AdventuresAboardAvatar: Stan and Glenda Part 2

For Stan and Glenda's last day, March 11^th, we rented a car and did an island tour of Tahiti. We took them to some of the places we knew and had been before, but we also went to some new places.

First stop is the lighthouse at Point Venus. She is a beauty and can be seen for 25 miles offshore.

Next stop was the waterfalls. But their had been so much rain that the trail even to the lower falls was closed.

But it was not for loss, as we were graced with the mythic flight of the Tropic Bird. In each of these photos there are two birds, see if you can spot them with their long graceful tails.

Across the road from the turn off to the waterfalls is the blow hole. It seems so tranquil.

Until a big swell hits the rocks at just the right direction, then VA Voosh!

We stopped at the look out for Matavai Bay, a black beach on the South side of Point Venus.

Here are the boys with the reef and Moorea in the background.

Stan, Glenda and Mike by the big banyon tree at the overlook.

We took advantage of the rental car and found the lost road up to the real Belvedere restaurant lookout over all of Papeete. Their sign is on the side of an old Le Truck tour bus.

Here you can see a close up map of the twisty windy one lane road we had to drive (Mike drove!) up to get here. The road ends here, but a trail continues up the ridge to more spectacular heights. We did not go!

The car parked in the shade of the big trees on the one lane road to get up here.

This painted tile shows what we are seeing and which direction we are looking.

The city of Papeete has grown quite a bit since that painting!! You can see the road below us too. There is a car carrier and a container ship at the loading dock down there. These are huge ships that look tiny from up here!

The steep cliff on the other side of the valley from us. Probably looks similar right below us.

These photos show the reef and lagoons on both Moorea in the distance and Tahiti in the near. Look how turquoise the water is in the lagoon on Moorea's south side.

Here you can really see the reef inside the breakers.

Not too busy here, but these tables were a bit hot to sit in the sun.

So we sat with a Corona in the shade enjoying the view. (this photo is for you Kevin!)

To our right was a view of Point Venus through the trees.

We could even see the lighthouse sticking out above the trees down there.

The restaurant was quite eclectic. For the youngsters out there, this is a real record player, with a real Long Play (LP) loaded and playing.

I would have bought a fortune from this antique gypsy machine, but they were all in French. It reminded me of the one from the movie “Big” with Tom Hanks.