After meeting Hani and Benji in Fiji earlier in the year – they were showing their clothes at Fiji Fashion Week – finally a long held wish was coming true, and I was going to Tahiti!
We landed in the evening and pit-stopped at Hotel Tahiti Nui in Papeete before getting a morning ferry over to the island of Moorea. Like all good evening arrivals for me, the Tahiti Nui began with an impression of “crap, why am I staying here”.
There was some serious mood lighting in the foyer (really dark, perhaps saving on electricity?), and in the corridors encircling an atrium (which I was sure would be delightful during the day) it was so dark we needed a torch to find our room number! However, once inside, the rooms were clean and spacious and the bed gets a big rating with thick soft sheets and a cloud-like mattress.
I slept well.
I chose to sit on the open roof deck of the ferry to get the best view. Under cloud cover it was still hot and very glarey.
The rain started light, but I made the decision half way across to take my computer and camera gear out of a potential storm and down two levels to the indoor area.
Easier said than done!
As the boat groaned and lurched, the weight on my back and the weight in my hand worked in opposite directions to my own weight and negotiating four flights of stairs became more extreme sport than I had expected. I’m going to have to use that as my excuse for not taking any photos after that point, which is a shame because from my sheltered position at the front of the boat, I was rewarded with a cinematic view…
The approach to the island of Moorea is like everything I have imagined of paradise and nothing I have ever seen before in real life. Towering, jagged rainforest-carpeted mountains framing a bay of at least four different colours and shades of awesome. The cloud was low and grey, but the view is one that would shine on any day. Absolutely spectacular!
Lunch at Snack Mahana. Crumbed mahi mahi and a raw tuna salad, marinated in coconut, lime and ginger (I ate a lot of poisson cru during my Polynesian stay!)
With these gorgeous people – Benji and Hani.
Our beautiful hosts had a lot of last minute cutting and stitching to do in preparation for our planned shoots. So we spent a little while at the HaniHaring workshop…
That little fluffy fellow is Bouboule, and he is a champion of a dog. You see, Bouboule goes everywhere with Hani and Benji, including out on the boat when Benji is having a surf. One surf session, the boat was anchored at the edge of the break and a freak wave came through and tipped the boat with Bouboule in it. Benji, naturally, was really worried and searched and called and searched and called, but could not find him anywhere. He was devastated and not looking forward to telling Hani, either.
Five hours, and a very long swim later, Bouboule arrived on shore! Everyone knows everyone on this small island and he was returned to his very grateful and incredulous parents. Such a teeny, fluffy little thing! Such a champion!
We were made to feel so welcome in Hani and Benji’s home. Actually, we were made to feel welcome everywhere. It’s such a beautiful island.
The beach at Temae, just around the corner from the house. You can’t tell from this photo, but that water is the clearest and most beautiful that I have seen anywhere in the world. It’s where I photographed Heremiti underwater (I’ll post those pictures soon).
These crabs crack me up. As evening closes in, they start to come out onto the road (there is only really one main road around the island and it’s not even sealed the whole way) bodies the size of soup bowls and arms/claws upstretched in defiance to the car tyres. Like a strange twilight game of Space Invaders they move left, then right, then left again, like they are playing chicken.
Flower crowns.
Hani showed me how to make one, when we were in Fiji. They always look beautiful, so of course she wanted to use some in her photo shoot, but I never realised how much they are genuinely worn in French Polynesia. As in, they aren’t just a tourist gimmick. You see girls wandering around the streets with them on, just as a beautiful addition to their outfit. It’s the flower crowns, and the fact that everyone says “Bon Dimanche” on a Sunday that make an already naturally stunning location, a gorgeous place to be.
We needed to get some flowers.
but when the rain got heavier, I decided I would do a better job documenting things from inside the truck than I would getting wet.
Which beer did you say we should get?
While the boys surfed, we (with Hani’s little sister Mehiti) sat in the lagoon and fished. We used handlines, but Hani also showed me how to ‘catch’ a clam, diving underwater for it, which we ate on the boat as sashimi.
I got toasted and fried, so lots of other times when the boys surfed after that, I spent driving around with Hani, listening to Jacques Brel, chatting, and being in total awe of my surroundings.
I’m pretty sure I ate fish every day.
Including in my crepe at the Hilton in a restaurant on a boardwalk perched over a lagoon of sharks.
Oh my gosh, we were so spoilt while we were there! I was even treated to a massage at the Intercontinental’s Spa Helene!
Tahiti is hot. To me it felt hotter than any of the equatorial countries I have visited.
This was Hani’s way of dealing with it after washing the clothes we had used in the shoots (I will be posting more pictures from the photo sessions!) …
Hani and Benji, thank you so much!
I really, really, really hope we can visit again soon.
Makes me smile.
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