Travels Around Papeete and Moorea
02 July 2016 | Marina de Papeete
Bill, enjoying the pace
We’re closer to I-Day: Injector Day. That’s Tuesday, 5 July, when the SOPOM crew descends on Wings, removes the injector, hauls it to the Bosch shop, and we know for sure what the problem is and when we’re likely to get out of Papeete. Yep, nervous times ahead.
But, that’s not today, and we’re determined to mine the experience. Yesterday (Friday), Conni asked, casually, if I’d like to take the ferry to Moorea. Sure! Sounds great! Wings has been bobbing and dodging the wake that those damned things have been producing so it’s about time that we harnessed the ferry for our own benefit. We dropped our projects and slowly meandered to the ferry building.
The tickets aren’t given away, but they’re not terrible. Round trip for each of us was US$30, and there are discounts for residents of Moorea and for business vehicles. We bought the tickets and wandered about the ferry terminal, a beautiful and enormous building at the head of the harbor. Most of it is open air, as are many buildings here. We located our gate for Saturday, and then slowly made our way back out to town.
On 2 July, 1966, France detonated its first nuclear weapon test, here in French Polynesia, and the event has scarred the local psyche. Just outside our marina gate is a monument to the event, and Saturday is the 50th anniversary. They’ve been adding these gorgeously carved totems to the monument: haunting things with starburst-shaped holes, representing the detonations, I guess. They added an affective stone sculpture, too, photos of which are on the site. Take a look since words alone are not sufficient.
At any rate, we have been immersed in this growing memorial and feeling a bit more leaden each day. What we needed was some shopping!
We had been told by Bruno, the chef and genius behind the wonderful Restaurant Taha’a Maitai, that the secret to a vanilla sauce was vanilla powder, and we’ve been unable to find any. It’s so potent that only a 1/4-teaspoon is sufficient for a meal’s sauce. We went looking for it and finally found some in a tiny shop on a side street. The owner, in conversation, had founded the FedEx terminal in Papeete, and had learned his skills in the Anchorage FedEx terminal. Yet more proof that the world is simply not as wide as one might think. At any rate, we had fun talking to him and we gave him a boat card and invited him to stay should he visit Alaska.
As we strolled on, we came across a bar named the Retro Bar, a local favorite because it’s right on the Pomare Boulevard, the main street that parallels the marina. We walked by, looked at each other, and found ourselves at a table with menus in our hands. Fine, just fine. We love cocktails. I ordered a Maitai, as I usually will, and Conni had a Compari on ice. How cosmopolitan. How European! We stayed and talked, and stayed so long that we heard the tell-tale Happy Hour bell ring. Great! Hustle over with that cocktail menu! Drink two was a Ginger Mojito, and Conni’s was a Te’rai, a Pina Colada with Blue Curacao. Just prior to our leaving, as we poked our straws in each corner of the glass to consume every drop, a wonderful old local woman came by selling homemade Frangipani leis. I bought one for Conni, and then I asked Grandma to pose with her. I then requested that her grandson, who had been accompanying grandma around for the evening, to pose, too. Great shot!
After passing through the marina gate to our float, we were called over to Blue Heeler, a Bavaria 46 owned by our friends Karl and Ruth and their two sons. We met them in the Raiatea Carnage and we had become good friends. They’re both deeply involved in climate change policy, and were terribly interesting. At any rate, it was Ruth’s birthday and we were invited to a very unplanned cockpit party for her. She plays the uke, Karl plays the uke, their crew mate, Teagan, plays guitar, and Conni joined with my uke. We all sang. Laura, another cruiser, was a former opera singer and entertained us with several arias from her repertoire. It was the most musical birthday party that I’ve ever seen!
Saturday morning, we awakened early to prepare for the day ahead. I ran to the marina office to use their Wifi (finally working again) and determine if I had news of the injector, but none was had. We strolled to the ferry terminal, boarded Aramiti 2, and had a wonderful 55 minute trip to Moorea on a cloudless day. Disembarking, we decided to check rental car prices.
On that whim, and although expensive, we thought that we’d see more of the island from a car than on our feet, so off we went.
It was great! Somewhere along the way, we stopped for a baguette, a good goat cheese, and a large Orangina. In four hours, we drove around the entire island at slow speed, stopping whenever we wanted. We visited the country’s agricultural experimental farm, sampled their array of preserves (line, mango, pamplemousse), enjoyed a cup of sorbet (imagine a pamplemousse/grapefruit sorbet: delicious and refreshing) and walked on a 2-mile hiking trail through the grounds. The setting could not have been more spectacular, of course, but we also saw their experimental efforts at growing shrimp in ponds, pineapple, papaya, and other crops. It was very interesting, and we would stop often and simply be stunned at the setting.
Later, at a Belvedere, or outlook, we realized that the island is actually the rim of a giant caldera! No wonder the peaks are so sharp! No wonder that it’s shaped as it is. To be on the rim of an ancient caldera was a magical thing to me and my favorite part of the day.
Lower down on the road, we visited another marae, the ancient (well, 15-1600 AD era) holy places. This one is the first that has not been right on a coast, and the venue was in deep high-elevation forest, so that added a lot to the general mystery of the place. That and the fact that they had found two skeletons buried in the walls, sacrificial victims, they think. Did their sacrifice work? What do you think?
We chugged into the Avis lot, dumped the car that was FULL of baguette crumbs, and walked to the ferry.
On return to the boat, we encountered the ending ceremony of the memorial celebration of the nuclear testing here, and everyone was wearing anti-nuke shirts. There were many speakers, choirs, and TV coverage. All in all, and impressive and impassioned event. I do hope that they are successful in keeping nukes away forever.