Tahiti Redux

 Jan. 20, 2025

Our return to Tahiti gave us a chance to explore Pape’ete, the capital city of French Polynesia. Pape’ete means “bowl of water”—a precious thing to seafaring people. There are 180,000 residents on the island now. When British Captain Cook arrived on the island in 1769, he estimated there were over 200,000 on the island of Tahiti alone.

Our guide, Erik the Viking (His favorite way of describing himself) led us through the congested streets to the royal palace. There is no royal family now but the lovely building is available for weddings. Our next stop was the market place. The lower level was filled with fishmongers, fruit and vegetable sellers, pearl merchants, and flower stalls. I didn’t go upstairs to the “knickknacks and scarcities” section because I don’t collect anything and I feel bad looking at handicrafts and not buying something.

Then we walked to the big Catholic church in the center of town. Polynesians were animists with a dash of ancestor worship prior to the coming of missionaries. English missionary Henry Nott had to learn the language, devise an alphabet for it, translate the scriptures into the new written language and then teach the Tahitians how to read. This happened around 1840. Now about 95% of Polynesians identify themselves as Christians. 

Talk about successful evangelism!

French Polynesia is a semi-autonomous territory belonging to France. It’s made up of 5 archipelagoes—the Society Islands, Tuamotu Archipelago, Gambier Islands, the Marquesas, and Tubuai Islands. It’s around 130 islands altogether, not all of them inhabited. They are allowed to send 5 representatives to Paris to serve in the governing assembly, but they are not French citizens. 

Check out the eel among the koi fish in the pond in the private garden. Tahitians revere eels and do not eat them. 

As Eric led us into the private garden behind the government house, he told us no one wants to be an independent country. Unlike New Caledonia (another French possession in the south Pacific) that is in political upheaval now because they are seeking independence, French Polynesia needs the protection and patronage of France to enjoy the standard of living they’ve achieved. New Caledonia has plentiful nickel deposits so they have something to build an economy on besides the very fragile tourist industry. 

Pape’ete is a modern city. They have a university, a hospital, air service to several continents. To be honest, when you think about the fact that this people group has catapulted from the stone age to the 21st century in a little over 200 years, I think they’ve accomplished something quite remarkable. 

The tour was supposed to be 1 ½ hours long, but at 2 ½ hours with no sign of slowing, we tipped Eric and found our way back to the ship. The matching temperature and humidity really exhausted me. To be fair, we often have high 90’s with high 90’s humidity in the Ozarks, but we believe in air conditioning there! 

Plus Percival (my purse sized portable oxygen concentrator I wear in a back pack) was down to 14 minutes worth of supplemental O2. The DH was carrying a spare battery in his backpack, so I was never in any danger, but it’s nice to be able to make it back to the ship on one battery. 

More soon…or, as often as the DH can bend the Viking wifi to his will!