Back in Tahiti and shopping for pearls

Sep 7, 2019 | Travel

Back in Tahiti after our 5-day sailing adventure

We flew in to Tahiti from Raiatea, and immediately checked in to our hotel, freshened up and basically speed-walked to Toata for the opening night of the Heiva i Tahiti. The annual competition is the nation’s largest celebration of the year, and I was in awe to experience the incredible mana that emanated from the songs, dances, drum beats, and even from what they wore. We weren’t allowed to take any photos during the Heiva i Tahiti, but it was definitely a highlight during our time in Tahiti.

This photo journal is from the following day in Tahiti, and then we took the ferry to Mo’orea.

We were walking to the market and I saw this truck on the side of the road. I saw it and immediately thought “whoa that’s my dream truck!” haha. I didn’t know I had a dream truck, but if I did, this truck would definitely be it! I feel like it’s the perfect mix of surf, vintage, island cruiser, farm truck. Like I can imagine coasting down the road and just having like, the time of my life in this truck. It was love at first sight hahaha.

Ian and went to the Pape’ete Marche (Tahiti’s popular market plaza) to grab a quick and cheap brunch, and bought souvenir gifts for friend and family back home. I love love love this market, so I’ll write up another post about it later!

Buying Pearls at the Tahiti Pearl Market

Tahitian pearls are some of the most beautiful sought-after natural treasures in French Polynesia. And the cool thing about pearls in Tahiti is that they’re everywhere, and come at all price ranges.

I knew I wanted to get my mom a pair of Tahitian black pearl earrings, and was hoping to buy it at the pearl farm we visited off Raiatea, but I didn’t find any in particular that felt like the perfect pair. So I went back to the Tahiti Pearl Market again (we had come here to see the pearl market before our sailing trip) and decided to have her earrings custom made.

First, I had to choose two pearls that were similar-ish in color tone, nacre, and size. The woman behind the counter helped me narrow down my choices based on my price range, and I selected and laid out my favorite pearls to compare them. Then I got to choose the earring setting, for which they had yellow gold, white gold, and sterling silver options. I selected a simple yellow gold dangle setting that I thought would look good with my mom’s face shape. And lastly, I chose how I wanted the pearls to sit in the setting, and handed it over to their in-house jeweler to set the pearl into the earring.

It was a really cool experience and definitely gave the earrings a special customized touch that I knew my mom would appreciate.

As a treat to myself, I decided to get myself a nice pair of keshi pearl stud earrings. Keshi pearls are, I’ve learned, the “imperfect” pearls, where the oysters (the Tahitian oyster is the Pinctada margaritifera) reject the nucleus around which the nacre is formed. And because they don’t have the perfectly rounded nucleus, they come out in various baroque shapes and are much smaller. The keshi pearls are therefore 100% pure nacre, which is why I love them. They’re all unique in their own way. You can see my tiny keshi pearl by the jeweler’s hand compared to my mom’s pearls drying in the clasp.

Ian and I were running later than we expected, so we sped-walked to the hotel to meet with Polly and Rick. Ian snapped this photo of me looking stoked from our pearl shopping!

Catching the ferry to Mo’orea

We walked with our bags and luggage from the hotel to the ferry terminal, and boarded the interisland ferry, which felt more like a mini-cruise ship because it was a lot fancier than I expected. Ian and I went to the open air top deck, but I was getting toasted by the mid-day sun so I got grumpy and went back inside to cool down. We ate a quick and easy baguette chicken sandwich and chips for lunch and arrived at Mo’orea about an hour later.

We chartered a sailboat in French Polynesia!

Aug 7, 2019 | Travel

Ah the time has come. We’ve been waiting for this vacation all year. Actually since last year, and we were originally planning to go to Tonga. But that fortunately/unfortunately didn’t work out as their bareboat charters were all booked out, so Ian’s parents suggested Tahiti / French Polynesia, and well… here we are!

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The morning we got our sailboat, or should I say yacht?! This thing is so flippin’ fancy!

So thankful for Rick and Polly for making this dream a reality!

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We got a bunch of groceries the night before, and loaded all our food and bags onto the boat.

Here’s Ian smiling like a kid at a toystore.

My favorite section to organize when we were loading our food and stuff into the catamaran. Polly found that it was the same wine that was served at the fancy restaurant we ate at in Tahiti (L’O à la Bouche). Don’t we look so classy?

We had the option of going out ourselves, or waiting until one of the charter crew was available to take us out of the marina. The sailboats in the marina were packed like sardines with literally inches on either side and only small bumpers to keep them from scratching each other. But lucky for us, this cutie knows a thing or two about boat driving (he casually will park a 33′ boat and trailer with about 6 inches on either side), and he took us out of the marina like no big deal.

I love this set of photos.

Hahahaha, you’ll see why…

Ian and Rick are so extremely stoked once they got the cat moving and the sails hoisted.

Ian and Rick were so extremely stoked once they got the cat moving and the sails hoisted.

In Rick’s voice: “Now we’re sailing baby!”

And then…

Hmmm… something’s not right.

The sails kept getting caught on the lazy jack (which we weren’t familiar with).

Hahaha but the look on their faces is so good.

Ian, Rick, and Polly.

I love this family!

This catamaran was made for cruising. You can tell from the wide open spaces inside and outside the boat, the four beds, and this fancy davit.

Our first day, we sailed from Raiatea to Taha’a.

More photo journals to come!

Relaxing in Raiatea | French Polynesia blogs

Aug 4, 2019 | Travel

After a few days of frolicking around Auckland, and a short stay in Tahiti, we needed a little R&R to really make this a baecation. We got on a plane and spent a few more days on Raiatea, where we would later be getting on a catamaran to sail around!

Here’s a photo journal from Raiatea.

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We arrived at Raiatea airport. It’s similar to our airport on Tutuila in that you have to get off on the tarmac and walk to a little airport building. I looked around and was stunned to see so many motus surrounding the island.

Portraits of Ian and I taken by each other on our first night at Pension Les Trois Cascades.

Stopped by Apooiti Marina to scope out the yacht charter situation.

Ian has been dry too long for an island vacation.

Cruising around the island with no real destination in mind.

Lunch stop at Hotel Atiapiti. The restaurant concept was cool. It was shaped like an outrigger va’a, had an inside/outside section, and had a little boutique inside as well. The food was really expensive but delicious. I think we all got fish of varying flavors.

At the pier in front of the restaurant. It was a really windy day.

Visited the Taputapuatea Marae, an archaeologically significant site that dates back over 1,000 years and provides evidence of being the seat of Polynesian civilization during that time. It is now a recognized UNESCO heritage site.