Raiatea, French Polynesia

It’s Raiatea day. (Rye Ah Tay Ah). Today we took a 4 wheel drive around the island and up into the mountains. It was in a Land Rover pick up truck. The seating was in the truck bed and was two bench seats running from front to rear. Ours had 4 people on one side and three on the other side. They did try to put a fourth on our side where I was sitting and then thought better of it and decided to put 9 in the other vehicle and leave ours with the 7. Our driver guide was a local girl. I am not sure what she told us. The vehicle had no sides and just a canvas over us. It rained several times. That was loads of fun.

She drove very fast and you couldn’t hear much from the wind noise. Whatever language she was speaking, I did not understand and I think she had a speech impediment on top of it. She was a good driver though. Handled the stick shift like a race car driver. And there lied a big problem. There was not room for legs. As we were facing the people on the other side of the truck, our legs were making us more intimate with our fellow passengers then most cared to be. However, I think the nasty lady across from me was trying to become far more familiar with me then I cared for. I don’t mean Bobbi or Muriel. I had to put that in so they don’t get POed at me when they read this. It was a little sucker with yellow teeth that kept uttering stupid remarks. Had she been a cute young broad, I would have had a good time but she was far from that and was just freaking me out. I guess I am now attracting the totally wrong kind of beast.

The sights were great. The Island is mostly jungle, sparsely populated and very mountainous. The switch backs and off road bumps had our legs about ready to fall off.

This is the second largest island in the group and just slightly smaller then Tahiti. To the Polynesians it is the most important island. They originally named it Havai’i. They believe this is the first island populated by them. From there they spread to all the other islands from Hawaii to New Zealand. There is a huge open air temple to their gods here. Maybe larger then a football field. Every so often they have a meeting of all the peoples of all the Polynesian islands. The last time was eight years ago. There are several other temples on the same grounds. Women are not allowed to go to the main one, except to clean up.

From the area of the temples we boarded a large outrigger canoe. It was about 45 feet long and easily held the 21 or so people we had including the driver, guide and helper. It was powered by an outboard engine. Our guide was great. She was an overstuffed local that spoke perfect English. Whatever she told us, she also acted out with extreme arm and hand movements.

We rode across one bay and then into a river. She explained this was the only island in the group with a river. It was a BIIIIIIIIG river. I of course would have to keep asking her the size of the river and each time she would say it’s a Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiig river and giggle. She said this river was made by the great God (Ka ka May Me). He had to go and made this river called (Wa Na Pee Pee). The Wannapeepee river flows into (Cock Ah Poo Pee) bay. There is the slightest possibility I may have remembered some of these names and facts wrong but it’s close enough.

I am now finding it very difficult to type. Bobbi is reading this over shoulder and laughing so hard she is crying and leaking tears on me.

As we cross the first bay it starts to rain on us. No problem. This boat comes with rubber raincoats. Art was not real happy with his. It did have a hood which most did not. It just took him a short while to figure out there was a large hole in that hood. The water running down his neck gave him the first clue. You had to see Muriel. She was just plain unhappy, I think. You couldn’t tell by looking at her face because you could not see it as it was buried in two hats, a towel, and her hands. I did however get the idea that some discomfort may have brought this about. I’m not sure if it was caused by the rain, the salt water splashing all over us or possibly her experience with wasps. Oh yeah. I didn’t tell you about the wasps yet.

After the bay, which I could tell by the taste was definitely salt water, we went up the river and back down. It is summer here and that is rainy season. There had been a lot of rain and they had not had time yet to clear debris out of the river. A large tree had fallen almost all the way across the river. There was barely enough room for this big canoe to get by. The driver had to go up and back several times to line up the boat for us to be able to pass without touching the tree. Just as we were passing the tree, at a point where Muriel was inches from it, the guide explained why the driver was being so careful not to touch the tree. Right next to Muriel was a huge wasp nest. I don’t know. At this time it was not even raining. Be that as it may, for some silly reason Muriel jumped and then buried herself in towels, rain coats and whatever else was in the vicinity. I’m sure she never saw the rest of the boat ride.

From the river we went back out into a bay and did about another hour of watching beautiful scenery. The Island was gorgeous and ocean was something to see. All these bays are surrounded by coral reefs. You can see large waves pounding reefs and the waters are many different colors in different parts of the bay and out in the ocean. I t rained a bunch more and got windy and wavy. We were getting drowned by both fresh rain water and salt water from the bay. The seats in the canoe were rivers. Muriel stated that everything she was wearing was wet. She looked so happy. She said something about not being ready to come to dinner for the next week or so, but the hunger got to her and she did show up. If you holler wasp, she still jumps though.

When we got to our room we found Muriel to be correct. Everything we had was wet too. I had to ring out my pants. My wallet is still drying. We had to hurry to get ready to go to the big BBQ party on the pool deck. There were entertainers, bands, food, food, food, and the whole deck was decorated with lights, balloons, and palm leaves. Tables were set very nicely and we were there the whole night not leaving to Bora Bora until 6:00 AM the next morning. We never made it. We went to the main dining room which was almost empty. Good move. This was the best idea we had all day. About the time we were being served it started to storm like crazy. Lightning was almost continuous. You could hear loud thunder inside the ship and the rain was pounding the windows. This went on for about an hour and one half. It was cool when there was a big lightning bolt. The mountains would suddenly appear from the blackness. The rest of the people up on the pool deck all had to drown.

That’s it.

Wet Sherm Out.

(Posted on behalf of Sherman Rootberg)