Unique Tahiti Tour

This morning we disembarked our home away from home - the Oceana Marina. Now that we are on our own, Bill arranged a personal tour guide who had a 5-Star rating on Trip Advisor.  No money up front or even a credit card, just bring USD or Polynesian Franc and pay in cash after your tour. Sure enough, at the exit from the ship luggage area (of course we traveled as usual, carry on only), Unique Tahiti Tours owner/operator Tracy Thomas was waiting for us as advertised in her beautiful red van.

Since we could not check into our hotel until 2 pm, we booked her for a 1/2 day tour of the east side of Tahiti - the rainy side of the island.

Our first stop was the Chinese cemetery. On Tahiti you must be buried in a cemetery. The island does not allow cremation, but if you have a home which already had a burial site on it, you can bury your relatives there. We saw that on the other islands, where relatives were buried in the front yard.

This Chinese cemetery on a hill looks like a city.

View point stop looking towards Moorea.

 

Next we visited a beautiful park with a lighthouse and monuments commemorating Capt. Cook who discovered Tahiti on this very spot. There were also a monument recognizing the first missionaries to come to Tahiti.

This plaque was on the lighthouse which was built in 1867.

Tracy told us the 'real' story of Mutiny on the Bounty.

The beaches on the east side are beautiful black sand beaches.  Eighty percent of the beaches on Tahiti are black sand beaches.

 

Everyone in Polynesia goes to church on Sunday, regardless of denomination. They are glad to be known as Christians and celebrate a special holiday yearly thanking missionaries who came to Tahiti to save their souls. We were blessed to be here on Sunday and to view one of the Protestant services.

 

 

The Protestant church Tracy often attends.

 

 

Stained glass window above the alter.

 

Because this was the 3rd Sunday of the month, the youth and families dressed in their uniforms and sang beautiful hymns using their own instruments. The music was mesmerizing.

 

 

 

Singing Christian songs accompanied by the men playing their ukulele's.  The songs were sung in the Polynesian language.

We continued along the coast turning inland towards the rain forest. So lush, it felt like we were in the Garden of Eden.



Now that's a leaf!

Enjoying the cool mist of the garden waterfall.

Some of the best surfing in the islands is here on the east coast, so we stopped to watch a surf competition. While there, Tracy bought some bananas to share (fresh off the tree), and they were great.

One of the surfing competitors.

Our next stop was something very familiar to those of us who have been to Hawaii, a blow hole caused by a lava tube under the sea.

The surrounding black sand beach near the blow hole.

Our last stop before dropping us off at our hotel was the Presidential Palace, all decorated for Chinese New Year.

Tree lined street in front of the palace.

Tonight we are staying at the Manava Suite Resort Tahiti. When Tracy dropped us off, she said we could pay her tomorrow since we are doing a full day, west coast tour with her. We were blessed the resort allowed us to check in early at 1pm.

Lunch overlooking the resort lagoon and ocean beyond.

Karen in the infinity edge pool with Moorea over her shoulders.

Since we're only here one night, we chose to stay in a Garden Studio Room which is very nice.

Our garden view from our deck.

Beautiful sunset while having dinner at the Manava Resort patio.