DAY ELEVEN - RAIATEA

Friday October 31st docked at Riaitea portside. We arrived here this morning at 7.30 am and the first passengers left the ship at about 8.30. We were not in any hurry to go ashore today as we had no tours planned. Instead we had decided to check out the town and if any locals were offering tours that sounded interesting we would go with them. We left the ship at about 9.30 and walked the length of the town and back on the opposite side of the road in less than an hour. It’s a very small town. The market was open today and we spent another hour here before heading back to the ship for lunch.
Riaitea is the second largest of the French Polynesian Islands and has a population of approximately 11,000.If they give out Tidy Town awards in this part of the world then Riaitea would have to be a strong contender. No pigs or chickens wandering the roads here unlike Tonga and the Cook Islands.
From the ship looking inland the tiny town is laid out in two parallel roads running along the coast. There are a couple of banks, at least two supermarkets that we saw, only one hotel but lots of cafes, restaurants, ice-cream parlors, etc. And of course the market. Not sure if this is an every day event or just on Fridays but it’s worth a visit if for no other reason than to see the most amazing display of floral arrangements one can imagine. These were the only things for sale that seemed a reasonable price. Some were as low as 1,000xpf, about AU$16 for a bouquet and up to 60,000xpf for a full sheaf arrangement.
In the afternoon we went ashore again to visit a supermarket to buy a bottle of cordial concentrate. I had bought one back in Noumea for the equivalent of AU$3, enough to make 10 liters. The same item here in Raiatea was just under AU$8. A litre of milk sells for 800xpf, that’s about AU$13. I had lost my favorite cap back in Vava’u and thought I might replace it here. I had bought the old one in Thailand for the princely sum of AU$3 and thought then I had paid too much. The equivalent here had a sale ticket on it of 2850xpf. You work it out. 1000xpf = AU$16. Not the place I could recommend for an inexpensive holiday. In fact, the Princess Cruises shore tours were cheaper than what the locals were offering. Evon found a young guy in a Ute with bench seats in the tray - the sort of thing that we know as a Bemo in Bali or a Tuk-Tuk in Thailand. He was offering a 3 hour tour of the island in the back of his Ute for US$80 per person. Needless to say she declined.
The island is ringed by a coral reef much the same as our previous stop, Rarotonga. The big difference here is the fact that there are no sandy beaches. Raiatea is solid rock all the way to the waters edge. There are some small islands out in the lagoon that do have beaches and we were told the snorkeling here was some of the best. Tourism is not very big here. There are only a small number of resorts and a couple of backpacker type B&Bs. The people who work in the stores and shops are very friendly and helpful with our pitiful attempts at speaking French.
In closing I would recommend to any one cruising here that they purchase a Cruise Ship tour or be satisfied to just have a leisurely stroll through town as we did.
We sail for Papeete in about an hour from now and tonight is Halloween party night onboard. Could be a bit of fun. I’ll let you know next time I post.