DAY 2
TAHITI (PYF)
Sunday February 11th, 2007
TODAYS MILEAGE – 91 miles or 146 kilometres
TRIP MILEAGE – 4884 miles or 7860 kilometres
Another day - hopefully not another drama!!!
After yesterdays efforts, I was looking forward to some form of tranquility. Having had a years worth od headaches in 6 hours should hold me in good stead for the next 364 days!!! ;-)
Leaving the curtains open the previous night ensured a glorious sunrise over the boats and ocean liners moored in Quai d´ Honneur. After 20 minutes of playing nature boy, I rolled on over and went back to sleep - after all, it was Sunday!!!
After taking my first quick tub for the day (I'm averaging at least 3), a quick bite of breakfast and I was off like Osama Bin Hidin' in search of a cave. I headed out along the West Coast of Tahiti Nui (Big Tahiti) in the general direction of Tahiti Ini (Little Tahiti).
If you have visions of powdery–sugar white sands, swaying palm trees and frolicking dolphins playing in the surf, then you are going to severely disappointed. Tahiti, being the culmination of volcanic activity, has nothing but black sand or rock beaches. There is plenty of greenery & scenery to keep Grumpy and the rest of the dwarfs happy - it's just different.
Even on a Sunday, with no one around, pedaling my roller skate that I've called "The Pug" (aka Peugeot 107 Rent–A–Joke) causes me a bit off embarrassment. "The Pug" is an appropriate name as it looks, runs and pulls like the dog of the same name. Smashed in nose, fat arse and wheezing all the time are the same features as the dog as well. The speedometer claims a top speed of 170 KPH (110 MPH) which would be as attainable as me being pulling as much pussy as Antonio Banderos - wishful thinking!!! It comes equipped with a 5 speed gearbox, I've only been able to utilize the first three of them so far. I tried to go to 4th, but the vehicle near on stalled – going downhill. ;-)
Some dude, with a degree in hair products, should be marketing "The Pug" to the Catholic church as the ultimate in "Contraceptive Cars" – as a chick magnet, this car couldn't get you laid if you were an egg and forget about any back seat boogie: just getting into the rear seat would cause a hip dislocation.
The 75 kilometres to the world renown Teahupoo surfing spot on Tahiti Ini was both relaxing and fun. A lot of the locals were dressed in their Sunday finest and were packed into whatever mobilized transportation they had at hand and were headed to their preferred prayer palaces. This meant vehicle speeds in the single digits as well as some very colourful Sunday suits.
Monster surfing is the norm and can be viewed with a long lens from the black beaches of Teahupoo Surf Club. I sat and watched the breaks coming in, all be it with no surfers out on the water. I wasn't disappointed in the slightest, it was a relaxing as you could possibly hope for.
From Teahupoo, I back–tracked the 18 kilometres back to the turn off at Taravao and turned right, continuing my counter–clockwise journey of the island.
I came across a group of kids beside the road at Hitiaa, about 28 kilometres from Taravao, who where body surfing the waves that were smashing up against the rocks and cliffs lining the coastal roads in this area. I was somewhat amazed as to the skills of the two guys in the photos as time and time again, they would ride a wave into the rocks and then ride the "rebound" wave back out again. The water was waist deep in a lot of places, but they played like it was deep surf, you had to see it for yourself.
Heading back into Papéete around 3PM on a Sunday afternoon is on par to walking the horse into a ghost town. The was virtually no traffic until I hit the Macca's (McDonalds) where it was full on chaos & madness. I decided to give it a miss and headed back to my air conditioned hotel room to update my web site.
As is typical with the Latin language countries – France, Italy and Spain, eating it generally undertaken later in the evening, unlike the most of us who like to eat between 5PM to 7PM. To kill a bit of time, I wondered around Papéete looking at anything & everything – but nothing in particular. I stopped off at the Charlie Chaplin bar for a couple of sherbets, when one of the barmaids said I should check out La Roulottes if I'm interested in a good cheap feed.
La Roulottes (literally "the caravans"") are basically pretty flash Cholera Carts that produce simple, wholesome and cheap (by Tahitian standards), food on the waterfront car park of the ocean liner terminal. I picked out Chez Thereze and settled down to three expertly cooked ½ inch thick sailfish steaks covered in a Roquefort cheese and peppercorn sauce accompanied by a prawn chow mien. Talk about wonderful!!! Moist, succulent and flavourful. Absolutely spectacular and all for 1,500 XPF ($21.89 AUS or $17.18 USD).
A quick snort of Port and I was headed for the fart sack. I reckon it won't take much rockin' to get the Z's a hoppin'.
We'll se what tomorrow brings.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Fitzy