Marina Taina, Papeete, Tahiti
Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Tue 29 Apr 2014 21:46
So, anyway on to better things. The big plus of being in the marina, practically the only one, is the proximity to Carrefour, the fabulous French supermarket. In fact it is almost a hypermarket,selling everything you could possible want. I sent a large amazon order of new kitchen stuff to replace broken and worn out stuff, which Frankie and Georgia managed to stuff into their bags, only to find I could have bought it all here - who knew?? Also the food is great, and all the boats are looking forward to to stocking up here for the next part of the trip. While the girls are here, we need to eat as much of the food in the freezer as possible as the temperature has been a bit high, possibly a blockage, so once that is sorted, it can be refilled with lots of goodies. As everywhere though, you do need to read the price tags, there are some shocks, like $10 one pound bars of chocolate, - we bought the $7 instead and even that was saved for a treat!
Part of the ARC plan here is an organised tour of the island. The girls had arrived the day before, at 5.30am, so we had a quiet day as they were exhausted after flying for about 36 hours from England. The problem was we woke up to grey skies and pouring rain, it wasn't even warm rain and on a couple of the tour stops we all had goosebumps from the cold - not the best welcome to Tahiti!
The tour was very good though, once again we got a brilliant guide which makes all the difference. Our lady was an English woman who came here for 3 days 20 years ago, and now has a husband and family here.
The first stop we made was at Venus Point. Part of Captain Cooks mission, when he arrived here in 1769, was to record the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. This in turn would be useful in order to calculate the distance between the sun and the earth. Whether this was ever actually done or not, I am not sure. We also made a stop at the memorial to the crew of Captain Bligh's famous Bounty, who landed here as well.
A slightly grey view of Tahiti from Venus Point
The Bounty Memorial
There is also a lighthouse here, the only one in French Polynesia, that was built by Robert Loyis Stevenson's father in 1867.
Having got suitably cold walking round the memorial etc, we headed to a blow hole to get wet! When the swell is big enough, the water spouts through holes in the rocks along the road. Getting sprayed with saltwater - I suppose it is a treat for some people!
The blowhole - the spectacle definitely depends on the state of the sea, for a reasonably cloudy and windy day the sea was a little calm for a big show
Georgia and Frankie have now arrived to spend some time with us and hopefully get some sun!
Other stops along the way included Maraa grottos, lush gardens, overhung caverns and crystal clear pools, make for a spectacular site, and a tropical botanical garden.
The tropical gardens
The fern grottos
John and Georgia decided a swim was definitely not in order...
...although the water was beautifully clean and clear!
The last stop was at the Marae Arahurahu, a traditional temple. When entering scared places such as these, the local polynesians will always protect themselves from bad spirits by wearing a branch of one of the local trees. Our guide did this, but said it was up to us whether we did it or not... There is a an unusual story attached to the tikis that used to be on this site. They were said to be cursed, and although they needed to be moved to another part of the island for protection, nobody wanted to be the one to move them. When they had been moved previously, there had been a spate of deaths of people linked with the move. Eventually, some men came from the Marquesas to do the job, as they weren't frightened by the Tikis. Having completed the move, and it is said been a bit disrespectful of the tikis, they left. Within 2 months all of the men were dead..... coincidence? Nobody here thought so.
When they needed a favour from the Gods, a sacrifice was made. The size of the favour being requested determined the sacrifice. This was done at the Marae. Usually an animal, or fruit or food of some sort was satisfactory. If however you needed a big favour, only a human sacrifice would do. So how did they choose who was to be sacrificed? Often, people would volunteer, if it was for the good of the village, if someone from your family was the sacrifice, then your standing in the community would be elevated. The sacrifice was them killed, usually quickly with a blow to the head and then offered to the gods. Once that was done, what then happened - they ate the body. Now it is all well and good if the sacrifice is a goat or a cow, but your next door neighbour/brother, that is a totally different matter. The reason for eating the offering is a simple one, these people live on an island with a definite 'waste not, want not' mentality, also, eating the offered goods was not part of the ceremony, merely an afterthought. There is a (very) subtle difference between killing people to eat them, and eating the body of a person who is already dead which is what they use to justify this practice. The last actual incidence of cannibalism in French Polynesia was in about 1990 - so not that long ago.
A sacred tiki - not someone/thing you want to upset
The sacrificial altar - surprisingly no volunteers!
The museum of Tahiti, was also very interesting, lots of artefacts to look at to show how the island and the people here have lived since it was first populated. Unfortunately, we only had a very short time to spend here and had to do a very quick tour.
Now we have seen a bot of Tahiti, we will leave the marina and head to our next stop which will be Moorea, a small island about 15 miles away from Tahiti where we will spend the week chilling out with Frankie and Georgia and hopefully doing a bit of diving.
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