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Epic Gap Year Travel Adventures! - Stunning Photos and Articles! – This page is all about Tahiti, French Polynesia on our round the world trip.

Stop 5 - French Polynesia

Tahiti - French Polynesia
Gap Year Travel Journal

Text By Jo & Photos By Mike

(1st – 4th June) French Polynesia - Tahiti
We flew from Auckland, New Zealand direct into the island of Tahiti. We were met at the airport by a Tahitian trio playing the ukele and singing Polynesian songs and each passenger was handed a tiare flower – the national flower of the islands and worn behind the ear. We arrived at night and had booked a bungalow on the west coast. We had a lovely surprise the following morning when we woke to find we were overlooking the ocean and the island of Mo’orea in the distance. You can see our view in the photo Mike took lying on our bed - you can see his feet! We sat and ate our meals on our verandah overlooking this view each day and had to keep pinching ourselves. The sunset over Mo'orea piccie was taken from our garden too. We had read that French Polynesia is not somewhere you come for the amazing sandy beaches and we soon discovered that the few public beaches there are tend to be narrow and short – most are black sand. But to make up for this the coral lagoon surrounding the island is stunning, this is what people really come here for, these islands are all about the lagoons. The crystal clear, warm, turquoise waters inside the coral reef are so user friendly and life revolves around everything aquatic - snorkeling, fishing, diving, outrigger canoeing, sailing, paddle boarding and surfing to name but a few of the very common pursuits here. Mike went out kayaking and snorkeling from the beach in front of our bungalow and raved about how clear the water was. The sea was teeming with all types of big, pretty fish and loads of other exotic sea life with a lot of coral in good condition. Tahiti is the most populated island in the chain and there is a lot of traffic here. There is only one road that circumnavigates the island and everyone drives big pick up trucks and four wheel drives here. Luckily our bungalow was tucked well off the main road and was shielded from the road noise – it was a little oasis and retreat from the manic roads. Tahiti is beautifully lush and has dramatic mountains and steep gorges all around the island. All the mountains are covered in lush greenery and palm trees. We found some dramatic waterfalls on the east of the island, through a bamboo forest. They must have been a couple of hundred feet high and there was so much spray it was like it was raining. Well, we thought New Zealand was green - but think of a tropical botanic garden and this is what you get everywhere you look: hibiscus and tiare flowers in all sorts of colours, along with so many tropical flowers, like the Bird of Paradise, that we pay so much for back in the UK. The people are colourful too – most people wear brightly coloured, floral clothes including the men - and the women are simply stunning, most wear flowers in their hair. Our favourite spot on the island was down at Teahupoo - the world famous surfing break where they had just held the Billabong Pro competition. The surfers are taken out to the reef break in boats and then towed into the waves (see photo). It can get seriously big here and surfers often get mangled on the shallow reef. Teahupoo is on Tahiti Iti (Little Tahiti) that is joined by a narrow strip of land to Tahiti Nui (Big Tahiti). We had to walk along the most beautiful lush pathway to get out to the beach and had the best view across a waterlily covered pond up into a gorgeous gorge with dense greenery all around (piccie shown here). All in all, Tahiti is best as a quick stop-over en-route to the other islands. We spent four nights there which was plenty of time to get a feel for the place. These are French speaking islands which made for some interesting three way conversations with Jo having to translate everything to Mike and then back again! One of our best memories of Tahiti will always be the sunsets over the island of Mo’orea.

We stayed at the fantastic budget digs of Taaroa Lodge. Click here http://www.taaroalodge.com

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Tahiti Island, French Polynesia - Gap Year Travel Journal

Tahiti Island, French Polynesia - Gap Year Travel JournalTahiti, French Polynesia

SATALLITE IMAGE - Tahiti Island, French Polynesia - Gap Year Travel Journal

MAP - Tahiti Island, French Polynesia - Gap Year Travel Journal

Highlights of our gap year travel adventure: