Monday, July 22, 2013

kind of...back in europe...or not


after our superfast sail from toau towards tahiti, we enter the lagoon through the pass and see that the society islands are the perfect mix between the scenic marquesas and the calm waters of the tuamotus. 
we went to the town dock in papeete and took a walk through town. being sunday, all the shops except the mc donalds were closed - someting that i remember faintly from germany and austria. ever since we left the med, all the shops were open 7days a week
so, a "le big makke" and a filet o'fish later we find ourselves sitting outside watching the cars go by, feeling a bit overwhelmed by all that traffic, the people and maybe (or most likely) the food and realize, all the cars are euro-make. shiny and new like home and no old american bombs like in panama. from the radio in the background we hear french music and people wear helmets riding their scooters. HELMETS! it´s been a while since we saw helmets!
if it wasn't for the people around us, who look far from pale and french, we'd think we are in corsica. 

so, as always after being away from shops for a longer period of time, we spent the first couple of days hunting down chandleries and hardware stores for spare parts that might come in handy.

maloo gets a good clean and the fridge gets made ready to be filled with yummie stuff.

i took a long walk through town window shopping and eating frozen yoghurt, drinking coconut water from a cold coconut and feeling utterly "townish"
Papeete looks to me as if has been quite a nice place in the 80ies. but unfortunately all the "great" french architecture from the 80ies was not built to last and so everything looks a bit f**ked up and run down.
still - a nice enough place for a little visit, nothing to fly on the other side of the world for though.

after a few days we moved on to a mooring field further down the coast which happened to be right next to a "hard provisioning girl's dream"  - a Carrefour! - and not just a tiny shabby one....no! this Carrefour is equivalent to the ones visited often in spain like las palmas on gran canaria or la linea... a full size grown up mega hyper Carrefour!

you might wonder, why this is so exiting... but for me this means i only have to go to one shop to buy things i need and like and it also means that no experimenting is required to find out if f.e. the canned tuna will be nice or more like catfood and therefore inedible for an austro/austalian gum. (picked a couple of those in Columbia...the cats there still write me emails;)

having stocked up enormously in panama meant we were in for fun-shopping - so just the things you really "need" and like! like chocolate, biscuits, special pickles, a new frying pan...we had gravad lachs for lunch one day etc....you get the picture

it turnes out that all my provisioning efforts in Panama where in vain! sure - some things are more expensive in Tahiti - like chocolate and some imported french cheeses, but other things are dead cheap! and i dare say that meat is soooo much cheaper here than in australia or austria! great new zealand lamb or beef for real little money!
all in all i think shopping here is the same as back in our last home, munich - and you get the same quality. no pasta with bugs and flour with weevils.
the best thing is though that i am in heaven here in french polynesian supermarkets as it has the best things from home and  - wait for it: ARNOTT'S BISCUITS! yes!!! TimTams and Kingstons and Montecarlos....only my loved WeagonWheels are missing!
so definitely a place to settle for me:)

we then moved on to moorea, where our sailing-hero Bobby Schenk once used to live - and we could see why. 
we rented a moped and did a round around the island (only takes you about 1,5h) and it is really a nice place. i reckon the quality of life is quite amazing...but i can also see why the Schenks gave up their house after a few years... moorea also has the potential for severe boredom.

another nightsail  (or unfortunately night-motor) brought us to raiatea - the most historic of the society islands. it is said, that the people later inhabitiing new zealand and hawai started their journey from here in quite amazing outrigger canoes.

again we hired a car and did this time 2 rounds around the island....only to find out that there is no road inland. again, a wonderful place, but not too much to see.
we had a night in taha'a and then moved on to bora bora.

in bora bora we saw probably the only live coral in the whole society islands  and swam with manta rays - we treated ourselves to nice dinners and a wonderful massage in the st. regis hotel (we anchored in front of the 2000$us a night bungalows for - you guessed it - free! and probably spoiled their view a little with our washing hung up all over the boat;)  - if the guests would take binoculars though they soon would find out, that the most expensive bungalows face the bora bora rubbish tip:) - so yes, the universe is fair!

we saw some of the "Heiva" - the big festival where the polynesians celebrate themselves and their culture with lots of dancing and  drums. after having seen the girls shake their hips and the guys shake their knees it is easy to understand why the early seafarers claimed that the polynesians are the most beautiful/erotic people in the south pacific. simply stunning!

generally bora bora is the most scenic one of these islands and definitely wonderful! if you come here and stay in one of the resorts you will get what you see in the catalogues. if you go to the main little village you will find what you always find in places where people live off tourism - and when you go a bit further you'll find a nice little island with simple houses, children running out on the street to shout "ia orana" (tahitian for "hello") and people who have time for each other and seem mostly genuinely happy living a very simple life - though happiness seems a bit more fragile here than in the tuamotus...maybe because we, and thousands of flown in half- and super rich spoil the view?

and soon our time in french polynesia comes to an end - tonga is waiting for us! the french polynesian really have been the most friendliest and welcoming people we met on our entire trip. nowhere else have we been smiled at like here. even though we don't speak french, people tried their best to communicate with us and usually apologized for not speaking english well...we have been given car rides just because thats what people do here, we have been always met with a warm attitude. something that i will definitely miss when back home (no matter if that will be australia or europe)

we currently are hanging out in the maikai yacht club attached to a very nice mooring as 30m is a bit deep to anchor with little swinging room. the wind is blowing our heads off with 40kn gusts and constant high 20s. 
we will head off for tonga (maybe past suwarrow - depending on the weather) tomorrow making our 8 day sail through what is called "the dangerous middle" and has quite a reputation for strong winds (...no kidding !?)
the last long haul for maloo and us, and i have to admit i am a bit stirred up for this one as i maybe read too many blogs about squalls with 60kn and high seas on this passage, but i am dead sure that maloo would manage and so would we - and anyway... let's just set sails and see!

i will try to post every day again...so follow us if you feel like 




tahiti seen from moorea


morning view in moorea


same hill - different view point - moorea


look down to cooks bay, moorea

our ride for the day

going up the river in raiatea

river traffic

coconuts everywhere

small motu (island within the reef)


fishing in the shallows


preparing for the "heiva"







old temple of raiatea

bora bora



dogs of bora bora


















1 comment:

  1. Wow, this is so beautiful, i am speechless! I'm looking for a place for my honeymoon that has a sailing option, this is perfect, but too bad it's that far!

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