Steve and Cathy's Blog

The island of Ra’iatea is the second largest of the Society Islands at 65 square miles, is considered to be the most sacred island in the entire South Pacific, and was originally named Havai’i.  There is strong evidence that the Polynesian explorers that settled Hawaii, New Zealand and other parts of East Polynesia launched their ships from Ra’iatea.

But is almost entirely rural, with a population of around 5,000.  There is some tourist traffic, but the economy is largely agricultural. The crops that are exported are vanilla, coconut and pineapple.

We arrive in the village of Uturoa around 8:00am.  As soon as we depart the ship, we are led by a beautiful young lady over to a motorized catamaran and leave the island to begin our excursion, Tahaa Cultural Experience.

We will spend the day on the islands of Taha’a and tiny Mahaea.  On Taha’a we will visit a vanilla farm, and a pearl farm where we will have lunch. Then we will proceed to five-acre Mahaea to relax in the sun and swim.

The trip to Taha’a takes about twenty-five minutes across a shimmering lagoon.  The scenery is spectacular and the weather is perfect. We pull into a small dock and are loaded into a small homemade bus for the five-minute ride to the vanilla farm.

70% of the vanilla grown in Polynesia comes from Ra’iatea and Taha’a, and it is a very labor-intensive crop to grow.  It is also the second most expensive spice in the world after saffron for that reason. The farm itself is actually quite small, but the lady that runs it is one no-nonsense sharp businesswoman.  She gives us a forty-minute tutorial on how to grow vanilla, the state of the vanilla industry itself, and the problems that the vanilla farmers are having. 

At this point, let me crib part of the Wikipedia entry on this crop:  “Vanilla is a flavoring derived from orchids of the genus Vanilla, primarily from the Mexican species, flat-leaved vanilla (V. planifolia)…. Pollination is required to set the vanilla fruit from which the flavoring is derived. In 1837, Belgian botanist Charles François Antoine Morren discovered this fact and pioneered a method of artificially pollinating the plant. The method proved financially unworkable and was not deployed commercially. In 1841, Edmond Albius, a slave who lived on the French island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean, discovered at the age of 12 that the plant could be hand-pollinated. Hand-pollination allowed global cultivation of the plant.

“Three major species of vanilla currently are grown globally, all of which derive from a species originally found in Mesoamerica, including parts of modern-day Mexico. They are V. planifolia (syn. V. fragrans), grown on Madagascar, Réunion, and other tropical areas along the Indian Ocean; V. tahitensis, grown in the South Pacific; and V. pompona, found in the West Indies, Central America, and South America. The majority of the world’s vanilla is the V. planifolia species, more commonly known as Bourbon vanilla (after the former name of Réunion, Île Bourbon) or Madagascar vanilla, which is produced in Madagascar and neighboring islands in the southwestern Indian Ocean, and in Indonesia. Combined, Madagascar and Indonesia produce two-thirds of the world’s supply of vanilla.”

The industry in French Polynesia has contracted considerably over the past two decades, so much so that they produce only four to six tons of vanilla each year.  Our host tells us that the three reasons for this are: 1) competition, especially from Madagascar and Indonesia; 2) climate change (the increase in air temperature is having a very adverse affect on the yield); and 3) labor shortage (growing vanilla is very hot, hard work and young people do not want to do it).

After her excellent presentation and a snack, we are invited into her shop.   She really is a great entrepreneur.  The shop has all kinds of stuff, not just vanilla products.  After that visit, we wait for our bus to take us to the next stop, the Motu Pearl Village, where we will learn about pearl farming and have lunch and be entertained.

This is the person that greets us:

He obviously takes tattooing to a whole new level.

We are led to an area where another person gives us a twenty-minute program on pearl farming. This is another big industry in French Polynesia, especially because this is where they grow black pearls. And these pearls are expensive! After we learn how complex the process is to grow cultured pearls, we understand why.

We are sitting outside at picnic tables and now it’s time for lunch.  A very nice buffet is prepared for us, and rum punch and beer are available.  All this time, there are two musicians playing Polynesian music.

After lunch, the guy with the amazing tattoos joins them for more music, and then we move to a different area and watch as this man puts on a fun demonstration of different ways to wear a pareo.  He is a very entertaining individual, and we find out that he is actually Filipino.

Around 2:00pm, a boat pulls up to the dock for us.  We are now going to the small piece of South Pacific paradise known as Mahaea, an island of about five acres where there is a beautiful beach, beach chairs we can recline on and soft drinks.  It is a private island used by the tour companies specifically for these types of outings.  First we go swimming.  Well, not exactly swimming; more like lying down in the water because it’s only three feet deep.  Then Steve wanders all around this island taking pictures and Cathy relaxes on a lounge chair.  In my travels, I notice dozens of holes in the sand, and find out that these are made by crabs.  I also notice that the entire island has been raked.  The place is immaculate.  What a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.  After you see these pictures, you will see why we say that.

Around 4:00pm, we have to leave and go back to Ra’iatea because the ship is leaving at 5:00pm.

We get back in plenty of time, board the ship and bid this beautiful island adieu.  This has been both an educational and an entertaining day in French Polynesia, which is fast becoming one of our very favorite places on earth to spend time.