Tahiti: Touring with Tracey

Our friends Patsy and Steve Larson from Bainbridge Island (near Seattle) arrived early in the morning of Sept. 1. We thought they’d want to sleep a bit after the long overnight flight from LAX, but we ended up walking along the waterfront and into town to see the market. Patsy was amazed at how much the market had grown from when she used to fly here with Pan Am, with tables covered with every fruit and vegetable imaginable, including guru, taro, sweet potatoes, pota, bananas, pineapples, limes, mangoes, pamplemousse (a sweet tasting grapefruit), star apples, quintettes and ramboutans.

We did all manage to get a nap in and then got caught up on our busy lives. Patsy and Meryl flew together out of Seattle for Pan American and both flew the Tahiti route, but it was Patsy’s first time back in about 40 years. Lot’s of changes during that time. Back in those days the crews had long layovers and would actually go over to Moorea and stay for a few days. What a life they had!

The roulettes are a favorite dinner spot for both tourists and locals.

Steve, Patsy and Meryl patiently waiting for our food.

That night we walked up to the ferry parking area where all the the roulettes (food trucks) set up at night. There are over ten trucks to chose from and we spent awhile wandering from truck to truck checking the menus, finally settling on one that specialized in Chinese food. Since Patsy and Steve lived some distance from us in Seattle, we didn’t get to see them as often as we liked (except for our yearly camping trip with the kids), so it was great to just have time to reminisce and get caught up. Both our daughters went to the same university in California (Ilse for undergrad and Christa for grad) so we had lots in common to talk about.

Our tour guide, the irrepressible Tracey.

Tracey working her magic on one of the President's Guards.

Do we look like tourists or what?

Tracey was a font of information about everything Tahitian.

The next day Meryl had arranged for a tour of the east side of Tahiti with a company called Unique Tahiti (tracey@uniquetahiti.com). Our tour guide, Tracey, was from Brighton, England and was quite a character. She was highly knowledgeable, opinionated, a bit sassy, and incredibly beautiful. She used that beauty to her advantage as we pulled up to the President’s Palace, our first stop, and simply parked in front of the gate and sweet-talked the guard. Tracey was a virtual encyclopedia of local knowledge and would add in little tidbits of gossip and background info that made the tour even more interesting and entertaining.

One of the beautiful wall murals commissioned by the government.

Our hostess, formerly of the Tahara'a Hotel, tells us about life at Maison Hall.

The typewriter upon which Mutiny on the Bounty was written. 

Photos of James Norman Hall's family. 

Charles Nordhoff, a local Tahitian beauty, and James Norman Hall. Life was good.

The current house is a reconstruction of the original, whose property went all the way down to the oceanfront.

The Hall family bedroom with photos of his wife Sara adorning the walls. 

We drove through downtown Papeete and saw the beautiful wall murals painted by local artists and Tracey pointed out various restaurants and other locations. Our next stop a bit down the east coast was the home of James Normal Hall, the American writer who collaborated with Charles Nordhoff to write the Mutiny trilogy: Mutiny on the Bounty, Men Against the Sea, and Pitcairn Island. When we entered the modest house (www.jamesnormanhallhome.pf), we were surprised to learn the hostess who would give us our tour had formerly worked at the front desk of the famous Hotel Tahara’a where the Pan Am crews used to stay. She was so excited to learn Patsy and Meryl were former Pan Am flight attendants and told us the sad story of how the Hotel Tahara’a was eventually bought by the son of the President of Tahiti and slowly deteriorated over the years. It is now sadly nothing more than a ruin tumbling down the hillside near Mahina Bay.

This black sand beach below the Hotel Tahara'a is where Meryl and I spent our honeymoon. It was typically populated by bikini clad Pan Am flight attendants.

The former Queen of the South Pacific, the Hotel Tahara'a, lying in ruins on the hillside.

James Norman Hall's son, Conrad, had a brief fling with Kathryn Ross during the filming of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Hall was quite a raconteur, having served in the American, British, and French Armed Services during World War I. He settled in Tahiti in 1924 and married Sarah Winchester, the daughter of a sea captain. He collaborated with Charles Nordhoff, whom he had met in the army, to write over twelve books. After his death in 1951 the house fell into disrepair and his daughter, Nancy, began a campaign to restore the house to its former glory. Hall’s son, Conrad, went on to gain fame as a Hollywood cinematographer, filming classics like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, American Beauty, and The Road to Perdition.

Tracey seems to know everyone. The lady sitting on the left is the one on the bottom photo on the lighthouse as seen below.

Photos of locals adorn the Point Venus lighthouse as part of a "be friendly to the tourists" campaign.

This wooden horn was used to signal the villages of important events.

We continued our tour to Point Venus, where Captain Cook anchored to view the transit of Venus, which was important at the time in establishing navigational calculations for the British Navy. Near by is Matavai Bay where Captain Bligh first landed and where Fletcher Christian and the mutineers departed from Tahiti. He left many British sailors at the bay who didn’t want to participate in the mutiny (unfortunately they were later tried and many executed by the British authorities) and also took on 18 Tahitians who were forced to accompany the mutineers on their voyage. These Tahitians were mistreated  by the mutineers and sadly killed on Pitcairn Island.

The intrepid travelers.

Probably best not to ask.

Tracey, the Queen of Fun.

Our next stop was the Vaimahuta Falls further down the coast, a beautiful waterfall that tumbles down the hillside into an inviting pool. Next was the blow hole where the ocean waves force air though holes in the rock which rushes out like a giant wind gust…whoosh! 

Steve at the lookout near the blowhole.

Meryl at the blowhole.

We'd never seen this plant before. It's called the Jade Vine or Emerald Creeper.

On the way back we stopped nearby Tracey’s house to see pictures of the three mountainside bungalows that she rents out to tourists. She also made a phone call to an old friend who wholesales pearls, mentioning that Patsy and Meryl were former Pan Am flight attendants. When they later visited the pearl shop, called Magnifica in downtown Papeete, he was effusive with his praise of Pan Am and gave Patsy a great deal on some black pearl ear rings (Meryl had bought a necklace from another wholesaler earlier in the week).

We ended up sharing a pitcher of beer and had lunch at the Oasis Restaurant in Papeete and then wandered back to the boat for some downtime.