TRAVEL

Tahiti in yourunderpantsALTHOUGH NOT BORN aboard a yacht duringa two year family cruise, as his parents oftenboast, Rob Greenaway did spend the first sixmonths of his life aboard a 33ft keeler that hisfather built in the backyard during four years oflate nights. Sailing has become the familyheritage and Rob has completed many oceantrips in the past 28 years - from cruising aboardthe HMNZS Monowai from Auckland to RaoulIsland, to crewing with a family of five aboard a33ft steel sloop from Wellington to Fiji. Sailingaboard a luxury 51ft charter yacht in Tahiti wasuncharacteristically comfortable—but he tookthe job anyway.

Story and pictures by ROB GREENAWAY

Ihave a recurring dream: rolling out of a bunk on a clear, saltymorning, throwing on a white jersey with an itchy crew-neck collar, f l ipping over a dewy squab to find the dry side,sipping a really strong cup of tea and watching the sundance over the champagne of a dawn sea.

Turning that into reality takes a few steps. First, find the rightdestination—somewhere with a l i t t le culture, history, and sea.

Take Tahiti . The French did. The nation annexed the Tahi-tian islands in the mid-1 800s after a few scuffles with Englishmissionaries (who saw Tahiti 'first ') . Mind you, the Englishhadn't made a good first impression. Their earliest polit icalexchange with the locals was a few volleys of musket and cannonfire for a handful of thrown stones—the traditional greeting ofthe 19th century explorer.

Almost two centuries later, the Tahitian islands are what atourist brochure might describe as a unique mixture of Frenchcul ture and Polynesian lifestyle. Unique, that is, besides severalother Polynesian islands.

And then there's the boat. I have one main criteria for a yacht.At the least, it must have a decent toilet. What a mariner wouldcall a functioning head. I get tired of regularly d ipp ing tail firstinto the Pacific bidet (particularly in busy ports) because some-one tried to f lush their car keys down the boat's only loo, whichis not an uncommon occurrence. A sewage holding tank wouldbe handy too, but we're ta lking French environmentalist!! here.

And f inal ly , the opportunity. In this case a call from the editorof Adventure magazine. Docs anyone we know have the time tolook at ATM yacht charters in Tahiti? Well, yes, one or two....

A 51ft Bcnetau sloop greeted us in the bay of Faaroa on theisland of Raiatca in French Polynesia, with approximately onehead for every 10 feet, and all of them working. That the French

If it's coconut palms you want to see—never a problem in Tahiti.

ATM's Diamond Shoat—nothing like Theroux's folding kayak.

Claude and friends enjoy lunch together.

14 NEW ZEALAND ADVENTURE

TRAVEL FACTSTAHITI YACHT CRUISE

TAHITI'S LEEWARD Island grouplies 220 kilometres west/northwestof Papeete. Regular flights servicethe islands. Stardust ATM is basedon the island of Raiatea. From here itis within easy sight-sailing distanceto the other magical islands of Tahaa,Bora Bora and Huahine.

The choice is from a pristine fleetof 30 charter vessels ranging in sizefrom 36' to 52' and including theluxury Privilege 43' and 48' Catama-rans (providing for 2-12 people sail-ing together).

A bareboat sailing holiday in Tahi-ti's Leeward Islands starts from$1885.00 pp for 8 nights Tahiti, basedon 6 people sailing together. This isall inclusive of airfares from Auck-land, vessel, transfers and hotel ac-commodation. You don't have to be asailor—a skipper is an optional ex-tra.

For further information contact:Sail Connections Ltd,PO Box 3234AUCKLAND

enjoy their luxury is highlighted by thepresence of six showers. Which leavesjust enough space for five cabins, a diningroom (saloon in boat-speak), galley, onecook and one skipper. Welcome to ATM'sDiamond Shoal, the Tardis of sailing ships.Nothing like Paul Theroux's foldingkayak, but then he spent longer than aweek in Tahitiwh i l e p a d d l i n gthe Happy Islesof Oceania andwas very de-pressed abouthaving beendumped by hisw i f e, w h i c hwouldmakedep-r ivat ion seemmore a p p r o p r i -ate.

You don't need to be depressed to visitTahiti. However, if you're thinking ofstaying ashore you'll need a deep pocket,filled with CPFs—French Pacific Francs.Tahiti 's economy is closely linked to theFrench mainland, which means when youput on a smear of sunscreen from yourNZ$29 bottle of factor 15, you stay in thesun for as long as possible. And make sureyou get the exposure right on every frameof your NZ$30 roll of Kodacolor Gold.Suck every degree of coolness from the

Tahiti comes in any colour as long as ifs blue.

ice in your NZ$7 glass of mango juice,before it melts and devalues. Tahitianspay no income tax and in return rely heav-ily on imports from France. Imports fromanywhere other than France incur heavyduties.

