Box for What?

                                               A Bread Mailbox?

    One year I ventured off to Tahiti, meaning many islands.  Part of French Polynesia, Tahiti is both a country and an island.  Tahiti is the largest of the 118 islands and atolls that make up the Society Islands. The island is 35-miles long and shaped like an hourglass with two distinct volcanoes, one at each end,  that are connected by an isthmus. The islands are 2790 miles from Honolulu and 4000 miles from Los Angles so it is a long plane ride.

    Papeete’s streets are crowded with sport cars, motor bikes, and the island’s cheap public picturesque transport, les truck. The city is the country’s capitol, and seemed crowded, smelly and dingy  with little resemblance of the common P.R. of swaying palm trees and pristine beaches. Outside of major ‘down town’ there are some nice resort hotels. Bora Bora, Moorea and Tahiti are the major islands of the country. Each island has one road around its perimeter. There are no roads over the mountains.

    Houses were small and almost always on the mountain side of the road; they sat side by side rather than clustered.  The road follows the coastline and there is little room between the road and the water. Riding the road, small waterfalls seemed to appear around every bend in the road. Surrounded by greenery and lush vegetation, they were quite picturesque.

    The thing that fascinated me most in Papeete was the long narrow mailboxes along the side of the road. They were not mailboxes at all, but were for the delivery of freshly baked French bread which was delivered daily. They were built like little houses with slanted roofs. A stranger would never know the express purposes of the cute little bread boxes.

    Bora Bora is an incredibly beautiful island and it is a photo stop around every bend and curve of the road.

LES TRUCK

                                         Various Grade of Truck

     I have ridden numerous forms of transportation in my many travels, but was not aware of les truck until my visit to the South Pacific.  The first such ride was in Bora Bora, Tahiti. Tahiti is both an island and a country, and Bora Bora is one of the three major islands in the country.

     As it turned out Bora Bora’s les truck was the most luxurious of all such rides.  The open air mini bus was decorated with live hibiscus flowers that wound around the truck’s poles. Palm fronds accented with red torch ginger flowers decorated the inside of the bus. It was all tropical and very pleasing to the eye.

    This  ‘tour bus’ stopped frequently, as Bora Bora is an incredibly beautiful island with a photo  op around every curve of the twenty-two mile road circling the island.

    On the island of Aitu in the Cook Islands where we literally surfed from our anchorage to the island shore, the les truck turned out to be literally a pickup truck with wooden benches lining the sides of the truck bed. It was the only transportation on the small island. The friendly people preformed some native dancing and provided a delicious feast of fresh fruit/food t for us.

     Padded chairs in the truck bed of les truck  provided a bit more comfortable ride on the island of Aitutaki. The single road around the bigger island was also in better condition than the rutted tire road on Aitu.

     Arriving in Raratonga, the largest of the Cook Islands, les truck gave way to real buses, albeit small ones. The two yellow public buses ran around the island on a semi-regular schedule. One ran clockwise while the other ran counter-clockwise (island expression). These buses can be flagged down anywhere and stopped anywhere, even with service to your door, if you live on the main road.

     Les Trucks were colorful, romantic and fun. I do believe generally one would be more comfortable driving one rather than riding in one, with Raratonga being the exception..

BORA BORA, TAHITI

                         Small but Gorgeous Island
       It was a beautiful sunny day as we approached Bora Bora. I was taking pictures just as the sun was peeking over the low part of the island.

      Bora Bora means first born and in this part of the world is pronounced Pora Pora as there is no ‘B’ sound in Polynesian. Capt. Cook sighted Bora Bora in 1769 on his first voyage. Bora Bora refused to accept French sovereignty when Tahiti became a protectorate in 1842 and remained independent until France annexed it in 1888. Her last queen died on Tahiti in 1932.

