Tahiti iti, the small south east part of Tahiti, has quiet deserted anchorages. The passes through the reef into the lagoons are straight forward as the French authorities have spent a lot of money putting lit buoys to mark the channels. Our first anchorage was in Cooks Bay which we had to ourselves. The little village had a shop and a petrol station close to the waters edge. We saw more people coming in dinghies to fill up than cars!

Moving round to Teahupoo on the south side of Tahiti iti, here the reef pass is narrow and you almost jostle with the surfers for your line in. They say that surfing started in Tahiti and this reef break is the best wave in Tahiti. From Teahupoo we went by bus to the next village for an evening of traditional dancing, put on by the local groups for the locals so a great evening, the bus dropped us back by our dinghy.

We spent a few days exploring this southern coast and enjoyed it all immensely the only negative was the Gaugin museum which had originals but were not on display, they were in a locked room! Not worth going for the museum but the anchorage was calm and very pretty and the waterfalls further up the channel made up for our disappointment at the gallery.

Eventually we had to head for the big town of Papette, the airport, the supermarkets, and the fishing tackle shop were all calling. There over a hundred boats here. We were delighted with our collections and purchases, all have been very useful! Our daughter Kirsty has joined us now until New Zealand, as crew not visitor, the supermarket had wonderful delights and the new lure caught a large mahi mahi first time out.

Link to photos