Not quite everything. After wandering the streets of Papeete for an hour and a half we did find one lone outpost of that great bastion of culinary delights: McDonalds. While we had no intention of eating one of their burgers - especially at $US15 for a Big Mac (I’m not joking) - it was good enough for a Sprite.
Even more horrifying than a $15 Big Mac was the Mac version of a croque monsieur, which looks like thinly-sliced goat intestines served between two slices of deep-fried hocky puck.
Papeete looks like it’s seen better days. While Tahiti is pretty, the city is tired looking. Fortunately our tour took us out of Papeete. Well out, as we boarded into the back of a 4WD drive truck and joined a convoy heading up Tahiti’s largest valley.
This was much better. As in “stunningly beautiful” better.
It did get a bit rough on occasion, especially when our guide, Tibu, aimed for the biggest, meanest potholes he could find. Emma and I loved it (despite the impression one might draw from the photos of her bouncing around next to Irene from Chicago), but there was an elderly English woman who looked like she’d have had a better time having a root canal, while Emma spotted a woman in another 4WD who was hanging on in sheer terror.
Wot a laff.
As an added bonus, one of the drivers was a mad Tahitian who loved playing up the “wild native” angle. An amazing character, and extremely entertaining. A picture will demonstrate better than I could ever explain, especially bearing in mind this was one of his tamer moments:
Anyhow we finally made it inland, our teeth mostly intact, and it was gorgeous. We lost count of the waterfalls, managed to see a few impressive freshwater eels, and finally stopped at one of those stunning vistas you expect to see in places like - well, Tahiti.
Very pleasant indeed.
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