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Coast Road Drive, Tahiti

Posted on February 06, 2009 by: Traveler

Closest City: Papeete, Tahiti
State:
Country: French Polynesia

Coast Road Drive, Tahiti

Danielle and I stayed at the Sofitel Maeva Beach Resort on the island of Tahiti. This was our third stop on a seven-island tour of French Polynesia. Not having any specific plans in mind we decided to circumnavigate Tahiti’s coast road on our second full day. Armed with Lonely Planet’s “Tahiti & French Polynesia guidebook, we set out from the Sofitel Maeva and headed toward the city of Papeete (French Poly’s largest). It is here that Tahiti’s coast road “PK markers” begin with the post marked PK-0 (good luck finding that one though).

Ok, quick geography lesson here… the island of Tahiti is two mountainous, oval shaped land-masses (one much larger than the other). They are called Tahiti Nui and Tahiti Iti. A narrow strip of land called an isthmus connects the larger Tahiti Nui to the smaller Tahiti Iti. A military base and the town of Taravao are near the isthmus and lie 54 (north coast) and 60 (south coast) kilometers from Papeete. For example, say you were driving from the city of Papeete (PK-0), on the northwest side of Tahiti Nui, to the isthmus. The PK markers increase in number to PK-54 at the isthmus. But this is also Pk-60 from the south coast drive so looping back along the south coast drive from the north side, the next PK marker would be PK-59 and would count back down to PK-0 the closer to Papeete you got. Not to confuse, but the PK numbers for Tahiti Iti begin at the isthmus at PK-0. The road of Tahiti Iti does not circumnavigate it entirely and stops at PK-18 along both the north and south coast roads. Also from the isthmus, a road leads straight up the center of Tahiti Iti where there is a lookout (belvedere). The parking area is less than 10 km up the road and you can see back toward the isthmus and the towering hulk of Tahiti Nui. There are numerous (unimproved) roads leading inland of Tahiti Nui, I only mentioned the inland road of Tahiti Iti because it is “paved”. For the truly adventurous (4x4 required), a pot-holed dirt track begins near (Pk-17ish) along the north drive of Tahiti Nui and heads due south. This unimproved road goes straight up the Papenoo Valley and over the spine of Tahiti Nui before finally descending back down to the south coast drive near the town of Papeari at Pk-50.

Tahiti’s (and all of French Polynesia’s) highest point is Mt. Orohena at 2,241 meters (7,352 ft.) above sea level. Many rivers flow down to the lagoon of the island carrying sediment that takes away from the crystalline waters Danielle and I had experienced on the Tuamotu islands of Rangiroa and Fakarava (elevation 10 ft. above sea-level). Not planning to scuba-dive, we instead opted to take this day to see some of the islands mountainous scenery and visit a couple waterfalls. Since it was the rainy season and the mountains had been shrouded in clouds the whole time, we figured the waterfalls would be flowing nicely. After filling our bellies with a tasty treat from Micky-Dees (not surprised McDonalds had made it to the South Pacific) we headed through Papeete to uncharted territory along the north coast drive. Just past the city limits, the coast road briefly heads inland to rise up and over the rugged Pointe Venus at the eastern side of Matavai Bay. Our little rental car was screaming at the climb (Sweeeet Haaarrt…) or was it that I didn’t have it in the proper gear because I don’t know how to drive stick-shift? Luckily, that was the steepest grade and furthest inland the coast road ventured. On the opposite side of Pointe Venus, we were surprised at how close the road seemed to get to the crashing Pacific surf. Locals were riding hard at numerous surf breaks. There must have been a storm brewing in the ocean because the waves were thundering on shore. Our first stop was at a parking area on the left side called Pointe Tapahi. The coast road rose up slightly from the water and we climbed a small hill with a giant tree on top. Some locals briefly joined us but the wind was fierce so Danielle and I headed back down to continue driving.

Our next stop according to the guidebook would be at the Arahoho Blowhole but we saw a lesser blowhole just prior. It was not noticeable from the road and we had to look over a breakwall and down a twenty-foot cliff. Just past PK-20, the road made a sharp right hand turn. A parking area was up ahead to the left side. This was our next stop. Across from the parking area was a sheer black cliff about 50 feet high and the road (we had just passed) began inches from where the cliff ended. There was one small area, closer to the immediate right hand turn, where a small hole appeared at the base of the cliff. Every couple seconds we could hear the whoosh of the incoming tide and then see the spray of the Arahoho Blowhole rushing out of it’s mouth. There must have been a tube under the road that would fill with the incoming tide and it created enough pressure to be squeezed through a tiny fissure in the wall. Danielle took the video camera to the mouth of the blowhole and I stood on the opposite side of the road to take her picture. See the funny results in our Youtube video link below. There is a nice picnic area and a black sand beach at this parking area. It also must be a popular surf break because it was crowded and we saw locals getting pummeled by the gigantic waves.

