PEACEFUL, EXCITING HOLIDAY IN TAHITI

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29401, 31 December 1960, Page 16

PEACEFUL, EXCITING HOLIDAY IN TAHITI

Laden with introductions from people here to people there and under the protection of a friendly island-hopping airline, I can only say I had a very happy time. From the moment I stepped off the T.E.A.L. DC-6, on its first flight into the new airstrip at Faa’a, I was caught up in the excitement of visiting Tahiti, cosmopolitan French Polynesia.

Tourist books had warned me of the charming custom of being draped with flowers on arrival by a pretty island girl and, perhaps, even being kissed, Frenchstyle, on both cheeks. But the guide books do not say that a strong perfume of a million flowers would strike me so forcibly. That will be—and remains—one of my strongest memories of Tahiti. Perhaps a city background and a diet of petrol fumes and city smog, had dulled my sense of smell. It took Tahiti to bring it back. Lively and Gay

French Polynesia (with Tahiti as its main island) is just what the name implies—a mixture of easy Polynesian living blended with an easy-hand French administration. Whatever we have heard of France and its customs one thing stands out: the French have not laid a heavy colonial hand on Tahiti nor changed the unspoiled day-by-day life of its

island peoples. It is cosmopolitan and gracious: it is also lively and gay with only the hilarity you can find among people without a care in the world. The climate is agreeable, the sea and land are fruitful. The Tahitians have the most marvellous physique and feminine loveliness. The fierce competition of the western world is just not there. The lovely South Seas of Tahiti have captured French sophistication and the pleasures of modern life but have stamped them strongly with a typical Tahitian leisurely pace. And this was all brought home to me —almost with a shock—when I suddenly realised that, in all the time I spent in Tahiti, I never saw a turned-down mouth. Beautiful Women

This is an island group of people who have inter-married to such an extent that you can’t help but notice the incredible mixture of Tahitian, Chinese and French features which all go to making the Tahitian woman, particularly, one of the most excitingly beautiful women in the world. And this goes with typical Polynesian grace of carriage and dignity of form. Tahitian girls are as beautiful as the books and films would have us believe.

The capital of Tahiti, three or four miles around from Faa’a (their international airport) is a fairy-tale setting of shop-crammed doorways huddled around a waterfront packed, for the most part, with passenger liners and ocean-going craft from almost every port in the world. Apart from the three large stores the' shops are small. But, if you have the same happy-go-lucky feminine disposition that I have, of always wanting more than my purse caters for, then you, too, will know the excitement of shopping in around one square mile packed to the sidewalks with every conceivable im-port-fine French wines, perfumes, clothing and jewellery from Paris . . . carved mother-of-pearl pieces ‘of a thousand kinds from the four corners of French Polynesia. Chinese shops are open all the time—and make up dresses and shoes in a twinkling—and at most reasonable cost. Mind you, shopping can be expensive, but there’s enough variety for you to use your allowance to advantage One of the most appealing sights was the new Tahitian Hotel which has its own dining room and dance floor and is just in the process of being finished. The enormous Tahiti-style building with stone floors (single storey) has its own hairdressing shop and curio shop.

You never see a man waiting at tables in Tahiti—rather it is the long-limbed, black-haired smiling Tahitian girl, becomingly draped in gay island cloth, who attends to you. Pretty girls also serve behind bars, which I think makes a bar even more attractive and loses the commercial feeling you get in New Zealand. Hotel Tahiti has a fabulous floor show: six Tahitian girls dance to the accompanying rhythm of six men. It is a highly polished performance which sets your feet a tingling—and could be outstanding anywhere in the world This leads me on to Tahitian

night life. There’s nothing jazzy about it. Rather, it’s a vague sense of 'being caught up unconsciously and carried along on a flow of interrupted Polynesian rhythm. It’s difficult to describe night club existence which people who have never experienced may liken to the quick Western pace, because, for one thing, Tahitians have no sense of time in hours or days. Life is leisurely and this is more apparent at sundown when that haunting, lively music strikes the air and Tahitian men and women give themselves up to the sheer beauty of the dance. The visitor cannot help but be caught up in the same sense of timelessness, with the heavy scent of flowers and the indefatigible playing of the bands — and it’s as easy for us to be swept along from night club to night club as it is for the Tahitians. Suddenly you find it is 4 o’clock in the morning.

In this article Mrs Paddy Walker, an Auckland fashion consultant, gives her impressions of Tahiti where 'she recently spent eight days. Mrs Walker was formerly a fashion parade organiser and compere in Christchurch.