Sandy and Tom: TAHITI

We are now between American Samoa and Fiji but this is the first time I've had Internet in days so I'm going to try to catch up posting on the Blog.

PAPEETE, TAHITI, FRENCH POLYNESIA

27 JANUARY 2014

Tahiti was first visited by a European when CPT Samuel Wallis and his ship sailed in from England in 1767. The Tahitians first sent out the beautiful girls in long boats to unnerve them then they pounded the ship with round balls – coconuts?? Needless, to say the islanders lost so England claimed ownership of the island. England had one thing the islands didn’t have – metal. So they decided to get along. It remained a British territory until 1880 when a new island ruler was elected and he agreed to go under French rule and remains so up until day. The products of the society are agriculture, the beautiful black pearls, and tourism. They still rely heavily on subsidy from France. It is 65 miles around the island.

The painter Gauguin, 1848-1903, came to Polynesia and painted. We had a wonderful buffet lunch at the Gauguin Restaurant. The Gauguin Museum is under renovation and has been closed eight months. It has not had any originals in it. I got to taste “breadfruit” we had heard so much about. It had been steamed and was very good. It can be fixed many ways we were told and our guide said it makes wonderful french fries.

Our guide gave us a lovely little flower called a teria. It is like a gardenia. We were told if we put it behind our left ear we were “taken” and behind our right ear means we are “looking”. We had a lot of fun with that!

In 1960 Papeete got an International Airport and three years ago they got a hospital. But even though they now have the equipment they don’t have any doctors to do surgery. They only have two doctors. If they have an emergency they have to fly the patient to New Zealand in 9 hours or to France which take 22 hours. Our guide admitted a lot of people didn’t make it. Health care and education are paid for by the citizens by France.

Tahiti is the beautiful tropical paradise you would expect. The beaches are dark from the lava ash but the waters are beautiful.