Tahiti

When I went to look at Tahiti (we berthed at 6am) I saw a row of concrete, corrugated-iron roofed buildings, and in the foreground was a pile of scrap iron. (One thing that struck me was that the concrete quay had an irregular side). We disembarked and walked round the shower of stalls. Mandy saw a grass skirt and was determined to purchase one. A few had ? made out of coconuts and vaguely varnished.

After some confusion we hired a taxi (shared with a South African and a German). Tahiti is French-owned, Papeetee, where we docked, being the capital. Everybody (well, nearly everybody) speaks French. The cars are left-hand drive and are on the right side of the road.

It rained for half the time, but it cleared up after a bit. Tahiti had billions of palm trees and trillions of coconuts. I found a good one, but it was still in its husk so a French boy removed it with a pickaxe. We went to look at some turtles, about 18 inches high!

We drove on to a hotel where coral was grown. The owners had brought some lovely pieces up. We couldn’t get any but mum saw some people who had stolen some newly picked pieces. She went up to them to ask where they had obtained it, and was given some coral instead of an answer!!!

After that we went back to Papeetee and looked around. Amanda and I went to dinner while mum and dad looked for something for me. Amanda was the only one who had souvenirs but in the end mum and dad and I got a Tahitian mask to hang on our wall at home.