Tuesday 16th February
Papeete, Tahiti
After 10 days at sea we arrived at the French Polynesian Island of Tahiti. The island is fringed by coral reefs so it was a slow but very beautiful sail in. We are docked in the capital Papeete and it is a short walk into town from the ship. This morning is sunny and very,very hot. We left the ship to Polynesian music and everyone was given a flower to welcome them to Tahiti. We started our day with a walk along the promenade. Close to the ship this is just a simple concrete path but this area is being developed into a Marina and new promenade to be completed by the end of the year. Further along is the delightful Paofai Gardens that follow the waters edge. These gardens have masses of lovely palm trees, beautiful green lawns and children's play areas. There are a couple of ponds here with lovely waterfalls - a nice shady spot to take a break from the heat. After walking through the gardens we went to visit Papeete cathedral which was completed in 1875. Along both sides of the church are a series of long stain glass windows. The style is very simple quite different to the usual stain glass windows you see in Europe. It gave them quite a modern feel although I think they are the original windows. Later on we visited Tarahoi Square and the area near here where all the government buildings are. We saw the French Polynesian Assembly building and went into the Assembly gardens. These gardens were formerly Queen Pomare IV's palace gardens. They were made in 1858 in the swampy area surrounding the mouth of the Papeete river. This was the queen's secret garden and at its centre is the Queen's pond where she bathed every morning. The photo shows the pond and the large tree is a banyan tree that is probably over 300 years old. It was very peaceful in the gardens and next to this is the very modern High Commissioner Residence built with five steep roofs to represent the five French Polynesian archipelagoes. Our ship is staying in port this evening and will set sail at about 2am as we are only going ten miles to the next island.