Ahitea Lodge Papeete

... bungalow at full speed in their ridicously large 4x4s at least twice a day. Ear plugs were essential.



When we arrived the owner of the hotel, who was possibly the rudest man we have encountered so far, advised us that the food was fabulous and that his grandmother had lived to 104 and his mother was currently well into her 90īs. I can only imagine that they have achieved this by some other means than consuming fresh food which the ...

... as he was wearing a "Rebel" hat complete with a confederate flag symbol on it! The man was a brown-hued Tahitian and most likely has no idea of the significance of what he was wearing but it tripped me out - how symbols have a way of surviving and losing meaning even....

By now it was raining pretty hard so we decided to go find an internet cafe - but our attempts to get online failed. A bit discouraged we decide it's food time again! The place: Master Sandwich ...

At sea most of the day and then docked in Papeete, Tahiti at 7:00pm. After getting off the ship we took a long walk through the town. Most of the shops were closed by this point except for the restaurants and bars. So...... where did we end up??? Yes a great little polynesian bar/restaurant with a live band. We sat ...

Today we visited Papeete, Tahiti. This completes our "Mutiny on the Bounty" travels. This is where it all began. The events that eventually led to the mutiny began when Capitan Bligh landed here in Papeete. A nearby Island Moorea is the location for the filming of the last "Mutiny on the Bounty" movie. The island is clearly visible from Papeete and there is a ferry service between the island and Papeete. The movie has been shown on the ship's video channels several times ...

... butter, stale bread, jam and milk so we were at least able to have breakfast of a sort. After spending the morning relaxing, Katherine, a German girl who was staying at the hostel, and I went for a walk around Papeete to sort out money, see a bit of the town and see what was available for lunch. To be fair to Papeete, no town looks good all locked up, but this town really didn't talk to me and when I ...

... and realised we couldn't use the fast ferry and so would be beyond our deadline. I called the ship to check (sailing time hadn't been certain when we left her in the morning) but the captain said we couldn't be any later. So we abandoned the ferry and took a taxi up the mountain to the Belvedere instead. We had a chatty driver, who told me a lot of very interesting things about the mountain, local ...

... you can see across the 17km stretch of water from Papeete. One thing that does strike you is how mountainous and green these islands are, which was a big contrast to the dusty, dryness of Easter Island. Another is how expensive they are - a cab fare anywhere starts from CPF 1,500 (US$20). We docked in Moorea about 11.30am and finally managed to find a taxi to take us to our hotel - another $20 for a 3km journey. Maud was now back in her "5 star" element though, as we were ...

... Tahiti was expensive but it makes Dublin look cheap.. Even the supermarket prices are crazy so food choices pretty much means you cook for yourself here...lol.. however the best part is if you are hungry during the day you can pretty much pick up a coconut off the ground anywhere and eat and drink that and in the garden of the guesthouse you just helped yourself to the papaya and grapefruit growing on the trees... dam papaya ...

... managed to get Le Truck into town which was pretty cool. Itīs the Tahitian public transport which is a truck with side benches in the back. The windows are open so there is excellent airconditioning. We found the roulettes pretty quickly. There was so much choice: crepe, pizza, poission cru, chinese, hong kong, tahitian that we couldnīt make a choice and had to wander around a few times. We finally ...

... were so far from it! I found them friendlier than my experience with Central Americans and maybe even kiwis. Our hostel was pretty nice (if you don't mind showering with lizards) but there was no kitchen so we ate crackers and granola bars for 3 days. On the 2nd night, we broke down and used my toothbrush handle to spread peanut butter on bread. There was pretty much no one else around and we were far away from activities like hiking to the ...