Slow

From Tonga, I flew to Auckland in the "earliest" morning of Thursday 27th (the crew kept saying "good morning", though it was just 2am).

I spent 36 very pleasant hours in Auckland: walked around, had a few proper coffees, ate well, visited the very good Auckland Museum to see the Polynesian and Maori rooms -enjoyed very much connecting the exhibition with my experience of the area.

It was a horrible winter day, grey and wet. I have to go back and spend sometime in New Zealand.

Friday, I flew to Tahiti. Crossed the date line and went back in time. I have now completely lost any notion of the day I'm living -even when I check the date, I still don't totally get it. Date line aside, Auckland and Papeete are just 2 solar, natural hours away. No real jet-lag. 

I'm spending about 11 days in the French Polynesia. I'm not being very adventurous and visiting 4 of the Society Islands: Huahine, Bora Bora, Moorea and Tahiti. There are infinite ways to combine the ocean, the reefs, the extinct volcanoes, the lush vegetation, the white sand and these so gentle Polynesian people. I've realised I'm not visiting any atolls during my trip. Next time, I guess, French Polynesia has plenty of them, or I could venture to more exotic places, like the islands of Kiribati (pronounced Ki-Ri-Bas, I recently learnt), before the rising seas engulf them. 

I write this on Bora Bora, where I arrived yesterday from Huahine. 

Huahine is not a very popular tourists destination -there are no luxury resorts. There's good surfing and hiking, decent snorkelling and diving, and the opportunity to see how the locals live.

I might have learnt the lesson and, instead of stubbornly keep with my plan, I allowed the circumstances decide what I was going to do. I slowed down a bit more and enjoyed being there.

Last weekend, was the beginning of the Heiva, the main cultural event of the year in French Polynesia, marked by a music and dance show and competition on Saturday morning. It wasn't the elaborate affair I saw last night (Monday 1st July) in Bora Bora, but a local, amateurs' show by people of the island for their friends and family. There were just a very small handful of tourist around. I enjoyed it very much. Maybe it wasn't as slick and well rehearsed as the events I hope to see in Papeete over the weekend, but it was fun and the dancing was magnetic: gracious and sensual. No wonder those XVIII century Europeans lost their heads over the beautiful scantly dressed locals swagging their hips (the women) and shaking their legs (the men). The moves taken from daily life (the women's) or war (the men).

After the show, I had some lunch at one of the nearby huts. The menu was a good expression of this mixed society: Polynesian classics, as raw fish in coconut milk, along side baguette sandwiches "jambon crudités" and crêpes, and heaps of sugar in every form (South Pacific Islanders consume incredible amounts of sugar). I had a chao mein (Sino-Polynesians are the biggest minority), that included some pieces of saucisson. Resisted the churros aux chocolat for dessert.

I spent the rest of my time in Huahine driving around the island (actually two islands separated by a very narrow strait), on the beach, visiting archeological sites (premonitions of Easter Island) and reading. There isn't much else to do (wanted to go hiking, but the guide I found had other plans for the weekend; couldn't find surfboards for rent -rented a car from a neighbour).

I stayed at a very cheap camping and pension, in the grounds of the owner's family house. Looking at the kids going along with their weekend (some chores, but time to play football, surfing and swimming), made me think Huahine, and probably all of French Polynesia, is a great place to grow up -though, you might outgrow it rather fast.