To save a few dollars, take to the Harpicblue of the French Polynesian sea, partly

insulated fromFrench econom-ics by a StardustATM bookingoffice based inAuckland. If youwant to s w i mwith mantaraysand haven't re-cent ly h e l p e dsell any of ourstate assets, thenyacht charter is

perhaps one of the few relatively cheapways to experience that unique mixtureof Paris and Papeete.

Flying Air New Zealand from Aucklandto board an l lm ATM yacht with sixothers for ten days will set each of youback about$2000.

An extra $50 per day each gets youprovisioned. You can even get someone tocook all that food for another $170 per day(shared). Another $230 per day lands youwith a suntanned skipper with all the

right calluses in all the right places.But you're not thinking about all that

thirty metres below the surface. Divetanks are hireable on shore. Underwaterthere's an extroverted Frenchman feed-ing perfectly good tuna to a silver battle-ship of a barracuda. Apparently thesemarine pitchforks have difficulty distin-guishing sushi from fingers, so I'm keep-ing mine hooked into my weightbelt. UntilI can't help but point out that severalVolkswagon/frisbee hybrids—looking sus-piciously like mantarays—are moving into block out the thin, blue sunlight,

Another benefit gained from remainingat thirty metres is that French extrovertscannot speak underwater. They wait un-til making the death run back to the yachtclub before over-flowing like a rupturedair tank.

Claude, my diving and driving compan-ion was gushing. "Did you see Mary?" hefrancaised. "She'll be giving us very manylittle mantas very soon." Mary the mantawas pregnant. How Claude could tell wasbeyond me, but he probably used thesame system of observation that allowedhim to overtake on blind corners.

Claude is typical of many of the touroperators in French Polynesia. The Euro-pean French, by virtue of birth and colo-nisation, are also honorary Tahitians.When the Champs Elysees loses its lus-

tre, there is nothing to discourage themfrom shifting south to the warmth of Poly-nes ia—af te r what a Ca l i fo rn i an orCoromandalian might call a lifestyle deci-sion—and, say, growing vanilla, or show-ing tourists how to grow vanilla.

Which is what's so good about sailing.Yacht charter (we'll leave yacht owner-ship for a few years) allows that opportu-nity to pick and choose the absolute de-lights of some foreign port.

On the island of Tahaa we bounce alongback roads to check out flock trees, scarreddogs and scuttling roadside crabs. Thefour wheel drive is a poor substitute for amountain bike which would make all theright, quiet noises as it glided over thedamp coral road. A local calls us over toshare in her crop of small bananas andsweet mangoes. "laorana" is the greeting."Kia ora" should be the reply, but I aim atthe French "bonjour".

It's a bad choice and she holds my hand-shake with a weak grin, waiting for a bet-ter response. The Tahitian culture isstrong and rich, and a few houses keepflying a flag of Tahitian independence,a l though na t iona l elect ions s u p p o r tFrench rule.

A l i t t le local language would go a longway to turning the handshake into a realwelcome, but she loads us with fruit allthe same and waves, "parahi oe." We

smile back an "au revoir" and shuffleback to sea.

Too many opportunities, too little time.Bora Bora 's vo lcan ic peak remainsunclimbed. The jungle treks are missedand Paul Gauguin's museum is unvisited,The real Tahitians glide by on their Vespasand we never get to know more than whatwe read.

Still, there's is no better way of greetinga new land than from the ocean, takingtime to prepare for a casual landing andthe right salutation. Lonely volcanic peaksgrow slowly on the horizon, as does thelook of relief on the face of the navigator.The boat is a thin sliver of fibreglassbetween us and the ocean, and when wereally get into sailing, we begin to wishthe boat wasn't there at all. Just us, thesea, that circling frigate bird and that reli-able marine head.

Good sailing is simple sailing, and allthe more pleasant when it can be done innothing but one's underpants. It is a proc-ess that earths the soul of the static elec-tricity of stress—as a Californian mightsay (or a French person living in Tahiti,which is a similar beast). Add coconutsand foreign ice-cream and sailing is a littlemore romantic. Multiply it by mantarays,tuna muscling through warm, orange sun-sets and the Tahitian culture, and it's anadventure—albeit rather relaxing. •;•