The observant of you will have noticed we have jumped from week 7 to week 10. This is because we flew home from Morocco for a couple of weeks to check in on family. However, we are now back on our travels and are currently in an Airbnb, high up on a hill in Arue, Tahiti. Tahiti is the largest of the French Polynesian Islands and is located in the South Pacific. It’s a long old flight which goes via the US and after a week, one of us is still falling asleep whenever she they stop moving.

It’s great to finally be out of hotel living and cooking for ourselves, which is a good job as it is so expensive here. Our accommodation was not too tricky to find as there is only one major road which circles the whole island with small spurs coming off that. As you can see from the pictures, it has an amazing position with great views but going anywhere is a car journey. Stuart did run to and from the shops on the second day here and is still walking like he’s lost all control of his limbs…..the hill is steep.

Tahiti is mostly used as a stopover for some of the other “honeymoon” islands such as Bora Bora but when you pay about £2000 a night for stilted over the water bungalows and we are paying this for a whole month we think people are missing a trick. Afterall, we are swimming in the same sea and unlike the smaller islands Tahiti has an amazing interior. A month in Bora Bora would become Bora Boring!

The interior of Tahiti has to be one of the most beautiful and un-spoilt places in the world. Everyone lives within about a mile or two of the coast road with nothing in the interior other than a hydro-dam. A dirt road used to dissect the island but has not been maintained and as such is now only accessible by licensed 4×4 vehicles. We joined a group going across on a bone-rattling trip of about 6hrs. As we got into the middle of the island we really wouldn’t has been surprised if a tyrannosaurus appeared through the thick jungle vegetation, such was the untouched time static nature of this place. We were a bit disconcerted on one part of the trip when we were basically told, “we are going to go quick here because it’s very dangerous after it has been raining and we are not sure what will happen”. Essentially a risk assessment would have stated something along the lines of…after heavy rain the road can disappear a 1000m into the valley below or you can be buried from a landslide from above falling on your head. Fortunately, we are not sure they knew what a risk assessment was. Despite its very Jurassic look, there is an absence of any significant wildlife, which we found surprising. Apparently, this is in part the fault of the British who along with alcohol and prostitution also introduced black rats to the island.

The same cannot be said of the marine environment, which has a large and very diverse quantity of aquatic life. On our first snorkel, we had no sooner put our faces in the water than we were confronted with a ray casually sauntering into the shallows and Stuart was accosted by a large Trigger fish that just seemed to take an instant dislike to him, or perhaps his Speedos because Fran was left alone. We chose Tahiti at this time of year because firstly it’s the dry season (which seems to mean it only rains every other day) and secondly because the humpback whales are in town. The Polynesians are really protective of the marine environment but do allow you to swim with the whales under certain protocols which are closely monitored by waterborne police patrols. So, we booked a half day excursion to find and hopefully get into the water with these magnificent animals. The whales have to be receptive of the boat and stop swimmimg before you can get into the water and whilst we got close a couple of times, we stayed dry. However, the experience was incredible, with us seeing large numbers of whales and one even surfacing right next to us before immediately diving under the boat. The most incredible thing was being over the top of a mummy, daddy and their baby and being able to hear them talking to each other. The guides said it was quite unusual to be able to hear them from the boat and that we were very lucky. They then placed a hydrophone in the water and the noise of the whale song was deafening. This was such an amazing trip that when we go back to the house we immediately booked another.

As for the Polynesian people, we are still trying to get our feet but every interaction we have had so far has only been with beautiful smiley people.