Papeete – Day 1

 

I can understand that, for those cruise passengers who arrive around 9AM, depart at 4PM and only stay in the town of Papeete, there is a possibility that they may not like it much. However, our two day-two night visit allowed us to get much more out of our time there than we anticipated. On the morning of the first day, we simply walked/looked around the town area for a few hours. In the afternoon we went to a fancy hotel – swam, snorkelled, drank local beer and watched the sun set behind the mountains of Moorea from across the water between the two islands. In the evening we had dinner ashore – in the park on the waterfront where food stalls were setup (a local tradition). On the next day, we had a very long, strenuous – but very enjoyable 4WD tour into the heart of the interior rainforest mountains.  In that evening, before we sailed away – we enjoyed some good ale in a local boutique brewery on the main street. As we departed , it seemed common consensus was that everybody had enjoyed their stay in Papeete.

Personally, I thought that Papeete was much nicer and more attractive than I had been led to believe. There are nice parklands on the waterfront (I think that these may have been newly developed) and in other parts of the (admittedly very busy) town. There IS a certain “edginess” in some areas away from the waterfront – but I have certainly seen much worse in other International cities. If I were to revisit French Polynesia for a longer period of time in the future, I would not leave out some time on the island of Tahiti (including time in Papeete itself) – in spite of the recognised beauties of the smaller islands. Tahiti/Papeete have a lot going for them – even if the other islands were not visited.

PHOTOS FROM AROUND PAPEETE TOWN – morning of Day 1

Early morning approach – another beautiful day	The Tricolor at the mast for the first time on this cruise	Part of the Harbour from the ship – note the Polynesian style canoes
Walking around the town		Memorial to Atom bomb tests
Presidential Palace	Parklands around town
French Colonial architecture		Papeete Harbour

 

In the afternoon, a number of us got a taxi to Le Meridian hotel – a very nice and fancy hotel on the west coast of Tahiti, about 30 klms from Papeete (taxi fare 3000 XPF – around $35AUD – but split between 7 of us)

where we enjoyed ourselves until the sun set behind Moorea.

A fitting end to a day in Paradise