     The main island is 6 X 3 miles and is surrounded by coral islets. Two smaller islands are separated on the west by a channel. The east side of the island is barren. The fertile west side’s main crops are vanilla and copra. Tourism is also a major industry. The population is 4500.

     The interior of the island has slopes, hills, cliffs, and U shaped mountains with deep gorges that are covered with native vegetation. Captain Cook named the islands the Society because of their close proximity to each other. It is home to 400 species of native flowering plants including more than a dozen orchid varieties.

      On the island we had our first ride in the colorful les truck for 22 mile ride around the island. Our les truck was even decorated with live hibiscus and the poles of the open air vehicle were wrapped with palm fronds accented with torch ginger. The island is incredibly beautiful. Every turn in the road afforded us a photo op. The flora was abundant and colorful, truly a picture I doubt any artist could ever capture.

      Our local guide/driver told us, “The island has one physician, one pharmacy, and one hospital—clinic really as it is only able to handle minor problems.”

     As on the island of Tahiti the population inhabits the perimeter of the island with the little houses for their French bread at roadside. The bread baked by Tahitians is delivered by Chinese---real community spirit.

     We made many stops along the way not only for photos but also to learn about the culture. We ate tiny thumb size bananas, which were very sweet and sampled fresh taro and poke, an island tapioca and papaya pudding. There are no public cemeteries. Relatives are buried in yards.

There are more than 40 coral slabs from ancient open-air temples called marae. These temples were built by Bora Bora’s ancient native population. The turtle stone, a petroglyph representing several turtles, is another ancient relic. We  had fun feeding some big hermit crabs.

During World War II Bora Bora was home to 6000 men stationed at naval and air bases. The word tabu originated when some of the men left behind about 200 blue/green eyed blond babies.

Near the base is a reef where an abundance of friendly and curious moray eels live. There are certain areas where the eels are hand fed regularly. Tahiti has no dangerous animals, no snakes or scorpions. The most pesky insect is the mosquito.

We saw the hotel cabana where Jack Nicholson stayed when he was in the islands and the huge house Marlon Brando built for his Tahitian wife. The manicured yard was beautiful but very American rather than ‘island’. The view was magnificent.

In 1991 a cyclone destroyed the Club Med plus a few other structures. Club Med rebuilt. The southeast side of the island has beautiful long white beaches. Bora Bora is truly picturesque.

TAHITI, the ISLAND

     The airport in Fasa is 6 kilometers from Papeete which  means basket of water. Tahiti is 2790 miles from Honolulu and 4000 miles from Los Angles. The island  is the largest of the 118 islands and atolls making up the Society Islands. The fourteen islands have a land mass of 636 square miles. Tahiti’s land mass is 402 square miles. Tahiti is both the country and an island and the island is 35 miles long, shaped like an hourglass with two distinct and extinct volcanoes connected by a narrow isthmus.

     Tahiti is part of French Polynesia (meaning many islands). The island’s population is 130,000 and the population of all of French Polynesia is 230,000. Papeete is the main shipping and distribution center of Tahiti. The port facilities were expanded in the 1960’s. Between 1962-64 nearly 35 acres of land was reclaimed at the northern end of the harbor and is now an industrial and military area.   

      Polynesia geographically is the largest of the Pacific’s culture areas and distances between island groups is great. Polynesia lies mostly below the equator and includes the Hawaiian, Cook, Society, and Easter Islands as well as Samoa, Tonga, and the Marquesas. Fiji is borderline between Polynesia and Melanesia.

      Moorea, 16 miles across the bay, has a land mass of 50 square miles. Nine of the Tahiti’s islands are volcanic and five are atolls. Mt. Orohena towers 7321 feet above sea level and is Tahiti’s highest point. Mt.Tohivea on Moorea is 3975 feet.

      Papeete’s streets were crowded with sport cars, motor bikes and the island’s cheap, public, picturesque transport, les truck.

