We have started a new sailing season, and are on our way back west to Tahiti. However, we first made a brief last stop in the Tuamotus archipelago, on the Toau atoll. We have been to one spot in this atoll before, in the false pass on the outside reef, but we had never been inside the lagoon.
We were eager to continue heading west, so our stop. We spent three quiet nights on a mooring in the southeastern corner, did a couple of dinghy rides to explore the lagoon, but not enough exploration that a separate blog post came out of it…
The lagoon was beautiful, as have all the total of eight different atolls we have visited in the Tuamotus archipelago. It is definitely sad to leave this awesome place. We have had some of our best anchor spots here, tucked away in flat waters inside gorgeous lagoons.
This is very much a sailor’s dream location. But, as all things on this adventure, we have to move on. There are always good reasons to stay and explore more, but there are also always good reasons to head into the unknown to see new things.
We are now back in the Society Islands in French Polynesia. We have visited two of these islands before – Tahiti and Mo’orea. However, there was one part of Tahiti which we did not get around to explore last time we were here, so we made sure to visit it this time around.
Tahiti consists of two islands, the main island is called Tahiti Nui, meaning “big Tahiti”. The small peninsula in the southeast is called Tahiti Iti, which means “little Tahiti”. That was where we wanted to go. We rented a car with our friends Karmen and Tom from SV Sauvage (who are back on their boat after spending five months in the US), and headed out one early morning.
We were so happy that we had mostly clear skies this time around. During our brief previous visit here, it was pouring down. Due to the very high mountains on Tahiti (the highest is over 2,000 meters high), it rains a lot here. Most of the rain falls in the south, where we were going. We were not able to escape the rain fully this day, but we had just a few drizzles, so we could not complain.
We started out the day with a visit to a waterfall that we passed on the way. It was right by the side of the road, and it is actually located in someone’s back yard. They allow visitors to go at certain times of the day, and it turned out that this particular waterfall is considered sacred by the locals. It was special to witness a family having something that resembled a praying ceremony in front of the waterfall.
The next stop was a hike from the peak of Tahiti Iti, which is definitely not as high as the mountains on the main island. We could drive almost to the top, which was at a couple of hundred meters. We started out on a wide path, but we soon ended up in heavy bush. We thought we used a decent trail we found on All Trail, but it soon turned out that this particular trail was no longer being maintained.
We then continued on to the coast. The recent Paris 2024 Olympics arranged the surfing contests on Tahiti Iti, in the Teahupo’o village. That has now become a major tourist attraction for this little island. Some construction was done to be able to host the games at this tiny place, and one can still see remnants after the games.
Tahiti Iti was definitely worth a day’s exploration. We loved everything about this place, which feels very different from the bigger island, which has more hustle and bustle. We spent our last days in Tahiti stocking up the boat before heading for a brief stop in Mo’orea, where we plan to visit another spot we have not been to previously.