We started our tip on Wednesday the 28th when we left the house at around 6am, saying goodbye to two trusting and loveable kittens whom we hope will forgive us when we return. Sure, they're being looked after while we're gone, but I'm sure they won't care much about that once we walk through the door. :P Anyway, it was PIT-LAX to start the day. No 1st class upgrade (it was packed to the gills - even the Chairman's Preferred next to us didn't make it), but here's hoping for the return. Once in LAX we retrieved our bags and re-checked in with Air Tahiti Nui. My carryon was a little overweight, but after some creative rearranging between my bag and Megan's it was all better. After a sushi lunch and ice cream dessert, we boarded our flight to Papeete, the main (and arguably only) city of Tahiti. It was an odd feeling sitting in the gate area at a US airport and feeling like I was already in another country, what with French being the language of choice there.
It was a long but pleasant flight, helped by the comfyness of the seats, the complimentary socks included with the little passenger comfort bags, and a fine meal and snack. It was almost 9 hours of flying all told, but I managed to sleep through most of it. We arrived PPT at about 10pm local time and were glad to see our luggage had made the journey with us. Once our taxi was done with us (govt-sanctioned $28 taxi ride for a 5km trip!!!) we checked in at the Shereton and promptly fell asleep after close to 24 hours of continuous travel.
Of course, since we were still on EST internally we woke up nice and early, enjoying the morning light and moisture in the air. Breakfast was a fantastic buffet including everything from regular morning repasts to poisson cru, which we decided could easily sustain us in the absence of anything else.
After breakfast, we discussed how to spend our one day on the main island and decided to do a bit of hiking. I'd picked up some fanny packs w/ water bottles for just such a reason, and so after a couple false starts due to me being (as by brother would say) "a logistical nightmare", we hopped Le Truck to Papeete proper where we walked around gathering necessities such as lunch and a pass to enter the Faananu Valley where we would be hiking. And then we set off to the trail head.
Now, I've classically had excellent dealings with the Lonely Planet series of guidebooks, and for the most part, the Tahiti book has been no exception. However, on the subject of Faananu Valley, I feel I could offer some improved editing. First, it's all very well to say "take this and such road out of town 2km, turn right and go straight to the trail where you turn in your pass and start hiking". Except that someone might reasonably expect to be told that it's another 5km from that right turn to the trail head through a rather dreary part of town, with nothing encouraging to tell you you're still going the right way.
And once you've dragged yourself 7km to the start of the trail, you discover that it might have been nice to know that in addition to the ~4 hour expected duration of the hike to the summit and back, the park happens to close at 3:30pm. We discovered this last detail at 12:23pm. Grrr. Okay, so we'll go as far as we can and have a good time.
Well, at 2.5-3km there's a bridge. Okay, the guidebook says 4km to the bridge _we_ want, so on we go... (sigh). Had we taken it, we might have even done the whole intended trail up and back in ~3 hours if we'd hurried. But instead, we took the road less traveled and were quite happy to have done so.
We got to ford the river a couple times,
climb a mini Stairs of Cirith Ungol, explore our very own grotto,
and generally hike up a primordial jungle river. It was a lot of fun.
Of course we only realized this was the bridge we wanted on our way back down...
Once back down the mountain, we hopped Le Truck back to Papeete (should have used it to avoid the 7km to start with, too) where we took time to obtain a $65 nose flute for a certain obsessive friend who really really wanted one, but never picked one up while she was here. I know we got fleeced as tourists, but I hope it is at least a real nose flute, and not just some random flute he pulled off the shelf to pawn off on us.
Overpriced flute in hand, we retreated to the hotel and (not so very) hot tub where I had a maitai and we sat back and enjoyed some gorgeous wind and clouds. (Note: a strong maitai on an empty stomach in a hot tub will result in some interesting behavior. :P) Back in our room we ordered dinner in, and Megan even fed me bites of the great chicken when I started to be too overcome by the sleepiness of the rum to even feed myself. :) Sleep soon followed.