You haven’t truly seen color until you’ve been to French Polynesia. This chain of 118 islands is scattered from Manuae to Mangaravea, covers the size of Europe and is surrounded by the gin-clear, sapphire South Pacific and lush green flora.
Credit for this work of art goes to the ancient god Ta’aroa, who — according to Polynesian myth — made the rocks, sand and mountains from the shell he came from, filled the rivers and oceans with his tears and painted the rainbow with his blood. To put it in the more modern words of a friend who recently visited, “I felt like I woke up in a screensaver.”
Many visitors to French Polynesia make the mistake of flying to the capital of Papeete — on the island of Tahiti and home to its international airport — then promptly departing to Bora Bora, Moorea and Raiatea. But Tahiti is no shrinking violet. The island is full of charm, both in the city of Papeete and in its remote and fragrant corners, where the infinite colors can be yours for a far lower price.
The best way to see Papeete is to follow the Monoï Road, which rings the island’s 100-mile circumference. The road launched in June 2010 and has 22 official stops, including coconut factories, tiare flower plantations, markets, botanical workshops, perfumeries, herbal doctors, spas and cosmetic labs where you can create your own scrubs, scents and creams from Monoï (infused coconut oil).
My first stop was the coconut distillery Huilerie de Tahiti, in downtown Papeete, just five miles from my waterfront hotel, Manava Suites (rooms from $217). Here, they extract and distill native coconut oil, which is sold to cosmetic companies around the world as Monoï. Inside, stacks of hairy husks pile up before being chucked into a giant processing plant by shirtless Tahitian dudes.
After bagging a few bottles of unfiltered coconut oil, I carried on to my next stop, 45 miles away, in Papara. The drive was gorgeous, not to mention refreshingly tourist-free. It allows you to watch daily Tahitian life unfurl, sometimes literally, as flowers line the curvaceous, shore-hugging road. I spotted adolescent skateboarders ahead of their moms, who toted baguettes and wore flowers in their hair. It had all the color and sensuality of a Gauguin painting, with a contemporary twist. And the colonial French influence is still felt strongly here.
In the small town of Papara, I stopped at Le Laborotoire de Formulateur ($85 for a 3½-hour session). I spent an overcast afternoon here making my own body scrub, with 200-odd scents, nut butters and essential oils to choose from — many ingredients were native Tahitian flowers like mure, myrtle and tamaru. For an exfoliant, I added black volcanic sable, white sugar and Pacific sandalwood powder.
All the floral aromas made me crave something salty. So I headed to nearby Beach Burger, a blustery waterfront shack where surfers from nearby Taharu’u Beach collide with golfers from Atimaono, the only golf course on Tahiti. My gigantic burger (about $7) arrived with a thick, sweet slab of pineapple, a side of gloopy macaroni salad and a large basket of crispy fries.
The next two stops were personal favorites: The first was a visit to the Tahitian medicine woman Rosita Raveino (011-689-70-72-85; call ahead for appointments), who met me on Papara Beach for a demonstration of how to prepare traditional medicine. Rosita was in her 70s but looked 50 or so. She wore a flower in her hair, and sat on the ground, speaking to me in a mash-up of Tahitian, English and French, while pummeling morinda leaves, sea urchin and fresh coconut meat in a large wooden bowl. The drinkable elixir was supposed to keep me healthy and ward off any bad luck or negative thoughts.
The other stop was a meeting with Dr. Pere Tetautiare at her hideaway home spa in Punaauia called Rau Hotu Tahiti (products from $9, treatments from $143), just a 10-minute walk from the Manava Suites hotel. Pere makes her own line of Monoï products and of the dozen I sampled across the island, hers were hands-down the best. Her unusual homemade scents included indigenous orchids, more masculine scents like fern and wood and vanilla tinctures. Some are infused with indigenous black pearls, which purportedly give marine and mineral qualities to the oils. She also offers massages and body treatments.
No trip to Tahiti is complete without a visit to Les Roulottes, a convoy of food trucks parked on Papeete’s pier hawking everything from Tahitian specialties to steak, crepes, pizza and even Chinese food. The locals recommended L’Estanco (mains from $23), which specializes in raw tuna dishes, the most famous of which is their poisson cru au lait de coco. Like most restaurant food in French Polynesia, the dish was not cheap ($28) — but it was sublime. A huge scalloped bowl arrived heaping with red chunks of tuna bathed in rich white coconut milk. I washed it down with a Hinano beer, brewed right here in Papeete.
The evening sky was a burst of oranges and blues, when a group of young Tahitian skaters started break-dancing in the corners — oblivious to the splendor all around us. While the beauty may have been breathtaking, the milky swirl of coconut and scarlet tuna was the real star that night.