Tahitiis the cultural and economic center of French Polynesia. It lives almost 180,000 people in Tahiti, and this is well over 60% of the total population of French Polynesia. Tahitiere are French citizens. EU and Schengen are evident throughout the EU citizens do not have to pay an "I have money to go home" deposit. Schengen countries do not need visas. The deposit, called "peasant" is quite serious. You have to pay around £. 20.000, - per person to this travel-home warranty. There will be refunded when leaving French Polynesia. The Society Islands are a close part of Tahiti, and the distances are small between Tahiti, Moorea, Huahine, Raritea, Tahaa and Bora-Bora. It's almost like sailing in the Aegean Sea - only 4-5 hours between øytene landfall and all the time. |
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Papeete is Tahitis only real city. It lives almost 80% of the island's population, and it is a vibrant city life. Since Puerto Ayora on Galapagios city life has been a distant thing, so it's kinda cool with traffic again. And the market in Papeete is known for more than pearls. Here you can buy everything, but at much higher prices than on the islands. At the end of the runway Oscar found an object that never reached all the way.
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Moorea is closest to Tahiti - just 20 nautical mil. This is where the "Mutiny on the Bounty" was filmed. We understand this, because the landscape is wild, lush and deep, silent fjords in lagunereveet. |
Wind Surfer to Vibeke, and Cecilia got their first lessons in the subject. |
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| We celebrated 17 May at Moorea - with the hoist of the flag, salute and the national anthem. Marita III (one of the British boats) celebrated with us, and all signal flags hoisted on the mast as well. It was a great celebration, and the boats around us came up with curious questions about the event. Helen had painted Norwegian flags to everyone in the boat, and prepared 17 May dinner. The weather was obviously better than in Norway! |  |
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OnHuahine, and some of the other islands are vanlijeproduksjon a significant business. This rich flavor additive comes from vanlijeorkideens beans. Both Dyring and conservation is extremely lengthy process. Vanilla is a major source of income, and the plantations are confined in large greenhouse with walls and roof of the insect. On Huahine, we found something very special. In a stream was full of huge ferskvannsål. These are completely harmless and questions from us if it is food that the answer was "NO, they are holy." Ok, so we had to content ourselves with dry baguette.
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Bora-Borais the last island we visited in the Society Islands. It consists of one large island in the middle and surrounded by the Barrier Reef. Between the reef and the island is a lagoon that varies from a few centimeters of water to around 30 The fauna in the lagoons is great. Here we mantarokker and other rays of all varieties, turtles, småhai, beautiful corals and millions of coral fish. The characteristic peak in the middle of the island rises over 700 meters straight up. There is only one pass in and out of Bora Bora. This is a bit special. Other atolls tend to have more, so that water can flow both into and out of the atoll. On Bora Bora-water flows just out. The waves break over the barrier reef, and adds in the way the lagoon enormous amounts of fresh, clear water continuously. Old water "drained" out of the pass. Therefore, the clarity of the water and animal life here very special.
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Much of the southern lagoon, only a few feet of water. Sea washes continuously into new, fresh water, and corals are gorgeous. Vibeke and Oscar take a kayak trip to watch all the spinning wheel.
This guy however, we must out of the atoll to find. Lemon Shark often live in deeper water, but just outside the pass, where the water flows out of the lagoon, we found a couple of full-grown specimen with a length of 3-4 meters. This shark is usually not threatening to humans, but it is huge! |
