Wks 86-87: Inland Tahiti (0nm)

We (or at least I) have scarcely walked more than 10 meters at a time since leaving the Americas, but that didn’t stop us from taking on two epic and very different hikes this week, both joined by new friends. We were still confined to Tahiti, but eased restrictions meant we could get out an explore the island. Sore legs and happy hearts!

First Mate’s Log

Friday, 1st May: It was time to give the engine some love, having travelled nearly 6,000 nm since its last service. Of course, most of those miles were under sail… but Mick had done a hard 350 or so hours of service so I felt he deserved a set of clean filters, oil, etc. While I had my head in the bilge, Alec noticed the solar output was strangely low, and soon discovered what are apparently called “snail trails” all across our panels (little burn lines where internal wires have shorted). Apparently this is some sort of defect, and initial research suggested it might be possible to get them replaced under warranty – fingers crossed as we rely on them so heavily! Luckily, right as we were feeling particularly low, Martin and Cheryl from Zan (a Puddle Jump boat we’d exchanged banter with on the crossing) stopped by and invited us to come round for a drink that evening – perfect to lift the spirits! To make the day extra sociable, Fergus from Two Drifters (a catamaran, also friends with Tourterelle, parked in front of us) later invited us to a “dinghy float” that afternoon. All the nearby boats in the anchorage took dinghies (or in our case, the kayak) over to the shallows by the reef and tied together for a drink and a chat. It was a great chance to get to know a few other boats, including meeting two that are also Virginia registered! What are the odds of that all the way over here in French Polynesia?? As the sun set, we headed over to Zan and swapped tales of our crossings and arrivals over a couple of rounds of Serenity’s Fists (our signature guava & rum cocktail invented by our friend Eddie).

Saturday, 2nd May: Our Danish friends from S/V Impulse went in on a car rental with us to explore the island for the weekend. Alec and I were up early to pick up the mom-mobile (aka 7-passenger van needed to seat us all) and the Danes so we could make the most of the day. As the island is only 20 miles across, I’d worked out we could drive around the whole thing in a day. We started out clockwise round the Eastern side, stopping briefly to check out a waterfall, before heading down to Teahupo’o (a world famous surfing spot) on the very Southwest of Tahiti Iti. After a picnic by the beach watching the surfers, we made our way up the West coast to the botanical gardens, which had a resident Galapagos tortoise! We completed our circuit back to Papeete, where we took advantage of the recently relaxed restrictions to grab a beer and then dinner from the highly recommended food trucks by the harbour. I ordered the poisson cru (Tahitian version of ceviche), which was delicious and HUGE – probably enough to feed a family of four!

Sunday, 3rd May: Day two exploring the island, we decided to up the ante and take on hiking Tahiti’s highest accessible peak – Mt. Aorai. See Story of the Week below!

Monday, 4th May: Had to go into shore to return the car, so took the opportunity to stop by Tahiti Crew, the agents who helped us check in to French Polynesia. I wanted to find out if last week’s Arrete meant we could, in fact, go to Moorea (the wording was quite unclear). The answer was sadly “no” but at least we have a nice anchorage in which to while away the time. I spent the afternoon doing laundry while Alec tested out an oven tray pizza recipe. We decided this dough recipe wasn’t right for the boat, but the pizza was still delicious! Especially when enjoyed in front of an episode or two of Killing Eve (a new acquisition from our friends on Two Drifters).

Tuesday, 5th May: The Virginia boats in the anchorage had planned a meet up this evening to reminisce about home, but the weather was atrocious so everyone agreed it was better to postpone. But, the day was still to be a sociable one! Early afternoon we heard some noise off the back, to discover that our friends from Impulse (who had just moved their boat to the anchorage) had all swum over to say hello. We shared a few laughs over beer and snacks, which made up for the crappy weather :).

