Tahiti - the tour - north and east coast
Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Sun 29 Aug 2010 06:52
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Venus Point lighthouse is the only European-style lighthouse
in French Polynesia. It stands at the location where Captain Cook established
his base to observe the transit of Venus across the sun - that was the main
objective of Cook's first voyage to the South Pacific. Having seen the picture
of the lighthouse in all the cruising books it was good to see it for real, and
on such a lovely day.
 Unfortunately you can't go up the
lighthouse.
 It's in lovely
surroundings.
 Next to the lighthouse is a memorial to
the Bounty that also stopped here. The main anchorage, used by
Cook and the Bounty is
in the bay now overlooked by the
lighthouse - just through the trees behind the
memorial.
 The black beach and bay where the old sailing
ships used to anchor. You can still anchor there
today,
but it's a long way from shore-side
facilities.
 A blowhole where wave action under the
cliff shoots jets of water under
pressure out of a small hole in the
cliff.
Not too far from the road on the eastern side of the island
are 3 almost perfect waterfalls. Unlike Nuku Hiva, these did have
lots of water cascading down. While we had no rain for several weeks while in
Tahiti, the peaks in the centre of the island are often covered in cloud,
so there's plenty of moisture coming down the mountains.
 The Vaimahuta waterfall
 The Haamaremare Iti
waterfall
 And finally, the Haamaremare
Rahi waterfall
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