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Paw Paw - Log Days 158 & 159: Tahaa, a Very Unusual Island



Yesterday was yet another early start as ourselves and Nina had to meet Vanilla Tours at 0800 for our tour of what we thought was the Vanilla Plantation, but turned out to be so much more.

After dinghying to their dock we were met by Noah, our tour guide and son of the owners of the operation, as well as Tika, their very friendly dog. It wasn't until Elaine asked that we realised the property was in fact their home, built using the traditional Tahitian methods, where more than one building is situated on the property and each building is dedicated to a particular function of the home ie the kitchen, lounge and dining room, for instance, are a separate building from the bedrooms, which can be separate buildings again per bedroom and bathroom.

The tour started with an explanation of the materials and methods used for the roof which is made out of woven palm leaves and the walls, doors, shutter windows and floors from woven bamboo, with the supports and timbers from the trunks of coconut palms. A walk around the gardens as well as numerous stops en route around the island provided an explanation of the uses of various plants, trees, fruits, flowers, nuts etc, from medicinal uses to natural paints and dyes to flowers used as a defogging agent.

A stop at the Vanilla Plantation left us in no doubt as to why French Vanilla is so expensive. Besides the two years it takes to wind the vines, once the plant starts to flower, each flower has to be pollinated by hand before a vanilla pod can be produced. Once the pods are ready to be picked, they then have to be massaged by hand during the drying process. A fascinating, but extremely labour intensive process.

Other activities included a tour of the Rum and Coconut Oil Factory, as well as a stop at one of the drying facility from which coconut milk is produced using the dried coconut flesh.

Not only was it one of the most interesting days we have had, but we also got to enjoy delicious fruits and coconut water from the land. To top off the tour we were served fresh pineapple juice back at base and Roy got to practise the correct way of removing the husk of a coconut.

Completely in awe of what we had all learnt and having had the wonderful experience of really getting to know the island of Tahaa, we celebrated the day of a fabulous day with Pizza and Mexican Train Dominoes on Paw Paw.

Today was a day of rest after we moved to Baie Apu and where we'll spend tonight before heading to Raiatea tomorrow. We did, however, take a walk ashore this afternoon and stumbled upon a little Creperie where we each enjoyed a chocolate crepe. A fitting end to our experience of this very unusual island.

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