Welcome to my 8th Visit and 8th Run Territory out of a global total of 71 Territories (in addition to my 127 Visit and 122 Run UN Countries).
Papeete, the Capital of French Polynesia, on the biggest island of Tahiti, is not close ! It is a whopping 6,116km from Sydney (almost twice Sydney to Fiji). It took me a total elapsed time of 10 hours and 40 minutes to get there via Auckland. That’s almost 8 hours of flying over two flights and 2 hours 45 minutes in Auckland airport. I don't mind the time because I love airports and I love flying but arriving into Papeete at 230am was shit but quick. Shit because I was half asleep and Quick thanks to my Greek Passport !!! Yes, the non-EU queue for passport control was a mile long but the EU was near empty. French Polynesia is part of the EU and I got through in next to no time with no stamp !!! Never imagined I would use it on a Pacific Island. I am also going to another French territory so I reckon I will use it there too. I immediately noticed the Parisian style lampposts all the way from the airport to the centre of town. So French.
Head hit the pillow at 4am and I woke at Noon to scattered cloud and a warm semi-humid day. My hostel was next to what must have been a chicken shed since all I heard was roosters for most of the night. Walked the most of the inner city of the Capital of Papeete (Pop 124,724) in just 4 hours. Buildings are mix of old and new and most old are run down but the colourful tropical trees and flowers that line the streets make up for it. It is strange seeing larger Polynesian folks with the cultural arm tattoos carrying unbagged baguettes and speaking French to each other – a constant reminder of the heavy influence France has had in this region over the years. Even the ambulances sound like the ones in Paris !!! Papeete is surrounded by lush jagged edge mountains sporting every shade of green and always licked by clouds. You sweat here but not like I expected. Tahiti is just above Fiji and Cairns but is substantially more bearable given its isolation and winds. Having walked to most places I noticed a lot of homeless, especially congregating around the public paths. I visited the following places: Place Vai-ete, Temple de Eglise Sanito Rautahi, Maire de Papeete (Hotel De Ville), Place de l Automobile, Place Notre-Dame, Queen's Pond, Buste de Bougainville, Monument du General de Gaulle, Pouvanaa A Oopa, Parliament, Governors House, Chamber of Commerce, Wooden Ship, Memorial to Nuclear Victims, Temple Siloama, Plage Hokulea, Foodies Supermarket.
The highlight was the harbourside boulevard because of its greenery and Parisian-style cafes. In true Golfco style, I found a well-equipped modern supermarket only 5min walk from my hostel where hot local ready-to-eat dishes were to be found for a fraction of the cost of local restaurants. Papeetians LOVE raw fish – it is everywhere and reasonably cheap compared to major cities. Everything else is at Paris Prices !!! I managed to stock up on olives, cheese and even cask wine because it was going to be easy to hide and smuggle on the ship !!! That night I enjoyed chunks of yellow fun tuna cooked in coconut with a fried rice of local veggies washed down by cask white and King Kong vs Godzilla. Great way to send my first full day in French Polynesia.
Please enjoy the sites of Papeete followed by some really interesting facts about French Polynesia.
ABOUT FRENCH POLYNESIA
Tahiti is not a country but the largest of 121 islands in a 2100km by 1800km oval known as “French Polynesia” which is also not a country but a territory belonging to France who call it an “overseas collectivity“, which means it is self-governing.
French Polynesia is divided into five groups of islands or Archipelagos, 75 of the 121 are inhabited):
1. The Society Islands, comprising the Windward Islands and the Leeward Islands.
2. The Tuamotu Islands.
3. The Gambier Islands.
4. The Marquesas Islands.
5. The Austral Islands.
Anthropologists and historians believe the Great Polynesian Migration commenced around 1500 BC as Austronesian peoples went on a journey using celestial navigation to find islands in the South Pacific Ocean. The first islands of French Polynesia to be settled were the Marquesas Islands in about 200 BC. The Polynesians later ventured southwest and discovered the Society Islands around AD 300. European encounters began in 1521 with the Portuguese then the Spanish in 1609, then the Dutch in 1722, the British in 1767 and finally the French in 1768. James Cook arrived in 1769 and again in 1773 and 1777. France finally fought a war with the locals and colonised the whole area in 1888. In 1946 France declared the area an overseas protectorate, meaning local Polynesians were granted the right to vote through citizenship. The name French Polynesia emerged in 1957. In 1983 French Polynesia became a member of the Pacific Community and in 2004 it became a collectivity, which entitled it to a President and self-government. Nuclear testing was very briefly held on one island in 1996 but quickly subsided.
Here are some interesting facts about French Polynesia:
1. The word “tattoo” comes from the Tahitian word tatau and dates as far back as 1500 B.C.
2. About 12% of the French Polynesia population today is Chinese because they worked the fields in the mid-1800s.
3. Letterboxes in Tahiti are not used for letters but baguette deliveries !!!
4. The Pearl Museum in Tahiti is the only museum in the world dedicated solely to pearls !!!
5. Cannibalism existed on a few islands here up to the 1900s.
6. There is no income tax in French Polynesia.
7. The overwater bangalow was invented in French Polynesia.
8. Rangiroa atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago is the only atoll on the planet that has a vineyard !!!
Here’s a beauty – The Paris Olympics 2024 World Surfing is to be held here on a beach called TEAHUPO’O on the island of Tahiti. Just today the Olympic Torch went by in Papeete for this event… just feast your eyes on these TSUNAMI sized waves in the official Olympic Poster which I had to take on a glass window…
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