Monday 11th February

We crossed the Equator two days ago and now we are in the South Pacific. Today we have docked at Papeete, Tahiti. It is the largest of the French Polynesian islands. There are coral reefs around part of the island. As we left the ship a Tahitian band was playing and we were each welcomed with a small flower to wear.
This morning we went to Venus Point which is Tahiti's most northerly part. We went on a small beach there. All the beaches here have black sand. On this beach there was a lot of coral that had been washed up onto it from the nearby reef. We went to see a blowhole at Arahoho and the beach in the picture is at Arahoho. It is exactly how you imagine a South Pacific island should look. Just a short distance from there are the Faarumai Falls. We had a lovely shady walk by a small river to get to the first fall which was very tall and beautiful. On our way back to Papeete we stopped at the James Norman Hall Museum. He was the author of Mutiny on the Bounty. The museum is a replica of the colonial style house he lived in. It was built on the same site as the original.
It is very hot today and we are going to spend the afternoon walking along the waterfront in Papeete before we set sail for New Zealand.