Maupiti is known to be the Bora Bora of 50 years ago. As beautiful as its big sister, but more authentic and less developed. When we planned our trip to French Polynesia, we purposely excluded Bora from our itinerary, despite its reputation. It was too pricey and too touristic for our liking. But when we read about Maupiti, that was it, we had to go.
It was not easy to include it on the trip though. There are only few flights per week, and they are booked very fast. But with the help of an Air Tahiti agent, we managed to get the perfect itinerary. The only downside was that we had to do a stop over for few hours in Raiatea en route from Huahine.
Stop over in Raiatea
Early morning, Chris left us at the jetty, we took a a taxi and went straight to the airport. 20 minutes later, we landed on a new island for 5 hours of stopover. We had absolutely no idea of what to do or where to go, and were only recommended a local bakery. Morning, croissant time, we hopped in a taxi direction the bakery.
The only issue was our luggages. It was not possible to leave them at the airport, so we had to carry everything with us. The taxi driver offered us to keep them for the day, until he picked us up to go back to the airport. I was thinking “Yeah sure I gonna leave my bags to a perfect stranger and trust him to bring them back to me.. seriously?!”, when I heard Eff happily accepting the offer. Whaaaaat?!! Coming from the one person who always tell me to be careful and never trust anyone while travelling, I was flabbergasted… His look and manner were apparently good enough for Eff. They exchanged phone numbers, agreed a meeting time, and we went to the bakery.
Indeed, pastries were amazing! Croissants, pains au chocolat, pains aux raisins, you name it, they had all the French delicacies. WiFi was very good too, so we spent the entire time there, avidly playing with phone and tablet, having our intake of connectivity. You can never help it… As soon as you’re back into modern world, your phone and other social medias are calling.
We only wandered around the bakery, went to the market, visited the shops nearby and enjoyed the small town. There is really not much to do. But Eff had fun taking pictures of the local street art. There are many great graffitis since the Ono’hu festival in 2018.
Few hours later, it was time to go back. I was a bit worried for our bags, but it turned out that Eff was right. It turned out that Germain, the taxi driver, was super honest and trustworthy, and came on time with the bags to drive us back to the airport. It felt really refreshing to meet such a nice guy, with only good intentions. I wish it could be the same everywhere.
Beautiful Maupiti
After a short flight above the beautiful Bora Bora, we landed on the shortest airstrip of Polynesia. Only turquoise water around us, we really wondered for a while whether we would land on the ground or in the sea… The “airport” is a simple hut located on a small motu of white sand, which gives you a feeling of remoteness straight away. Short transfer by boat to the main island, where we were welcomed by Phirmin, the owner of the pension where we will be staying for the next 3 days. We jumped on the back of his truck with Nicolas, another new guest, and we drove around the island.
The main island is quite small, with only one 10 km road around it, and one main village. Everything here is very authentic as the locals fight to keep their island preserved from tourism. There is no hotels, water bungalows, or jet-skis, only low key pensions and activities organised by the residents. One of them is the daily championship of petanque. It is taken very seriously by the villagers who come every night. Some of them are very good!
After the tour of the island, we settled in our room in Phirmin and Rose’s house, and met the other guests: Lionel and Laura, a French couple travelling in the region before going back to Paris after 2 years spent in New Caledonia, and Javier, an Argentinian on holidays. We started the dinner with a singing prayer on Phirmin’s request. The rythm is quite entertaining, and I surprise myself singing it now and then since… Then dinner all together. Few jokes and that was it, the Maupiti gang was formed. Phirmin shared many stories and legends about his island. It is suposed to be the Mother island, as the atoll looks like a woman’s womb and all others have their passes opening towards Maupiti as a sign of respect. He is obviously very proud and passionate about Maupiti. It was really nice to listen to him.
The following day, Javier chose to climb again the mountain, while the 5 Frenchies went for a day trip in the lagoon with Rose Jr, one of Phirmin and Rose’s daughter and her boyfriend. We first stopped at the manta cleaning station for snorkeling. And we were rewarded by 3 big beauties. Manta rays are such special creatures, flying beautifully and gracefully in the clear waters. We spent a lot of time with them. We could see them very clearly as they were only 5 or 6 meters below the surface. Loved it!
Then second snorkeling stop in the coral garden. It was nice, more fishy than in Huahine, but the level of the sea was very low in some areas… We had to be really careful not to touch the corals. Unfortunately, one of my knee lived its own life, and I scratched myself. When I went back to the boat, I was given some lemon to put on my knee, to prevent infections. It was a great idea on the spot. But what I didn’t know, is that lemon, sun and skin is a very bad mix, as lemon is photosensitive. I will keep a big “dripping” tattoo on my knee for a while as a souvenir….
We headed towards a small motu to have lunch and spend the rest of the day there. Postcard perfect place: white sand beach, turquoise sea, and whiptail rays swimming in the shallow waters of the lagoon. While Rose was preparing the food, we walked around, and shot a movie. Lionel and Laura had to make a video for a friend of theirs. Eff was assigned movie director and me assistant. Script decided, and here they were filming “Baywatch: Maupiti”, Laura being the lady in distress, and Lionel her saviour. It was a lot of fun!!
Lunch was delicious: traditional Tahitian raw fish with coconut milk, grilled fish and chicken, and coconut taken directly from the trees, feet in the sand, under the palm trees, with good company. What else?! The guys tried to show off by learning how to open a coconut from Rose’s boyfriend. Only Nico overdelivered, as he did cut in half the coconut by only one very precise hand movement. Very impressive!! Was slightly too strong though as the water got spilled everywhere… But for a first time, he won the contest by far!
We spent most of the afternoon relaxing there, and we went back to the pension. The boys went playing petanque with Phirmin, while ladies stayed home to shower. One bathroom for 6 people, you have to be organised!
For our second and last full day, we decided to climb the mount Teurafaatiu early morning to enjoy the view. A rainshower almost stopped us, but as it did not last, we went forward with the plan. Luckily we did, as the view is definitely breathtaking! The hike up there is quite challenging. There are ropes along the way to help with steep slopes and slippery rocks. But it is so much worth the effort! Go very early in the morning though, as heat and humidity rise very fast. It was so beautiful that we could not resolve ourselves to go down. But a big dark cloud faded the colours and chased us.
No problem, it was time for breakfast and a well deserved nap. After this, Lionel and Laura went to meet other friends also staying on the island, and Nico, Javier, Eff and me crossed the lagoon to go to the Motu Aiura. The fun part is that the lagoon is so shallow that you can walk through, water to the knee or waist (depending on your height…), for 20 minutes to reach the motu. Quite unique experience! We did a bit of snorkeling, but did not see much, to Nico’s despair as he really wanted to see sharks. No sharks, no rays, it was pretty quiet, so we walked back to the main island, where we found Lionel and Laura. We all went back to the pension for a last song, last diner, and last good times for this great bunch of people.
Eff and I were flying early morning. We had a bit of a rush, as we realised our flight was leaving earlier than we thought. So we had to take an earlier transfer to the airport. Long story short, we had 15mn to pack everything and go. No time to say good bye to anyone….
Those few days in Maupiti have been amazing. Remote, authentic, beautifully preserved, it is a must go for traveller who want to experience something out of the beaten track, and live with locals for few days. For us it was even greater thanks to the amazing people we experienced it with.
Lionel, Laura, Nico, all the best in your new lives, and Javier stay the same! Your communicative laugh, your stories and eyebrow movement made our days.
Now it is time to focus on the main reason why we came to French Polynesia. Let’s fly to the Tuamotus islands for some DIVIIIIING!!
Photo gallery
