Tahiti Day #1: Touring All of Tahiti Iti

February 6, 2019

TAHITI ISLAND, French Polynesia – Mom and I explored today both the north and south coasts of Tahiti Iti, the smaller, eastern side of Tahiti Island, which is shaped like an infinity symbol. We ran into a big disappointment trying to find lunch and were let down not seeing any nice beaches.

Got up at 10:15 a.m. after awful sleep-maintenance insomnia. Mom and I are staying in a two-bedroom, two-bathroom villa that’s part of a small, four-villa complex called Villa Mitirapa. It’s nicely situated in Afaahiti facing Phaeton Bay at the southwest tip of Tahiti Iti (“Small Tahiti”). Ate breakfast and unpacked.

We headed out at 12:52 p.m. Today’s our first day on Tahiti Island after flying here the past two days from Orlando via San Francisco (yesterday was my 42nd birthday). We drove 13 miles (28 minutes) on Tahiti Iti’s north coast road to the village of Tautira, where we hoped to grab lunch at Snack du Bout du Monde, recommended in our Lonely Planet “Tahiti & French Polynesia” guidebook.

When we arrived in Tautira, we were upset to find Snack le Bout du Monde shuttered and nowhere else to eat in the end-of-the-road town, one of the most remote places on Tahiti. If we had known the small restaurant wasn’t open, we would have stopped at a grocery store and procured a picnic lunch.

An unimproved road continued a mile or two past the restaurant, then we turned back.

We continued to a viewpoint along the coast at a “marae,” an ancient sacred Polynesian site. There’s not much left now but a large rock.

We started the drive back west at 2:00, stopping to see a couple tall, skinny waterfalls.

Then picked up some lunch at a small market. I turned left a short distance from the grocery store hoping to reach Taravao Lookout. Instead we found a steep dirt road and abruptly ended after only a few minutes.

Drove back down to the coastal road and took another left on another road shown on my map that leads up to the lookout. Mom doesn’t like unpaved roads, and she decided to get out of our rental SUV and wait under a tree while I headed up. This time the road was paved (though narrow). I reached the lookout at 3:03, enjoying my picnic lunch at 1,955 feet with a nice view over western Tahiti Iti and eastern Tahiti Nui (“Big Tahiti”). I had to scarf down my lunch since Mom chose to wait along the coastal road.

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Drove down from the lookout to Taravao, then eastbound on the north coast road to pick up Mom.

Scooped her back up and drove back to Taravao, Tahiti Iti’s main town, which is located at the isthmus connecting the two parts of the island. Mom ate her lunch in the SUV along the waterfront.

Having completed the north coast of Tahiti Iti, we drove the south coast road to its terminus at Teahupoo, site of a world-famous big surfing wave.

There a pedestrian bridge at road’s end crosses a river and leads to a black sand beach – the nicest one we saw on Tahiti Iti. On our way to Teahupoo, we made a quick stop at a tiny white sand beach called Maui Beach.

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The eastern side of Tahiti Iti is a wilderness inaccessible by vehicle, so it was time to turn around. We drove back to Taravao, arriving at 5:24 at the large Carrefour supermarket to stock up on groceries for our villa. (Mom also took a quick look in one of the other shops.) We’ll be staying here three more days, then Feb. 10 we board Oceania Marina for a 12-night cruise to seven other islands of French Polynesia.

An hour later, it was a short drive back to our villa for dinner. We covered 109 km (68 miles) today. Tomorrow we’ll begin touring Tahiti Nui.

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