Orana

Orana (yo-rah-nah) which means hello.

We hope you've enjoyed joining us via our last blog.  This is our last full day here in Tahiti and all good things must come to an end.

A few other Polynesian words we've learned: Maururu (mah-roo-roo, thank you), Maeva (mah-yeh-vah, welcome) and, Nana (nah-nah, bye/see you later)

 

Tour guide Tracy picked us this morning for our tour of the west side of Tahiti. Joining us was a mother (Maria) and her 3 delightful children (Connie age 9, Tomas age12 and Philippe age 15) from Chile.

 

Our first stop was a scared site where the early Polynesians held special ceremonys and community meetings.  This is one of the guards at the entrance to the site.

 

 It's raining plumeria!  We all got silly and started throwing plumeria up in the air.

 

 

 Further back into the site was the large meeting place.  Much happened in these sites and the red wooden posts were put up by families.

 

 

Further down the road Tracy took us to a cave with a pool in it.  The children from Chile really enjoyed swimming in it.  It was surrounded by lush green foliage.

  

 

 Then we stopped at a botanical garden which had a waterfall.  Karen took a lot of pictures today, so you will see a lot of flower pictures.

 

 

 We don't know what these are, but we liked them.

 

 

Lotus plants 

 

 

Bill and a big tree 

 

 

A pagata flower. 

 

 

 Torch ginger

 

 

Further down the road we started driving on little Tahiti, a small extension of the island.  At the end of the road is Teahupoo, a very famous surfing place.  If we were surfers, we would be impressed, but we just had fun taking pictures. 

 

 

 A stop at a black sand beach.  A photo to show just how black the sand is. 

 

 

Tracy had a very authentic place planned for lunch.  The food was great and it was right on the water, so when people were finished eating their shrimp, they throw the shells into the water and the fish go after them. 

 

 

The gang at lunch

  

 

The kids from Chile enjoying the fresh water river.

 

 

Our tour guide - Tracy Thomas

Food here is expensive, so we heard about some food trucks that were parked down the street from our hotel, so we decided to try them out.  We had some great Chinese food that was more than we could handle.  We should have ordered less.

 

Nana to all who have been following us as we completed one of the items on Karen's bucket list.