      Many of the Society Islands as well as Rarotonga in the Cook Islands are high volcanic islands. Volcanic islands are usually surrounded by fringing reefs varying from a few to several hundred yards from the shoreline. These areas most often offer good fishing and the fringing reefs are essentials for the formation of coral atolls.

      Shallow, clear, warm salt water allow both coral and calcareous algae to thrive and eventually build a reef. The coral can reach extreme depths. In the 1950’s holes were drilled to a depth of 4222 and 4600 feet through the coral on Enewetak in the northern Marshall Islands.

      Tahiti’s islands are divided into two groups; the five windward islands include Tahiti and Moorea, the nine leeward islands include Bora Bora. French Polynesia is the farthest East of all the South Pacific Islands. The climate is warm all year and being consistent makes it an anytime paradise.

      Indigenous Polynesians represent 70% of the population, those of French extraction 15%, mixed Polynesians and French 8%, and Chinese 7%. One half of the population is Protestant. The French are mostly Catholic. Education is compulsory until age 14 and is free in small neighborhood government schools.

      The main islands of Tahiti, Moorea, and Bora Bora have one road around the perimeter of the island. There are no roads over the mountains. The thatched roofs last about 8-10 years. I noted many metal roofs which of course last much longer. The houses were small and almost without exception on the mountain side of the road. The road tends to follow the coastline and there is very little land between the road and the water. The houses are often strung out side by side in a single row, and not clustered together, as again there is not a lot of land at the base of the mountains. The mail boxes along the side of the road are for the daily delivery of French bread, not mail. The north shore has a cold current, therefore very little coral and is good surfing with good waves. Small concrete markers are every kilometer along the road and the number indicates  how many kilometers it is from the court house in town, making finding addresses easy.

TAHITI HISTORY

       In 1767 Samuel Wallis discovered Tahiti and claimed it for England. The next year, unaware of Wall Louis-Antoine de Bougainville claimed Tahiti for France. For years Tahiti remained a pawn in the struggle for power in the Pacific between these two countries.  Captain Cook visited the islands in 1769, 1773, 1774, and 1777. He charted and wrote about the islands.

      By the early 1800’s Tahiti enjoyed an active trade in salt pork, copra, pearls, and sandalwood. By the end of the nineteen century all islands currently making up French Polynesia had been annexed by France and was governed by her until 1957 when it became a territorire d’ outré-mer with a governor in Papeete, and a council and territorial assembly elected in five constituencies.

      In 1977 France granted partial internal self-government. Now French Polynesia is an autonomous Territory of the French Republic having two elected members in the French National Assembly, one in the Senate, and one representative in the European Parliament.

      The French government appoints a High Commissioner who takes care of matters relating to the Territory defense, foreign policy, law and order, and communications. The president of the Territorial Government is elected by the 41 member Territorial Assembly. He has control of international affairs as it affects French Polynesia.

      The Territorial Assembly has financial autonomy and legislative authority within the Territory. Local government is conducted by municipalities

      Between 1975-1989 the French conducted 110 underground nuclear tests in the Territory. Because of great worldwide controversy and protests, the French declared in 1992 all testing be suspended. Due to the loss of jobs and the effect on the local economy France compensated the Territory with 7 billion francs.

      In 1993 the Territorial Assembly formulated an economic, social, and cultural plan to diversify the economy, thus reducing its dependence on France. France gave 26 billion francs for the implementation of these plans over a five-year period.

      Until 1960 the main economy was agricultural. The nuclear testing changed that. Tourism became an important industry. The workforce has been drawn away from agriculture and fishing to work in a variety of service jobs, an industry which employs 70% of the working population.

      Coconut in the form of coconut oil is a major export. The vanilla industry is declining. Coffee, vegetables and fruit are grown for domestic consumption, as are cattle, horses, pigs, goats, and sheep. Needless to say construction is a booming industry. Cultured black pearls are a big export item. The territory is increasingly dependent on imports, 50% of which come from France.