Cruise - Day 10 - Papeete, Tahiti
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009Yesterday was an at-sea day between the Cook Islands and Tahiti, a nice day to relax and take it extra slow. There’s a couple of photos from the day here.
This morning we arrived in Papeete and actually docked at a wharf, meaning we could walk on and off the boat easily. It’s so much easier than having to go by tender. According to the Lonely Planet guide, Tahiti’s capital isn’t much to write home about, but we all had a fantastic time. If you want to see the more scenic parts of the island you have to travel a bit, but we were perfectly happy wandering around Papeete.
Ange had a bit of a route planned based on the Lonely Planet guide, so after breakfast we wrangled the kids and headed into town. Although it’s not a huge city by any stretch, it was nice to actually see traffic and be surrounded by a decent density of people. It’s pretty run down in places, and getting around the busy, narrow, cracked and broken footpaths with the pram was a challenge.
Despite obviously being conscious of tourists the people don’t really seem that happy to see you. Then again, 2000 old middle class white folk turning up and making a nuisance of themselves would probably annoy me too. Not that anyone was overtly rude, but the attitude was quite different to Tonga and the Cook Islands where people were helpful and interested.
After lunch (and some perl buying) at a market, we wandered some more can found a kids playground. The boys had a ball and Will caught the attention of a couple of local girls with his patented LookAtMeLaugh. We all headed back to the ship after that so that Will could have his afternoon sleep somewhere quiet. Ange decided to take Jeremy back so they had a couple of extra fun hours.
Although there wasn’t a whole lot to do as such, I think we all enjoyed being around a fair volume of people for a change.