Just past the parking area of Arahoho Blowhole (about 100 meters) the coast road veers left and continues on. We kept going straight along an inland road for about one kilometer. Past a couple small residences at the end of the road was the small parking area of the Faarumai Waterfalls. A nearby sign called it a “car park”, so I parked my car. There was a huge stand of bamboo on the far side of the “car park” that must have been 40 feet tall. The Faarumai Waterfalls are three falls in all, the first of which is only a couple hundreds yards away through a dense forest of Mape (native chestnut) trees. It only took us a couple of minutes to reach Vaimahutu Waterfall but Danielle had already been bitten numerous times by some ruthless kamikaze skeeter bugs. It had been five days since we left behind Miki Miki village on the island of Rangiroa. At this point, Danielle had fully recovered from her 29 bite marks on one leg so she didn’t want to re-enact the feeling. She filmed a little of the Vaimahutu Waterfall and then turned back for the safety of the car. I sped off to the other two falls, Haamarere Iti and Haamarere Rahi, which sit side by side (Rahi on the left) but were a twenty-minute walk from my current location. I added up the turn around time of one hour because I figured I would be spending at least twenty minutes at the two falls… so I ran to make better time. A slight mist at Vaimahutu suddenly became a torrential downpour. I hardly noticed getting wet through the thick jungle canopy. The jungle path was a little muddy but was absolutely gorgeous following along the river of the upper falls. I felt completely isolated at Haamarere Iti and Rahi. After ten perfect minutes a troupe of Polynesian girls appeared out of nowhere. As if their normal routine, they all began to occupy a small shelter erected near the Haamarere Rahi fall. They were giggling and eating snacks so I left them to be at what was probably their normal hang-out spot.

Just before the Isthmus, we stopped at a small black sand beach. This area must have been a small coconut palm plantation because the trees were in perfect rows along the beach. Polynesian families were gathered here and we just kept off to the side not wanting to be the obtrusive Americans. Moving along, Danielle and I couldn’t believe how many things there are to see and do along the coast drive of Tahiti. Unfortunately, we would have to bypass, well, almost everything as it is just not possible to see this island in one day. We passed so many rivers flowing down from the mountains and almost every vantage off to the left (inland) was of some towering peaks rising up from a river valley. Along some of the highest ridgelines, we could see “pine trees in paradise” (my term, but they really were pine trees).

At the Isthmus, we turned onto Tahiti Iti and continued to the end of the south coast road just 18 kilometers away. I read this to be the area of the Teahupoo; the most famous reef break in all of the South Pacific. Teahupoo is reported to be the heaviest left barreling wave on the planet. You can simply type the word into YouTube’s browser (after viewing our videos first J) and many hits of this behemoth will come up. The wave gods must not have been smiling on the southern coast that day because we didn’t see anything resembling the barreling monster. A lot more locals were out and about at this south coast of Tahiti Iti and we saw a very crowded beach.

At PK-18, I turned the rental around and headed back to the isthmus for lunch. Pizza Papy was our fine lunch eatery. It was old school with a wood burning, open flame oven to cook our pizza. Don’t recall what we had, just that it was delicious. Unfortunately, by this time, late afternoon was upon us and we still wanted to travel along the last 60 kilometers of the south coast drive of Tahiti Nui. The Sofitel Maeva had a very nice beach area so we decided to just sightsee by car the rest of the way back. Ok, really, I was looking forward to having another Hinano and to smoking one of my Davidoff #4 cigars (I know, it’ll kill me). The south coast drive was just as beautiful as it’s neighbor to the north but we saw a lot more development. At one point, there were a bunch of locals tearing across a dirt field on dirtbikes. We saw a bunch of guys wearing “Fox Racing” jerseys in the Papeete area but didn’t realize that dirtbikes had much of a presence on the islands until we saw this area.

I have read most visitors to the island of Tahiti swear it off because it is the most populated. Even the tourism board doesn’t give the mother island enough props, preferring instead to woo everybody with the picturesque lagoons of the Tuamotus or the over-water bungalows of Bora Bora. Everyone we met in Papeete was kind and helpful (especially the local who guided me back to the coast road from a wrong turn down a one-way street). Every island has it’s own panache and Tahiti’s has got to be the way the residents treat guests like us. I’m glad we stayed for three nights on Tahiti and I’m especially glad Danielle and I spent one of our days driving around the coast road. The beaches were great, the waterfalls greater and the island scenery unsurpassed from the other six we visited. Admittedly, we were looking forward to moving on to our next stop at the TopDive Resort on Bora Bora for some more world class scuba diving!

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