Tahiti island tour

Anastasia
Phil May and Andrea Twigg
Sun 29 Apr 2012 08:42
Thursday was the day for our action packed coach tour around the entire island.  The tour included visiting the point at the most northerly end of the island, a couple of museums, a blow hole, a waterfall, a Polynesian garden and a restaurant for lunch.  Unfortunately it was also the day for an unseasonal rainstorm that lasted for most of the day (and most of Friday as well), so some of the activities were a bit damp.
Of course the advantage of torrential rain is the waterfalls are really impressive, provided you don't mind getting wet.
There are some well-maintained Polynesian temples (marae) in Tahiti.  In the Marquesas the temples were built from huge boulders but in Tahiti they are more recent ones, built from manageable and uniformly sized stones. 
The Tikis on this site are recent carvings placed here for the tourists.  Our guide told us they need not be feared because they lack the power that ancient tikis have.  Apparently the tiki spirits are capricious and, while generally benevolent, it is better not to get too close to them.
On our return to the dock we came across these replicas of old catamarans that are sailing between the islands.  These are racing boats with not much living space and very little onboard in the way of modern technology (no fridge, freezer or chartplotter!).  Anastasia sounds palatial by comparison.