French Polynesian Adventure II: Huahine

To read Part One of this series, check HERE.

As with so many inter-island flights, we had to return to Tahiti to fly to Huahine. Isn't it amazing how much more time we seem to spend in airports than on the flight itself? But Tahiti is the hub of French Polynesia, so back we went.

As I'm sure you've noticed this trip was more a watersport-oriented than a food-oriented vacation. We're both foodies, no question, but we didn't often have a choice about where we ate. So many of the islands we visited had no outside restaurants, just the resort. And when we did have choices on a couple islands, we always chose funky and unusual rather than ordinary, although I doubt you could call ANY restaurant in these islands ordinary.  :)

Huahine

The flight to Huahine was about half an hour. Upon our arrival, we were surprised to find our trip was not quite over. It appears there's no road to our hotel, so we were driven to the village of Fare to wait for a small shuttle boat for the 10 minute trip to Te Tiare Beach Resort.  The reception building is built on a large dock over the lagoon and it also holds the lobby, restaurant and bar.

It's kind of a fun arrival as it's traditional at Te Tiare for someone to blow a conch horn to welcome the arrival of guests at the reception building.

Huahine's two islands, Huahine Nui (big Huahine) and Huahine Iti (little Huahine) are joined by a small bridge and are enclosed within a protective ring of coral.

Huahine is pronounced Wa-ee-nee by the French and Who-a-hee-nay by everyone else.

This island is one of the three most important Polynesian archaeological sites. Ancient chiefs built Maraes (a communal or sacred place which serves religious and social purposes) which have been restored and are fascinating to visit with an informed guide. We took a tour there which I will tell you about later. It was rather like an outdoor museum. Known as the Garden Isle, Huahine is one of the last places in the Society Islands to be touched by tourism. France did not annex Huahine more than 50 years after Tahiti and the 5500 residents are very independent.

My daughter and I were both enchanted the minute we landed. Even after we had visited all the islands, we both agreed Huahine was our favorite. A difficult feeling to describe and there were probably many reasons for it. For one thing, by this time we were well into "island time", an expression often used in our family to describe the laid back pace and pleasure one finds on most small islands in the Caribbean (and now I include French Polynesia).  And of course another big plus was we had an over water bungalow here. I mean c'mon. Who isn't going to love this?

We didn't have a fish-viewing glass panel in the floor, but the bungalow was very comfortable and we had a huge L-shaped deck, half of it under the shade of a thatched roof. There were privacy screens so your neighbors couldn't see you. Luggage and anything else you needed was brought by bicycle out onto the dock.

 I was in heaven because after Tracy left for her dives each day, I would just drop off the side of the bungalow into the water and snorkel to my heart's content.

As far as the diving was concerned, Tracy loved it. Huahine is still fairly unknown as a dive destination, so the waters are not overrun by humans. A barrier reef surrounds the island and she saw rays, sharks, turtles as well as a variety of fish and coral. Quoting my daughter: "I remember one really exquisite dive where you could see all the shelves going deeper and deeper into the sea, the water was so clear."

On Huahine we met and made friends with several couples we saw intermittently throughout the rest of our trip. It turns out many honeymooners board a sailboat at some point during their trip, see some of the other islands and then we would run into them later on another island or at an airport making a transfer. This socializing with other guests made Huahine much more fun for both of us, even though we were still the only unattached women. And finally, here, not everyone was on a honeymoon. Still, we saw very few children. I imagine this is rather an expensive vacation to include entire families. There were lots of Americans and British here, so everyone was comfortable with language.

One thing I keep forgetting to mention: when we arrived at each island, we were greeted and given a shell lei. There were floral leis for sale on each island as well. We both still have our collections of shell leis as they hold so many memories. I hang my collection over a folding screen in the bedroom, but have worn some of them on a couple occasions.

There was some shopping in the reception area, not much. We both loved a jewelry store that carried the most lovely sea urchin spine necklaces. We both bought several.

 We took time out from diving and snorkeling one afternoon to take a tour and learn something of the island's history. We took a boat back over to Fare and picked up a tour guide. Fare is Huahine's main village. There's not a lot to do, but that's part of its charm. The guide took us around the huge network of restored ancient royal sites, the Maeva archeological village. The royal village of Maeva, is considered to be one of the most important archaeological areas in all of Oceania. Traditionally, Maeva was the seat of royal power for all of Huahine. Mata'ire'a Hill - located just above the village of Maeva, is home to more than 200 stone structures, including maraes, agricultural terraces, house foundations, fortification walls and burial platforms.

We were taken next to a vanilla bean plantation. I was fascinated and amazed to discover that it takes between 18 months and three years from planting a cutting of the vine till the plant produces flowers. They bloom and die within a few hours unless they are pollinated by hand. The beans (which are actually seed-pods) must stay on the vine for nine months before being harvested. No wonder vanilla beans are so expensive. Of course, we brought some home with us. Mine came in a sweet little bamboo cylinder.

And to cap off the afternoon,  near the village of Faie, on the opposite coast from Fare, we were taken to see Huahine's sacred eels. These freshwater eels measure three to five ft. in length and jump out of the water to be hand-fed by locals who stop by with cans of mackerel. No, I didn't do it. Ick. The eels are considered sacred because of local mythology; the legend states that the first eel to crawl across the mountain married a beautiful maiden from Mataiea, Tahiti -- and that present day inhabitants descended from the unlikely couple. Mainly they were gross, but you couldn't help but be fascinated.

 Another afternoon, we got someone to take us in a boat to a black pearl farm. It was out on stilts in the water. You can see it in the background on the right in the photo.

Black pearls mean the marine cultured pearls produced from the black lip pearl oyster shell and as a result, there are lots of oyster shells used in decoration all throughout the islands. Baby oysters are called spat. The pearl farmer collects the spats on artifical collectors in the lagoon.   They are reared on underwater lines for more than three years  when they reach maturity. We each bought one. They weren't cheap...as I recall we paid well over $100 for each of them.

Te Tiare had a really cute bar, which seems to be common around these islands, and the food was excellent. In fact, I can't say enough about what wonderful friendly service we were given at Te Tiare.

There was yet another South Seas Island review here and I only mention it because the women wore coconut halves as bras. Tracy was intrigued, asked one of the dancers about it later and she sent her to a guy on the beach who made one for her. Trust me when I tell you it was most uncomfortable to wear. :) I believe Tracy still has it someplace. If you look closely, you can see a woman wearing one in the photo below. After looking at the video at the end of the post, it appears they don't wear them anymore. Smart move. If  you look closely in the background of the photo below, you can see the male dancers. Aside from some sort of wrap around their waists, they wore an arrangement of fresh palm fronds tied just below their knees, so the fronds hung down to their ankles. (Sorry the photo is so dark.)  

We were both really sad to leave Huahine, wished we had planned to stay longer, but our next stop was Moorea, which we were both looking forward to.

Amazingly (doesn't everything eventually find its' way to YouTube??) I found some videos of the Polynesian dancers and drummers in Huahine, taken at our resort. The palm fronds on the skirts are real as are the leis. 
Enjoy!