Trés Jolie Tahiti

Te Tiare Outrigger Beach Resort, Huahine, French Polynesia

A couple of weeks ago, I flew back into grey, blustery Melbourne, from what had been terrifically warm, bright and blue-skied Tahiti, and the Society Islands. After ten days in French Polynesia, and a fortnight on, I’m still craving butter-soft carpaccio de thon, and tangy, rich poisson cru. Some might say that eating too much tuna isn’t such a good idea, because as top-of-the-pile predators all the mercury in the ocean ends up in their tasty, deep-pink flesh. I say, too bad. Fresh tuna is too delicious. Order it from high-end restaurants like Ute Ute, and enjoy your carpaccio doused in hot olive oil, or order it from a roadside roulotte, like the below Cafe Pause in Punaauia, and be similarly blown away.

Cafe Pause, Punaauia, Tahiti, French Polynesia

Apart from the outstanding and abundant tuna, and all the attendant gorging on French pastries and other creamy, buttery delights afforded by this patch of European gastronomy in the balmy South Pacific, there was plenty of opportunity to walk it off. Canyoning through the Hiitaa Lava Tubes and hiking up to the Cascade Rupe (‘beautiful waterfall’), were two full-day, full-on excursions on the island of Tahiti, while another, half-day hike took me up and past a triplicate of waterfalls on the island of Raiatea, and yet another, shorter walk, through a fascinating archeological site on the island of Huahine. Brilliant guides on all occasions too.

While I was on Tahiti, I got in touch with the Jewish community there. I photographed the synagogue, a beautiful building so refreshingly free of the high security mandatory in most other parts of the world, and I ate Friday night dinner with the wonderful, generous Chichiportiche family.

And, in between everything, there was plenty of time to paddle in bath-warm water. Something I savoured, particularly give the chilly waters awaiting me during a winter of paddling the Bay in Melbourne. Sunset kayaking at the mouth of the Faaroa River, the only navigable waterway in Polynesia (and even then, it’s only a few kilometres long), was a transcendent experience.

I’ll post a little more about the trip in the coming weeks, but I though this taster was in order. I’ll leave you with this sunset over Moorea, as seen from the landing strip at Papeete, on my last night in French Polynesia. Check out more shots here and more adventurous pics here.

Sunset over Moorea, Faaa, Tahiti, French Polynesia

Wonderful, Wonderful, WOMADelaide

Yes, it was wet, yes it was windy, yes, it was a little chillier than your average Adelaide March, but WOMADelaide 2010 was still a whole lot of fun.

France’s Babylon Circus (pictured to the left), were totally insane, playing on the main stage to an amped-up crowd of thousands, inviting women up to dance with them, play-fighting on stage, jumping all over the place.

Ethiopia’s Mahmoud Ahmed (pictured above), as if he were still playing to the packed clubs of the Golden Age of swinging Addis, crooned and danced before an enraptured audience, with his fabulous backing band, from Brittany, the Badume’s Band.

Hungary’s Besh O Drom were my highlight. Ever since I picked up a copy of their album Cant Make Me! at Second Spin, I’ve hoped and prayed they’d make an appearance in Australia, and when they did, I was salivating with anticipation. The experience didn’t disappoint. Playing a unique sort of klezmer-meets-gypsy-meets-Hungarian-folk-meets-jazz, the band got everyone well and truly moving.

The inspiring Mariem Hassan, of Western Sahara (pictured right), gave two outstanding performances. Through a screening of her documentary, The Voice of the Sahara, and as part of her Taste the World session (in which she cooked lovely, lean South Australian camel meat), Mariem drew attention the situation in her homeland, currently partly occupied by Morocco, and struggling for independence.

Other standouts were Kamel El Harrachi, the Algerian oud player; self-proclaimed party band, The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, from Chicago; and Melbourne’s own, excellent, VulgarGrad and Unified Gecko.

It’s worth mentioning that although the festival gained an extra day, and ran from Friday night to Monday night, instead of ending Sunday night, the lineup didn’t appear to be greatly extended, so the atmosphere was less frantic than I expected. Very infrequent clashes of performance times and the fact that most artists played twice meant that I didn’t have to miss anyone. The flipside is that programming, at times, wasn’t full enough. The Saturday night and Sunday night schedule, for the last couple of hours, were virtually identical.

I was only able to be there until the Sunday night, so I did miss out on Ravi Shankar and Anoushka Shankar‘s reportedly brilliant performance.

This was my third, successive WOMADelaide, and all things being equal, I’ll be there again in 2011 — check out some more shots from this year, here.

Blue Dragon Challenge — January 2010

Did the Blue Dragon Challenge (www.wildwheelpromotions.com.au) across the picturesque Blue Tier in northeastern Tasmania. Rather hard work –  17km of climbing to begin with, and 1250m of climbing in the 48km of the first day.

Also rode the ripping singletrack at Kate Reed Reserve behind the Tasmanian Institute of Sport, and did a descent of Ben Lomond with the wonderful Ian Ferrier and crew from Mountain Bike Tasmania  (www.mountainbiketasmania.com.au)

And full cred to my teammate and riding buddy, the inimitable, singlespeeding, David ‘Romeo’ Rome.

Northeastern Tasmania — January 2010

Post Blue Dragon Challenge, met up with my lady, and we went east to the brilliant Binalong Bay, and then south to Bicheno. The Bay of Fires; Freycinet National Park; Pyengana Cheese; a rather tasty week.

Sydney and Beechworth — Christmas/NYE 09/10

It started with a 12-hour drive and ended with an asylum tour — our Melbourne-Sydney-Beechworth-Melbourne roadtrip was awesome. Sydney, I must reluctantly admit, is a truly great city. I think I’d actually be willing to trade so many fine foodie outlets for all those bike trails and paddling spots…