The last island of this trip is Huahine. If you missed the two first posts of my trip around French Polynesia, I would recommend that you first read about Tahiti and Moorea.
I’ve just come to realise that this trip around French Polynesia is a succession of islands each more remote than the last. When we flew over Huahine, it seemed like we were landing on a deserted island. From my window I could only see a dense forest and no sign of habitation.
Let just rewind for a bit to when I was very quickly organising this holiday. The initial plan was to spend the last part of our holiday on either Bora Bora or a further away island of the Tuamotu. Accommodation on Bora was very quickly booked out probably because of last minute planning and the peak season, same for Tuamotu. Flying further out to remote place also meant spending more time at airport and waiting around. One week holiday is too short in my books to waste time in transportation. Therefore the decision was made to visit an island in the Society archipelago and Huahine became the obvious choice to experience a different vibe than Moorea and Tahiti. Huahine's reputation of being the most authentic Polynesian island of the Society archipelago was our excuse to go check it out.
Early one morning, after a relatively short flight, just 40 min from Tahiti, we landed on Huahine. A very scenic flight over the ocean and Huahine’s forest.
We witnessed a funny situation as soon as we stepped foot on the island. Huahine was the first stop of our flight and while half of the plane was disembarking here, the rest of the passengers stayed inside of the plane for the next step, an island further away. An announcement was made in the plane but if someone is sleeping or not paying attention, this someone is very likely going to miss their stop, like getting off the train at the wrong station. That’s what happened to a family walking on the tarmac in front of us. They disembarked at the same time as us, you could see this excitement of the kids running towards the terminal as well as the parents following them. It’s only half way still on the tarmac, where the “Aeroport to Huahine” sign was clear, that they froze, shouted something at each other and then turned around and ran towards the aircraft where passengers were still coming down the stairs.
For our three day trip on the island, we rented a car and booked two nights at Hotel Le Mahana in a bungalow beachfront with our private deck and the most minimal distance possible between the beach and the bungalow. The hotel was a great spot. The lagoon was a lot more enjoyable than in Moorea, great for snorkeling or a paddle. Bonus point for not seeing any sharks in the water, not that it meant they were none there.
Arriving with the first flight of the day and heading to the hotel straightaway, we were very lucky that our bungalow was ready and the staff allowed us to do a very early check-in. We spent the whole day snorkeling, swimming, reading and playing cards. Full on “remote island holiday” mode.
The next day, despite the pouring rain we decided to explore the island and hoped to escape the rain on the north coast. Huahine alike Tahiti, is made of two islands connected by an isthmus: Huahine iti and Huahine nui. Our accommodation was on the south coast on Huahine iti.
The road surrounding the island is in a figure of eight shape. We drove around the island and headed to the main town of Fare for lunch. The town is close to the airport and has few restaurants, a supermarket, shops and a petrol station. I saw a reproduction of the photo below drawn about 250 years ago during one of James Cook journey, the view hasn't change much over since then.
Driving around Huahine nui, we past the pearl farm. We were planning on visiting the pearl but the weather got the best of our enthusiasm. Instead we decided to go visit the Vanilleraie, where Vanilla is grown and we bought some vanilla pods to bring back home in our luggage. We then drove up the belvedere, which supposedly offers the best views of the island. We had to use our imagination on this one.
The following day, the sun was out again but it was already time to leave. We received our shell necklaces at checkout. Our flight wasn’t until the evening, so we did the same lap of the island as the day before. Under the sunshine this time, we finally got to enjoy the views on the top of the belvedere.
We stopped to see the local eels in the river.
We spent our last afternoon at the Jardin de Corail, a reef barrier just east of the airport, ideal spot before catching our flight.
Until recently, I thought I would not be interested on going to a island holiday. I believed I would get bored spending all day at the beach. Instead I discover a new Polynesian culture. I think it’s such an underrated destination and not just a destination for newlyweds and the super rich.
I usually don’t pay to much attention to my accommodation whether it’s a hotel, a lodge, a house rental. Of course, I always enjoy an amazing hotel with great amenities but don’t always plan on using them as I would rather be out exploring. It might sound obvious but I would recommend spending time and resources into selecting the right hotel or resort for an island holiday. You will likely spend a lot of them around the hotel and eat most of your meal there as well.
I've had an amazing time in French Polynesia. It will be a while for me before I return. That said I still want to see Bora, stay on a tiny atoll in the middle of the ocean and explore some of the most remote archipelagos of the like of Tuamotus and Marquises.
Let me know in the comments which island destination is in your bucket list.
Nana and à bientôt!