Tahiti: paradise found aboard the sail-cruisers of Windstar - Cruise of the Month - Product/Service Evaluation

Cruise Travel, May-June, 2003 by Jim Kerr

LIKE A SENSUOUS SIREN, TAHITI and Polynesia have been calling outsiders back since the first Europeans happened upon these South Pacific Islands in the 1500s. After only a day or two, you begin to understand the oft-repeated comparison of this place to "paradise," where everything--from lush and soaring tropical islands to a warm, turquoise sea--tantalizes the senses like some bright and fragrant Garden of Eden.

A perception of paradisiacal innocence, where a harmony from centuries gone by seems to linger among warm and appealing people and the world they live in, also contributes to the powerful attraction of the place. While no one knows for sure, this may be what drove Fletcher Christian back after he led a mutiny on the Bounty, and what brought Marlon Brando, the actor who played him in the 1962 film, back to buy an island near Tahiti for himself and the Tahitian co-star who later became his wife. And even though French painter Paul Gauguin was ultimately disillusioned, the same allure brought him back, along with countless other artists and notable writers, all of whom followed Captain James Cook, who returned to paradise himself on his third and final voyage in 1779.

Now, 224 years later, it is Windstar Cruises, which bills itself as "the most romantic cruise line in the world," that is answering the siren's call. For the first 10 years of her existence, from 1987 to 1997, Windstar's 148-passenger Wind Song made year-round, seven-day cruises from Tahiti. The advent of two French-owned 684-passenger Renaissance ships in these same waters, as well as Radisson Seven Seas' 300-passenger Paul Gauguin, resulted in Windstar's departure. But in May 2002, after a five-year hiatus (and the bankruptcy of Renaissance), Windstar recalled the Wind Song from a Costa Rican itinerary and set her computerized sails once more on seven-day itineraries out of Papeete, Tahiti, to the islands of Raiatea, Huahine, Bora Bora, and Moorea.

The fit could not have been better. The 360-foot ship was a vision of white, her mast lights twinkling as she sat waiting at the dock in Papeete the evening of sailing. As she anchored in numerous languid lagoons on subsequent days, the 5,350-gross-register-ton vessel filled in a tropical island scene, framed by green mountains and blue water, as though an artist had lovingly painted her there. When an engine-room fire took the ship out of service last December, the cruise line wisely replaced her with identical sister Wind Star, beginning January 24, 2003. It was good news for cruisers, because there are few alternative means to feel and appreciate this part of the South Pacific in only seven days.

Although Tahiti is the island on everyone's lips when they think of this region, it is only one of several in the Society Islands group, which in turn comprise only a fraction of the vast expanse known as French Polynesia. The latter stretches across more than 1,000 miles of ocean where there are more than 118 islands. The political history of the area is a complex journey through several centuries, from royal rulers and influential Protestant missionaries to a gradual French takeover and autonomous control that could ultimately lead to independence. There are five archipelagos in French Polynesia, but the half-dozen islands in the Society group contain 86 percent of French Polynesia's total population of 225,000. The Wind Star's seven-day itinerary takes her meandering through this volcanic island chain, whose one-time violent eruptions created a verdant refuge for immigrants from as far away as Asia thousands of years ago.

Generally, if you are looking for a beachy cruise, Tahiti is not the place. But what these islands lack in wide, sandy beaches, they more than make up for with soaring volcanic mountains, jade-colored lagoons encircled by reefs, and tiny atolls known as "motus" Raiatea and its twin, Tahaa, are on the same lagoon, but separated by about 2 miles. In ancient times, Raiatea was a cultural and religious center, but despite its size and onetime status, the population today is only about 10,000. Uturoa, the main town where the ship docks, is a retro vision of Papeete 100 years ago, a sleepy little place with a few shops and a market. Your first real contact here with Polynesia and her people is a defining one. You get the feeling that locals, while friendly, are not particularly distracted from their traditional lives by foreign influence. No one tries to hawk merchandise. Polynesians live in simple surroundings unfettered by very many possessions--or the desire to have them. The year-round comfortable climate and abundance of natural food sources may have a lot to do with this, but a traditional avoidance of stress seems to run deep, as well as a general lack of materialism.

In Raiatea, a half-dozen tours were offered, which covered the mountainous and rain-forested island, either by four-wheel-drive truck, van, horse, or motorized outrigger canoe, which travels upstream on the Faaroa River, the only navigable fiver in Polynesia. Our "Tahaa Discovery" tour included a boat ride and snorkeling outing off a tiny motu, and an enlightening visit to a family-owned black-pearl farm. It is said that black pearls account for 28 percent of French Polynesia's exports, and provide more local income than anything except tourism. The two are closely related, however, because pearl outlets are scattered throughout the Society Islands, and gem shops do a lively business with cruise-ship passengers, as well as land-based vacationers staying at high-end resorts.