When our cruise around the Leeward Islands of French Polynesia came to its sad but inevitable end, we found ourselves back in Papeete with nearly 12 hours until our flight back to the States. Danelle had once again brilliantly arranged a way for us to pass half of that time -- a guided driving tour around the perimeter of the island.
First stop was 'Ārahurahu Marae, which had the statuary I'd expected on Raʻiātea.
It also had Plantains, which have a uniquely photogenic flower.
Next stop was Cascade Vaimahuta. I'd decided to forego my tripod and wide angle lens on this tour and was simply carrying my Nikon D750 with its 80-400m zoom lens, mostly due to fatigue and also so I could spend more time just enjoying the sites with Danelle and less time composing photos.
Here at the waterfall I somewhat regretted that decision, but I'm not not happy with the shots I did get. No chance of capturing the falls' full 263-foot height this way, though.
And yet another waterfall at the water gardens, which were honestly very nice. We even got to see some of the sacred blue-eyed eels that we'd missed on our ebike tour of Huahine.
The last stop was a lively public beach -- Plage de la Pointe Venus, so named because Captain Cook chose this spot to observe the transit of Venus between the Earth and the Sun here in 1769. My attention was focused lower, where I noticed this Brown Land Crab...
A fitting farewell to a truly beautiful part of the world that I'm privileged to have been able to visit!
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