Raitea

Raiatea is an important island to the French Polynesians.  It is believed to be the first island settled by their forbearers believed to be the people of Samoa.  It is considered the spiritual center of the Polynesian Triangle of island exploration.  Historians believe that the exploration of Hawaii was planned from this island.  Today only 12,000 people live on it although size wise it is one of the larger islands.  The island is not popular with tourists, because it does not have beaches which is probably also why it has a small population.  Although it does have quite a few black pearl farms.

Our first week we kayaked the Fa'aroa river and the second week we toured the town of Uturoa where our ship was moored.  I always have mixed feelings toward kayaking.  I want to do it and sometimes I really enjoy it and sometimes I am just uncomfortable in that small of a boat.  This trip was a little bit of both.  We had 2 tour guides for our small group.  We were driven to the mouth of the river where we got our kayaks and gear and headed upstream.  It started out nice and wide (well not Mississippi River wide but a nice size) then as we got further upstream it got narrower.  One of the other excursions was a motorized boatride up the river which some friends chose so we all pulled over and waved as they passed us by.  Amazingly a common danger in the islands is falling coconuts - seems they can kill you so our guides were constantly pointing out trees to stay away from - guess a dead guest is bad for business.  One of the amazing and pretty things to me was all of the wild hibiscus trees there were along the way - the flowers were one color the day they bloomed and then faded to another a day or so later.  Having struggled to keep a couple of hibiscus trees going back in St Louis for years I really appreciated the size of these wild ones.  Our guide pointed out land crabs along the bank of the river.  Not sure how to describe except to say they are not edible, make huge holes in the ground and are everywhere once you know what to look for.  We paddled up river past a botanical garden and heard locals enjoying their week end (it was a Saturday).  Then it started to feel kind of junglelike as the river got narrow - watching the kayak in front of you so you could navigate the best path - as the front person I can assure you I did not appreciate it when I ended up in the middle of a tree branch a couple of times!  Then it was time to head back which meant going back to the mouth of the river at the bay.  One of our group was an experienced paddler and he had predicted it could be a challenge to get back all the way across to our landing spot.  He was correct.  When you got to the mouth you could no longer just go with the current you had to cross it and a wind had picked up.  Yeah at the END of the kayak tour.  We all did it, but you earned your lunch at that part of the tour!

Jeff and I chose to forego any tours the second week because we wanted to wander around the town of Uturoa.  We had not really been able to do that the first week because it was a Saturday and the town pretty much closed down at lunchtime and our tour had been in the morning.  Matter of fact all but one of the tour options were in the morning.  So, on week 2 we checked the town out.  We wandered into a little local grocery store and Jeff bought a bottle of a local beer Hinano in an amber.  The ship had some of the pale ale version onboard but not the amber.  He had tried to buy some the first week only to discover that because of a covid restriction no alcohol was sold after noon.  We wandered around and saw a very nice town hall/civic area and some other small shops and of course checked out the boats in the local marina!  

One other important thing to note about Raitea is that it is home to a very rare flower.  In fact if you pick it and get caught it carries a $10,000 fine.  The flower is white and has petals on only 1 side it is called the tiare apetahi.  I got a tee shirt with a drawing of it on it in one of the stores we visited.

Back on board the ship, in the afternoon they had some locals come on board and perform for us.  They sang local traditional songs, made wearable floral arrangements (think wrists and hair) and taught us many ways to tie and wear a pareo.  I got a kick out of the lady's  saying - short for day and long for night when describing the different styles.  The evening ended with a barbeque and line dancing by the crew.  Now remember this is a small ship  so when I say crew I mean my cabin steward was up there, the receptionist, someone from the spa, etc.  I do not mean professional entertainers.  It was a fun evening.

On to Motu Mahaea, Taha'a.