I stayed at a really nice and cheap hostel, but I also stayed in a twelve-person dorm. When sleeping in that type of room at any hostel, you are guaranteed to wake up early and throughout the night. It’s mostly because other residents of the room are waking up and moving around on their own schedules, but it is also because one is always slightly on guard when sleeping in the same room with multiple strangers. So naturally, I was up at 7 am despite falling asleep at 2. I got up, got ready for the day, and started my 15-minute walk to Easy Market to gather some much-needed supplies. When I flew from Australia to New Zealand I forgot the carry-on rules for liquid. Both my body wash and toothpaste were confiscated and after a week living in a van, I was feeling ripe. While in New Zealand I also left my towel behind. It had just been through so much and it started to get really gross. It got to the point where it would never even get dry. Gathering supplies should be a simple task- but not on Sundays. The whole city of Papeete completely shuts down on Sundays. There were only 2 stores I found in the entire city that was open. Luckily one of them was in fact Easy Market- a supermarket where I was able to find everything that I needed. except for the towel. I was actually able to rent one from the hostel- but that took me about 3 hours to figure out. It is weird how much this city shuts down. All of the doors to buildings all over town were locked up and the streets were devoid of people. At first, I thought it was because I was just walking around early, but there was no change as the day progressed. I was so off-put by this because I planned on just walking around and getting a feel of the city. Fortunately, I was able to improvise.
I asked my hosts where the best beaches to snorkel at were and they directed me to the creatively named beach PK18 (Plage-kilometer 18).
Only a block away from my place is a 24-hour taxi stand. I got a driver who spoke almost no English, forcing me to communicate in French. It was a half-hour drive one way, but for $7000 CPF (100 CPF=1 USD) she agreed to pick me up that afternoon as well. I’ve paid worse than a $70 round trip taxi ride. What other option did I have anyway? Everything was closed and the buses weren’t out. Besides, by the end of the taxi ride, my french was no longer rusty.
The beach itself was nice. It was crowded but not extremely. The beach had a giant inflatable obstacle course that a number of kids were playing on, but I was more interested in the spectacular reed that I was snorkeling on. I spent most of my day reading, relaxing, snorkeling, and walking along the beach. When I got back to the city I didn’t really do much else besides walk along the wharf and grab dinner. I was sure the city was more lively when shops were open.
The next day I woke up early to go diving with the PADI 5 Star Resort called Top Dive. They are a great diving company located on all 6 major islands. The only downside was that it was a bit on the expensive side. On the way to the resort, we picked up another diver named Scott, a middle-aged retired man who sold his home to travel the world. When I met him, he was just finishing up a month-long trip around the islands. Throughout the dive, I talked mostly to him. When we arrived at the dive shop they gave us our gear and we got ready to go. The boat took us just outside the lagoon that surrounds the island and to a place called White Valley. With our divemaster Julien- an extremely laid-back guy and excellent diver. Scott, Julien, another diver, and I entered the water and began our descent. This was, without doubt, the most intense dive I have ever done.
For some reason, the dive shop used Nitrox exclusively. For non-divers, nitrox is enhanced oxygen (29% of the tank) and is normally used only by advanced divers. I’m only an open water diver so I wasn’t technically supposed to be using it. But fuck it, I would be fine as long as I didn’t go deeper than 100ft. As we descended, I was having a panic attack about the whole situation. But here’s the thing about diving: there is nowhere to go but forward. Despite my brain screaming for me to surface, I resisted. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t just shoot back up, the bends would get to me. So I had no choice but to calm myself down and keep going. I reached the bottom and made my way through the valley following Julien. There was plenty of sea life down there as we swam between the reef walls, but the coolest creatures we saw were all of the sharks. There was a multitude of black-tip reef and lemon sharks swimming about. Out of nowhere, however, we were instructed by Julien to stay still. A 4-meter tiger shark, a local one named Tigroo, was only 10 feet in front of us. It was so magnificent and imposing. we were forced to hide behind coral until it left the area. as we continued our dive we encountered a second, smaller, tiger shark only 5 minutes later. Again, we had to duck behind the coral. We continued our dive intermittently hiding behind the coral anytime either of the tiger sharks would come around. Given the incidents: the sharks, using nitrox, and the depth we were at, I was running out of air fast, and for a while, I even had to share some air with Julien so I would have enough to get back and surface. We stayed underwater for an hour before resurfacing. ON the surface, Julien told us we had a max depth of 27 meters- 90 feet… 60 feet is the deepest I am certified to go. 100 feet is when nitrox can start giving you some problems. As I said, it was an intense dive.
After the dive, we went back to the shop, waited for 20 minutes, and then went back out into the water. Our next dive was a lot less intense, but it was also over my certification level.
