5th February 2008, Ra'iatea, French Polynesia
A really interesting island and one that was added to our tour when Niue was cancelled for a second time because of inadequate landing facilities. However, this island was in no way a serious tourist centre - or at least - not for the beach brigade. Located about 25 kms short of Bora Bora, it was added between Tahiti and Bora Bora, maybe to provide a bit of a contrast which it certainly did.
The approach should have been interesting for those in the Navigation class in which D assisted earlier in the trip. MSVG had a difficult negotiation through the reef, well short of Uturoa, the capital, and then had to cruise a very narrow lagoon-side channel between the coast and the reef/motus. Great to watch though, particualrly as coast-side the lagoon was very very shallow around the whole island apart from this channel. In that regard, the location of the capital chose itself.
D & M decided that, yet again, the best strategy was to rent a car and sought out Mr. Europcar - this time in the guise of a French metropolitan from Toulouse who had lived 25 years on the island (they all seem to get hooked by local girls - don't ask anymore). He rented us a sturdy Honda, but this time without AC but it was only £50 for the day. He explained Polynesia was having a hard time at the minute: the Americans were impacted by the dollar under siege; for the French it was too far and too expensive in comparison to Guadaloupe and Martinique and only the Japanese were still coming. Our experience elsewhere was the Polynesians don't seem to give a damn!
Our guide book suggested there were no places to take lunch and that we should take a picnic. This turned out to be not quite true but was probably sound advice financially. So, having set off, we turned around and went back to Uturoa to seek out Champion, where we bought bread, cream cheese - with and without saumon fumee - fruit and a couple of beers. This turned out to be a good choice. We set off anti-clockwise round the west of the island. There was not a lot to see and the lagoon was too shallow to swim. We did, though, find a marae (communal worship/social/sacrifice ground) within a protestant churchyard. We should add that most of Polynesia is protestant (London Missionary Society) - much to the chagrin of the Catholic French - so any apparent desecration of things ethnic by 'prods' is subject to much comment and disapproval. Also, there was fine view of the high mountain (Mt Temehani) where a specific flower grows (the Tiare Apetahi) - here and only here - of which we were able to take/make a panoramic picture. We saw few folk and no tourists on this western leg or our journey. However, the island was considerably larger than Mo'orea (and Bora Bora we were to find) being almost 100kms in circumference. At the southern end there was an inland loop of 8 kms that took off 30 kms of coastal route with a fine Belvedere to view both north and south. Just our luck that as we approached it the re-surfacing lorry was out and Mr. Tarmac was spraying his load all over the road. Not only could we not stop at the look-out, the vehicle also received an unplanned and probably unrequired additional coat of underseal!!
Hence, instead of completing a figure of 8 route, D decided we were not inviting trouble and we determined to repeat the 30km coastal road by-passed by the inland route. After a short drive we reached the main marae in the whole of Polynesia - a large extended site where we stopped for lunch and photographs. This probably made the stop worthwhile in its own right. After, we continued south, seeking the 'Queens Bathtub' a local waterfall where, in principle, we could bathe only to discover the Vanilla farm (Prix d'Or, Concours de Paris 2007, Ministre d'Agricole et Peche - but only the Argent in 2006!). We arrived at 13.50 to observe there were daily tours at 14.00 'tous les jours'. So, we went for the daily tour. Very interesting; we learned all about Mexican and Madagascan vanilla and how that from 'Tahiti et ses Isles' was a unique cross strain from Mexican and Philippine vanilla that remains flexible when mature. Apparently the vanilla plant is an orchid and the pod evolves to look just like a green bean - at least, it does in early February. It's left on the plant - grown in huge 1,000 m2 hot houses - until it turns yellow. It is then air-dried enclosed in cloths where it both turns black and secretes vanilla oil, losing mass as it does so. This is monitored by hand on a daily basis and the pods are graded by length. Any that are not long and straight (is this the EC again?) are used for scraping seeds which - in fact - is where the flavour comes from - a bit like chilli in that regards. We were advised that price in Europe/US/Japan/Aus depends on length but that by-and-large this is a nonsense, except in-so-far as the longer ones have most flavour because of size and for no other reason. We made our excuses and bought a pot of seeds for £6 as best value option. We enquired about her majesty's tub to be told that whilst only 15 minutes away it was across private land. Did you know the word 'tabu' (spelt like that) is actually Polynesian. We got the message.
We travelled on to the end of Ra'iatea, turned round and came back, looking assiduously for the 'Jardin Botanique' and the kayaks for rent on the 'only navigable river in Polynesia' - actually an estuary - and too late for a canoe even if we had found one. We did, though, look for the botanical gardens to no avail. Unfortunately, it was only when we returned to the boat we learned that 'ne manquer pas' means not to be missed, but Mr. Europcar de Toulouse did tell us that most folk miss it because the owner won't put up a sign. As we said, the locals appear to be totally indifferent to doing business.
We returned the car, were delivered back to MSVG but eschewed the opportunity to eat at the port, possibly because of our experience at Pape'ete but equally because we had a good ship's menu that night. And so to Bora Bora.
