Tahiti-Nui Mare'are'a, Great Tahiti of the Golden Haze. This is Tahiti of Many Shaded Waters; various are the songs of the birds. Great Tahiti, the mounting place of the sun. The Polynesians sang the praises of Tahiti, Land of the Double Rainbows and Queen of the Pacific, long before the Europeans arrived.
For more than 200 years Tahiti has been known as the Island of Love, the Amorous Isle and the World's Most Glamorous Tropic Isle.
Tahiti is the largest of the 118 islands and atolls that comprise Tahiti and her Islands. The busy, bustling town of Papeete, on Tahiti's north coast is the capital of French Polynesia; the administrative, health and business center for the 219,521 people who live in the five archipelagoes that make up this French Overseas Territory.
The island of Tahiti is so much more than Papeete.
Polynesian legends say that Tahiti-Nui (big Tahiti) and Tahiti-Iti (little Tahiti) were formed as a fish that swam away from Sacred Havai’i from the lagoon between Raiatea and Tahaa. Tahiti and its Taiarapu peninsula are shaped as a turtle, a lady's hand mirror or a reclining figure 8.
Take a leisurely drive or a guided tour around the island and discover the many faces of Tahiti. You can still see some of the same attractions that brought other romanticists to these shores. Writers and artists such as Robert Louis Stevenson, Jack London, Somerset Maugham, Rupert Brooke, Paul Gauguin and Henry Adams, who were, each in his own way trying to capture the "same charm of light and air. "
Around big Tahiti the road winds 114 km. (71 miles) between the mountains and the sea. Little Tahiti has 18 km. (11 miles) of paved road on both coasts and an interior road that leads past dairy farms and citrus groves to a panoramic viewpoint on the Plateau of Taravao. Beyond the roads on the peninsula's southern tip lies the fenua 'aihere, the magnificent bush land, and the formidable steep cliffs known as Te Pari.
In Tahiti you can explore the lush interior mountains and valleys by four-wheel drive or trekking tours. For the active vacationer there is golfing, hang gliding, bowling, tennis, deep sea fishing, sailing, surfing, windsurfing, jetskiing, waterskiing, scuba diving, snorkeling, driving a Lagoon jet or pedal boat, and trimming the sails on a Hobie Cat. Glass bottom boat rides open a window to Tahiti's marine gardens and a sunset cruise is even more exotic offshore Tahiti.
For an overall view of Tahiti try an airplane or helicopter tour. For the spectator there are horse races, motorcross competitions,
bicycle racing, track events, cockfights, outrigger canoe racing and matches of soccer, rugby, basketball, boxing and archery.
Papeete by night pulsates to the rhythm of the tamure, jazz and disco in a variety of clubs. You can sing along in a karaoke bar, watch a Tahitian dance show or try your luck in a casino. You'll find restaurants, snack bars, patisseries and mobile roulotte diners, with excellent cuisine to suit all tastes and budgets.