Wednesday, 6th May: The weather continued to be uncooperative, so the day’s planned afternoon of board games with the Danes never quite worked out. At one point, a particularly nasty squall came through and a boat near us, Roke, started dragging their anchor. The owners weren’t on board, and the boat was travelling backwards at a rate of knots… luckily, this is an anchorage of cruisers, so within minutes Fergus (Two Drifters) and Dereck (Ocean Blue) were in their dinghies. Between them, they managed to set a secondary anchor and hold the boat’s position until the owners returned and they could re-set (with much more scope!). At the same time, the change in wind direction meant Serenity was swinging awfully close to Tourterelle, so I manned the helm, with a bit of help from the engine, to ensure we stayed a safe distance away. Boat life is never boring!!

Thursday, 7th May: This evening, the first flight out in two weeks was scheduled, and it seemed like everyone we knew was on it, including what appeared to be about half of Denmark. Impulse and crew were all headed home to wait out the crisis, along with numerous other Danes scattered around other boats. Before heading to the airport, Impulse gifted us with a few leftover goodies, including four coconuts, which we were particularly excited about! That evening, we dinghied over to Tourterelle for drinks, where we also met Ken and Jules from Painkiller. Ian and Ann pulled out all the stops on snacks, including homemade toasted coconut, several dips, and a cheese board!

Friday, 8th May: Tried out a totally different but equally challenging and adventurous hike with our new friends on Zan. See Story of the Week! We got back exhausted and slightly battered in the early afternoon, but soothed our wounds over a beer at an impromptu dinghy float with Two Drifters and Tourterelle at sundown :).

Story of the Week: A Tale of Two Hikes

One of my favourite land activities is hiking – I love getting out in nature and exploring a new place. I was particularly keen to do some hiking in Tahiti because the island is only populated along the coast; the entire interior is pretty much wild. Steep sided mountains make it fairly inaccessible, but much googling revealed a few hikes that would allow an adventurous sailor a peek inland. Two in particular stood out – a hike along the ridgeline above Papeete towards Tahiti’s third highest peak (Mt. Aorai), and a trek up the jungley Fautaua river valley to a huge waterfall. I couldn’t find much in the way of detailed information on either hike, but they were both promised to be well maintained, so, how hard could they be?

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough

We picked up our Danish friends from Impulse in the early morning, ready for an expected full day on the mountain. It actually turned out to be a bit of an adventure to even get to the start of the Mt. Aorai hike (at an army outpost 600m above Papeete)! You barely have to leave the coast before the road starts climbing, and not long after that it gets VERY narrow as it snakes up the mountain. As I coaxed our 2WD van along, I had flashbacks to four-wheeling in Virginia… but we normally do that in a vehicle with quite a lot more oomph! Yet, the little van persevered, and with only one stall on a particularly nasty stretch, we made it up and parked. Now to hike!

Gratification is immediate since you start already high above the city. Just after the sign marking the entrance, you are walking the narrow top of the ridge. The land falls away at an impossible angle just a few feet to either side! And then, it starts to climb. The first mile or so felt like it was practically straight up – my lack of fitness reallllly came back to bite me here. Luckily, the beautiful views made excuses for breaks easy to come by!

The trail eventually started to ascend more gradually, through several different terrains. First, a slightly terrifying stretch cut into the steep side of the cliff/mountain through long grass-like plants, followed by a wet, wooded segment that made us all feel like we were walking through Middle Earth. Then, tall, thorny bushes overtook the path, making it necessary to push your way along (and collect a number of scratches along the way).

We’d learned at the start that the hike was a LOT longer than I’d expected (11km each way… slightly more than the 5km each way I’d promised the group), but had initially been optimistic we might still complete it. However, three hours in, including an hour of fighting through the thorns, we all decided we’d had about enough. Not far ahead was a hut, which seemed like a good spot to stop for lunch and mark our turnaround. This was actually the first of two huts, which were built to give hikers a place to sleep so the trail could be broken up into multiple days (probably should have guessed from that the hike was longer than I thought!). We still felt we’d done pretty well, covering over 6km out including 800m of ascent!

