinity" pool. Knowing that it was below zero back home certainly added to the ambience.
Among the first to check in, we were soon joined by one of Sue's travel colleagues, Barbi Bush Paltrow, and her husband Steve from Richmond, Va. Sue and Barbi had met at the 2012 Tahiti event and had stayed in touch online. The Paltrows would become our travel companions for the cruise, but we would meet many new friends. Our "welcome aboard" edition of la Orana, the ship's daily newsletter, listed the nationalities of the passengers. More than half were American, but there were about two dozen Canadians, a dozen Chinese and eleven French; all told, 18 nationalities were represented, including a former Miss Latvia.
Our cabin was more than adequate, including a balcony. We were welcomed by a bottle of champagne and a tray of delectable fruits, including chocolate-covered strawberries. Gauguin was certainly making a good first impression.
The mandatory lifeboat drill took place at 5:30, and we took the first of many exemplary meals in the ship's main restaurant, L'Etoile. We then repaired to the main deck where the ship's band, Santa Rosa, got things rocking. Like most of the crew, the band was composed of Filipinos, four brothers and the wife of the lead guitarist. Our captain was Croatian, as were several of his officers, and our cruise director, Michael Shapiro, was an American who had performed on stage and TV before joining the crew in 1998. He was usually joined by his assistant, a lovely Peruvian woman who translated his English into French.
We were still rocking on deck when the ship's lines were cast off and we set sail. Our first stop would be the island of Raiatea.
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