Tahiti Day #4: Kayaking, Swimming, Reading, & Relaxing at Our Villa While Dealing with Power Outage, Broken Oven, & Inoperable Dryer

February 9, 2019

TAHITI ISLAND, French Polynesia – After three days touring Tahiti Iti (Small Tahiti), Tahiti Nui (Big Tahiti), and the capital of Papeete, Mom and I stayed at our villa during our fourth and final day here before boarding our cruiseship tomorrow. Although we enjoyed kayaking, swimming, reading, and relaxing, we had to endure several problems in our rental property including a power outage, inoperable oven, and a broken clothes dryer.

Mom woke me up about 8:50 a.m. to say the power was out. She had started laundry in the washing machine and the power cut off a short time later. I tried to fall back asleep, but could not. With the air-conditioning unable to operate, it quickly heated up to a miserable 85° in my bedroom.

Ate breakfast, checked messages on my phone, and copied and sorted yesterday’s photos. I finally located the fuse box hidden behind a tree in our open-air foyer, but all circuit breakers were still in the “on” position. I e-mailed Villa Mitirapa’s owner several times about the black-out. She had been quite responsive to other issues we had during our stay, but this time we did not hear back her until after the power came back on at 12:04 p.m. She asked us to “only use one machine at a time.” We weren’t sure what that meant. The laundry machines? Mom only had the washer machine running when the power cut off.

Mom’s first load of laundry finished in the washer. Then she put it in the dryer and pushed in the “Start” button. We could only laugh and roll our eyes when the button got stuck in the in position. It would not pop out to activate the dryer. I tried prying the button out with a screwdriver, but it would not budge.

Dryer won’t work as the “Start” button is stuck
Dryer won’t work as the “Start” button is stuck

I e-mailed the owner again, and also mentioned that we could not get the oven or stove to fire up.

Nonfunctioning oven in our villa
Unmarked control knobs on the nonfunctioning oven in our villa

We never heard back from her. So Mom and I had to hang all our washed clothes out to dry. There was a small drying rack outside that only accommodated a few items. We spread the rest out on the property including over chairs, on the hammock, and hanging from anything that would hold an article of clothing.

We ate lunch a bit before 2 p.m., then craving some exercise, I took the kayak that came with our villa onto Phaeton Bay and out into the ocean for a 1-hour-3-minute trip that covered 3 miles.

I’m kayaking in Phaeton Bay
I kayaked 3 miles

Kayaking at Tahiti Iti, French Polynesia

Next I went snorkeling. The visibility in the bay was terrible and the water was so warm it was not all that refreshing. I only saw a few fish.

Showered, then made a quick trip to the grocery store for some bread and a pre-cooked pork curry with rice dish for Mom’s dinner. Sorted and posted today’s photos, ate dinner, and then reviewed shore excursion options with Mom for our 12-night Oceania Marina cruise that begins tomorrow. We pre-booked several excursions but were upset that three-quarters of tours we were interested in were sold out about two weeks before sail-away.

Once we get on board Marina tomorrow in Papeete, we’ll visit the Destination Services desk and check on the latest situation.