Located inside the lagoon and only 100 meters away from the airport, La Cataline lay sunken in 9 meters of water. La Cataline was a plane from the 1970s. It had a malfunction on land that made it unflyable, so they moved it out into the water as a dive spot instead. they placed it right next to an old wooden shipwreck intentionally. It is an incredible dive spot. We stood in the water on the edge of a sandbank. a steep slope stood before us. We followed that slope for 9 meters down until we reached La Catalina. This was the first wreck that I have ever seen. The rush I felt when I first saw the wrecked plane was absolutely spectacular. I swam above the cockpit and was able to get some good looks inside. I was even able to swim through its wings. This wreck was just such a unique sight that I had never could have comprehended before. It was incredibly eerie. The plane looked as if it had actually died and was decomposing. The sea was its grave and all we saw was its skeleton. It was claimed by the ocean, never to see the surface again. After we got our sights in of La Catalina we continued parallel along the slope. We soon came across the shipwreck I mentioned earlier. Now, I can’t tell you anything about the wreck, and my guide did not seem to know much about it either. My guess was that it was a ship from the 19th century. The hull seemed to be made out of wood and some metal. It wasn’t disintegrated completely yet but it was getting there. We were able to swim above the hull and have a bird’s eye view of the carcass below. It was eerily resemblant of a skeleton’s rib cage. It was obviously magnificent. We dove down to swim along its side to get that perspective of the wreck. We were already down at 21 meters but the slope continued down for at least several meters more. we rounded the bow of the ship and dove along the shallower side. By the time we reached the rear of the ship, we were only 5 meters deep. On the way there, we were able to see reefs growing on the interior parts of the ship. We even spotted fish eggs and a turtle. after reaching the rear of the wreck we swam towards the back of the boat and resurfaced. On the way back to the dive shop we saw a few dolphins swimming alongside us- a magnificent way to end a remarkable and intense day of diving.
Once back to the resort, we changed and cleaned the gear before being taken back to the city. The fellow divers (Scott, Albert, and Hanna) and I went to celebrate our dive at a bar called Trois Brassieurs. We had a long lunch. Albert was a diver from Reunion Island, Hanna was from Kansas but lived on the island of Bonaire and is visiting French Polynesia to teach kids how to sail on an expedition around the islands. That must be so awesome, and you know those kids have to be insanely rich too. After lunch, we parted ways and I returned to my hostel for a few hours.
Later that afternoon I went to go see the market. The market is one of the most popular things to see in Papeete. It’s not a huge market, but a respectable size. The downstairs area is mainly stalls serving fresh fruit, vegetables, fish, and meat while the upstairs area is full of souvenir shops. I managed to spend $150 (150,000 CPF) on souvenirs. I needed some more tikis for my collection.
While in Tahiti, I wanted to see the interior of the island because French Polynesia is more than just beaches and oceans. I took an excursion with one of the many companies that offer 4WD full-day trips into the heart of the island. I was picked up in front of my hostel by my guide- he was young, really cool, and easy to talk to. Along with my guide, there was a French couple (Patricia and Christopher) and their five-year-old son. We then stopped at a resort where we picked up two middle-aged couples.
Now that we had our full group, we drove an hour and a half to Papeeno Valley. The valley is known as the stomach of Tahiti because of the abundance of food that grew in the valley. This valley was the birthplace of the island, as it contained the remnants of the volcano that pushed it up the seafloor and carried scars of all eruptions since. The tour was excellent and our guide was great. he provided heaps of information throughout the trek in the jungle interior. We stopped at black sand beaches, go under a waterfall, feed eels, swam in a river, eat lunch at a mountain overlook, and see incredible views. These views were just superb. All around you are these steep, green mountain peaks with the occasional waterfalls plunging into the valley below. I would imagine that being on top of one of those peaks would be the most exhilarating feeling ever. Not just for the sublime views but also for conquering a difficult trek in those mountains. After hours of driving in this mountainous interior on bumpy and unpaved roads that hugged cliffsides, (seriously, one mistake would have meant falling off the road and plunging in the mountain below, a terrifying notion that was evident amongst the middle-aged resort couples faces), we finally made it to the center of the island.
We were in the heart of Tahiti. In the middle of this tropical wilderness is a singular hotel that had incredible views of the islands and the entire valley below- the crater from the volcanic eruption. It was here at this overlook that we had our lunch. While everyone else paid for their lunch, I was cheap and ate the one that I brought with me, the one that had been sitting in my bag for hours under the hot sun. This was a mistake in the long run. After lunch, we continued our drive up a mountain that led the way to the south part of the island. We only had a quick look before turning around. We were so high up that the only views we really saw were the clouds. We turned around and then drove to a nearby ancient village. For a history buff like me that loves pre-colonial life, I highly enjoyed this. We saw the ruins of ancient temples and reconstructions of huts that one can rent cheaply for the night. The next time I’m here, I am totally doing this. By now it was already 5 pm and the sun was setting so we had to make our way back to the city- an hour and a half drive. After about an hour of driving on these bumpy dirt roads, the warm sandwich I had for lunch was not cooperating with my stomach. I got car sick and started throwing up over the side of the car. Luckily, I was able to get it out of my system and moved up front to the passenger’s seat where it was a lot less bumpy. We had a really good conversation about pre-colonial Polynesian history and culture. At around 630 I was finally dropped off at the hostel. I grabbed dinner at some food trucks that were on the wharf across the street before I called it a night.
The next day was my last day in Tahiti. I spent the morning walking around Papeete before taking the Arameti Ferry to Moorea. There wasn’t much left to see in Papeete so I was glad to leave/ Although, if I had a car I would have driven around the island to see more hidden and less traveled spots. Diver Scott and I were going to rent a car but they were all in use due to the Outrigger Championships.
Introduction | Moorea