French Polynesia
French Polynesia with 260,000 inhabitants is located 11,000 miles from France and includes 120 islands spread over five archipelagos covering some 1.7 million sq. miles in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The islands evolved out of ancient volcanic activity. The Society Islands, the largest, is composed of 9 high islands and 5 atolls.
The official languages of French Polynesia are French and Tahitian, and each island group has its own language also. Before the arrival of the missionaries in 1700s, the Tahitian language had never been written. The missionaries took the sounds and matched them to the letters in our alphabet – there are only 16 letters – 5 vowels and 11 consonants.
French Polynesia is famous for its black pearls, which are farmed mainly in Tuomuto islands.
Raiatea
Raiatea was our first island in the Society Islands, French Polynesia, just over 100 miles north west of Tahiti. Raiatea, and its twin island of Taha’a are less touristy islands and are more the old fashion side. Although they embrace tourism, unlike their neighbours (Bora Bora), they don’t need it to survive – agriculture and government posts are the primary industries. There are no real beaches on the island.
We took a boat to a nearby motu for the morning and went snorkeling. We saw a few fish and an octopus.
That afternoon Jimmy finally arrived on a small plane, flying up from Papeete, Tahiti where he had been staying with Will on his boat for the last 3 days, since flying there from NY. It was good to see him again – it was 3.5 weeks since he had flown out of Tortola.
We put a lai of nice smelling flowers around his neck and a flower behind his ear in true Polynesian style! The ship put a bottle of champagne in the room to welcome him on board (finally!!)