After a relaxed lunch, it was time to make our way / stumble back down. A few impressive slips and falls punctuated our descent but we managed to stay injury-free until we’d made it back to tarmac, when I somehow fell over and twisted my ankle! Very embarassing… luckily it was only a tweak and I still managed to drive us back down the crazy road to return to Papeete!

In summary – amazing views and lots of interesting and unusual terrain and vegetation. But, we passed into the cloud layer after only an hour or two, so the views became less frequent (awaiting little breaks in the cover). The horrible scratchy bushes that pervaded the final third of our hike were really unpleasant, though with long trousers and proper hiking shoes it probably wouldn’t have been so bad. Main thing is there is no way you could do the full hike in a single day, its far too challenging. But it was still cool to hike up to the first hut, and we overall had a lot of fun.

Ain’t No Valley Low Enough

At the bottom of the valley just west of Mt. Aorai is the Fautaua river, which provides the drinking water for Papeete. The bottom part of the river is managed by the water authority, but you can buy inexpensive permits to access the area and the trails. Yes, trails plural – it turns out there are two hikes. This we had not fully appreciated at the start, which led us astray of our initial plans but was a happy accident as we had an incredible hike!

We joined with our new friends Martin and Cheryl from S/V Zan for the day, and, after being checked in through the water authority gate, started happily up the path. The first miles were gently sloping on a wide track by the river. We walked easily and were chatting away, not paying too much attention. But, quite suddenly, the track changed to a narrow, twisting path through the trees and rock. Hmmm, seemed a bit odd given we’d expected to a) go over a bridge at some point, b) be walking uphill towards the top of the waterfalls, and c) be on a more well-trodden path. But, having not seen any other tracks, it seemed we must be going the right way!

As we continued, the jungle deepened and the way became more challenging. Scrambling over rocks, roots and around logs, and then, we came to a sign suggesting we needed to cross the river. We found a few metal eyelets embedded in rocks, suggesting that a rope had once existed to help you across, but it was long gone. We made our way across anyway, only getting a little soggy in the process.

The further we went, the more tricky the path became and the more river crossings we encountered (all with metal eyes where ropes had presumably once been!). After a couple of hours, Martin and Cheryl decided to call it a day, but Alec and I felt sure that we must be near the end. So, we power-hiked another half an hour and were rewarded with an incredible waterfall! We jumped in for a swim in the pool at its base, but it was FREEZING! We didn’t managed to stay in the water long, and the swarms of bugs meant we didn’t linger. But, we were delighted to have made it to the end!

We set a healthy pace on the way back down (not bothering to try to avoid getting wet in the river anymore – just wading across where needed!), and managed to catch up with Martin and Cheryl just as we all reached the bottom – perfect timing! Comparing notes, this is where we worked out we’d accidentally followed the lesser-known ‘lower path’ (on the way down we also did eventually spot the little bridge we’d been meant to cross, inconspicuously off to one side). But, I’m glad it went the way it did, because it was a great adventure!

In total, the hike was about 2 1/2 hours up and maybe 1 1/2 back, following the river through the jungle. We had a great time bouldering over rocks, climbing logs and finding our way through the river at the crossings. The path was overgrown and in some places tricky to even find, but it was fun working out where it went. It was refreshingly cool in the shade of the trees (and in the river of course), and the waterfall at the end was well worth the effort! We would definitely recommend this one, though take lots of snacks, bug spray and plan to get wet!

Parting Thoughts / Coming next

You know what, Tahiti ain’t so bad! I have to admit Alec and I had initially really not been looking forward to Tahiti because we expected it to be overrun with cruise ship tourists and honeymooners on jetskis. But, right now, it’s literally just us and the locals, which is pretty great.

However, being locked down in one spot is a little weird as a cruiser. It’s all in the name – cruisers are meant to move! More on that coming up in our next post…