Vive Papeete!

GRAEME LAY finds Tahiti's main town a heady mix of France, Asia and Polynesia.

Most visitors to French Polynesia arrive at Faa Airport on the main island of Tahiti, then spend only a night in the capital town of Papeete before moving off by ferry or plane to one of the neighbouring holiday islands, usually Moorea, for their main stay.

For most people, Papeete is thus just a place to pass through. This is a pity, for the harbourside town of 100,000 people has enough sights to merit a stay of at least three days.

Papeete spreads along the waterfront on a narrow coastal plain backed by spectacularly steep volcanic mountains. Cosmopolitan and energetic, the town is thoroughly tri-cultural, exuding French style, Chinese energy, Tahitian informality and all gradations in between.

Formerly slightly down-at-heel but recently face-lifted, Papeete's attractions are readily accessible and thus ideal for the pedestrian visitor. Most of Tahiti's resort hotels are near the airport, 5km from the town centre, but getting to central Papeete is simple and cheap if you take Le Truk.

Le Truk is a Tahitian institution. Operated privately, these tough, wooden-seated buses flow constantly to and from the town centre and out along the coast in both directions.

There are designated stops but Le Truk can also be flagged down, and the fares are only $2 to $3.

The truck service, which operates mainly during the daylight hours, has been threatened with replacement by a more conventional bus service by government authorities in recent years, but is so popular and practical that it will probably survive. After all, Papeete without Le Truk is almost unimaginable.

The heart of Papeete - and its chief attraction - is its magnificent emporium, Le Marche. Located one block back from the waterfront, the market is contained within a vast building with ground and mezzanine floors. Open daily from 5 am to 5.30 pm, Le Marche sells everything a visitor could wish to buy, from fresh Tahitian and Chinese vegetables to tropical flowers, scented soaps, vanilla beans, cakes, drinking coconuts and filled rolls.

At one end is the fish market, where tuna, mahi mahi and strings of brightly coloured fish are brought straight from the fishing boats after 4 pm. Along the extensive gallery shops upstairs are stalls selling multi-coloured pareo, shell necklaces, cushion covers, wooden carvings, ukeleles, tattoo transfers and coconut-shell bras. There are even reasonably priced ($80 to $100) black pearls for sale.

The gallery's wares form a riot of colour and it's easy to spend the whole day wandering about, savouring the sights and scents of the stalls.

The market reaches its zenith very early every Sunday morning, when Tahitian families descend on it to shop for their food. Papeete's market is undoubtedly one of the great experiences of the South Pacific.

Once in downtown Papeete, there are any number of sights and sounds to enjoy. The waterfront, where a paved walkway lined with flame trees follows the 3km edge of the harbour, is a pleasant place just to wander along, especially for those attracted to boats.

Tethered to the quay are vessels of all kinds for pleasure and business: huge cruising yachts, wooden fishing boats, car and passenger ferries and cruise ships such as the gigantic Renaissance 3, a ship the size of an apartment block.

And across the water, forming a beguiling backdrop to the waterfront, is the serrated profile of Tahiti's sister island, Moorea, which changes colour gradually under the shifting sun: from the dark green of early morning to the powder blue of evening, when the sky above it is enflamed with brilliant sunset colours.

Vaiete Place, the central waterfront area, is also a great place to enjoy a roulotte meal. Les roulottes are the little caravans which roll onto Vaiete Place every evening at dusk. Run mostly by Chinese or Tahitian families, these little caravans serve cheap, quickly prepared meals cooked on gas-fired woks and eaten right alongside the harbour, surrounded by promenading families.

Vaiete Place is freshly paved and now contains a canopied stage where Tahitian musicians perform free most evenings. This lilting guitar-ukelele combo makes the perfect accompaniment for a roulotte meal.

And the food is very reasonably priced: a large meal of steak or fish, served with vegetables and French bread, costs about $18, half the price of a hotel or restaurant main course.

The roulottes are not licensed, but soft drinks and fruit drinks are sold with the meal. There is no better place for immersing oneself in Papeete's tri-cultural atmosphere.

Not to be outdone by Vaiete Place, the western end of the waterfront has also been developed in the past year or so. This is Toata Square, a broad paved area featuring a stage where the annual July Heiva cultural festival occurs and a row of new cafes and restaurants with names like Chez Jimmy and La Terrasse.

Cooler and quieter than the bustling eastern harbourside area, Toata Place turns its back on the nearby hectic traffic of Boulevard Pomare and has been planted in palms, flame trees and pandanus.

The main shopping complex, the Vaima Centre, is located right on Boulevard Pomare, in the central business district. Vaima is a several-level centre of quality shops, kiosks, cafes and boutiques. It also contains Papeete's Black Pearl Museum, an essential introductory experience before buying one of these alluring gems of the sea.

There are several black-pearl boutiques in the Vaima Centre. Prices are very competitive, so it's best to shop around widely before deciding.

These attractions are merely the shop window of Papeete. It's also fascinating to wander further back from the waterfront and into the quieter streets where small shops and superettes sell everything from baguettes to traditional Chinese medicines to baby clothes.

The Maire de Papeete (Town Hall) on Rue Gauguin is a strikingly attractive building, well worth a visit, while the intense heat can be easily relieved by a drink at any one of the town's dozens of cafes, where snacks and meals are available from early morning until dusk.

Just beyond the western town limits but within easy range of Le Truk, at Punaauia, is an excellent museum (entrance is free), while going an equal distance east brings you to lovely Point Venus.

This historic site, where Europeans first came ashore in 1767, has a pretty lighthouse, a black sand beach and picnic area which provides spectacular views of Tahiti's mountain core.

Official Tahiti tourism site

* Graeme Lay flew to Tahiti as a guest of Tahiti Tourisme and Air Tahiti Nui.

Getting there

* Air Tahiti Nui flies to Tahiti from Auckland, code-sharing with Qantas, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Air Tahiti flies from Papeete to Tikehau and Rangiroa six times a week.

* Prices for a week's holiday at the Tikehau Pearl Beach Resort, share twin ex-Auckland, cost about $2800, flights included.

Information

* The banks of Papeete - les banques - are clustered around the central business district. Banking hours are from 8 am to 4 pm, and New Zealand notes and travellers cheques can be exchanged readily for Pacific French francs.

The francs come in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100CPF coins, and notes of 500, 1000, 5000 and 10,000. CPF 1000 roughly equals $NZ16.

* Most credit cards are accepted throughout French Polynesia. The most common are Visa and Mastercard.

* Business hours in Tahiti are from 8 am to 11.30 am and from 1.30 pm to 5.30 pm, Monday to Friday. The long lunch hour is for a leisurely luncheon, a siesta, or both.

* The Moana Nui Shopping Centre at Punaauia contains a huge supermarket-cum-department store, Continent, which offers a great range of goods, many of them French.

* Tahiti Tourism publish a helpful booklet, Tahiti For Kiwis. Full of practical advice, it is updated annually and can be obtained from Tahiti Tourisme, Level 1, 26 Ponsonby Road, Auckland. PO Box 106-192, Downtown, Auckland.