Raiatea (pronounced Rye-a-tey-a) lies just a few miles off Taha’a, so we didn’t need to begin our ‘overnight’ sailing until after sunrise.
This is the only port-of-call on our seven-day Polynesian cruise where we chose an official Windstar excursion, so after an early breakfast, we joined a group of eleven others in the ship’s lounge, ready to be chaperoned!
The morning’s challenge: Kayak The Faaroa River.
To reach the mouth of the river where we adventure would being required us to a drive around part of the ninety kilometres of road that surrounds the island. Though we saw just a short stretch of this road, from what we did see, Raiatea is a very beautiful island. Both Moorea, and especially Bora Bora, had seemed a little ramshackle in places, with much of the foreshore cluttered up with buildings and boat sheds. Raiatea, on the other hand, is very green, even at the water front, with most of the houses we saw having well-maintained gardens. Indeed, after outrig canoe racing, our tour guide joked that grass cutting is the island’s second sport!
As with Bora Bora, Raiatea is another very old island, and is considered by many to be the spiritual centre of Polynesia and the wider pacific island “triangle”, that includes New Zealand to the south west and Hawaii to the north east. Tourism is the principal economy, but there is also dairy farming here (for beef, not milk), and – as with many of the Polynesian islands – vanilla and black pearls are grown for export.
After arriving at the mouth of the river, we boarded two-man kayaks and began to paddle upstream. Our guide had promised to provide a commentary on the local plants and trees, so we made frequent stops (in the shade wherever possible – it was a very hot day). Much of the commentary repeated what we had heard during our waterfall hike on Moorea, and on a couple of occasions we found ourselves chipping in when our French guide couldn’t find the right words in English!
The mouth of the river is wide, but as we got further upstream, the channel became increasingly narrow, and there were some occasions where we needed to paddle in single file. With nine boats out on the water, things got a little congested from time to time, but as we were going at a very leisurely pace, the odd bump didn’t cause any great concern.
As well as trying to keep away from other boats, we also had fun coconut dodging! Every time we approached a coconut tree overhanging the water, our guide would shout out “left” or “right” and we were under strict instructions not to paddle below the coconuts. Apparently, if one of those lands on your head, it’s certain death!
Apart from being a fun adventure in itself – coconut dodging and all – the scenery we found ourselves in was very beautiful, and occasionally spectacular when we got a good view of Raiatea’s two volcanoes – Orotaio and Toomaru.
1,500 metres upstream, and with just 40 metres to go to the origin of the river, we turned around and began heading back to the ocean. With fewer stops, and some improved paddling proficiency, we made much better time. Where the river began to widen out, our guide raced off ahead, obviously wanting to get to shore and prepare for helping everyone else out of their boats. We took this as a challenge, and raced on after him. For a couple of hundred metres, we were really racing, and had a pretty good rhythm going – this was certainly the fastest I’ve ever been in a kayak and it was a lot of fun.
It was only after we’d got our feet back on dry land that we realised quite how tiring that final sprint had been, especially in such hot and humid weather. At the advice of the crew, we’d both applied insect repellent that morning. While this might have saved us from a few bites, it had also left any exposed skin feeling like we were being slowly roasted alive, thanks to the all that oil!
