Te Tiara Beach Resort by Daniel Scott

It is actually refreshing to arrive on nearby Huahine after spending time on the more sanitised tourist-centric island of Bora Bora. In fact, those involved in the island’s limited tourism like to say that ‘Huahine is like Bora Bora was 20 years ago’.

While that it is undeniably charming for the visitor, it does mean that getting by on tourism alone is difficult for the islanders. In the last five years, no less than six of the island’s hotels have been forced to close due to insufficient demand.

So the mere fact that the only upper eschelon property on the island – Te Tiare Beach Resort – has survived at all is testament to the enticing atmosphere and good service that it offers. It is particularly remarkable as the resort is only accessible by boat, albeit a regular free service to and from Huahine’s nearby capital Fare.

At the end of the 15 minute transfer along the green east coast of Huahine to Te Tiare Beach Resort you are serenaded a welcome by a couple of scantily-clad islanders blowing into their sizeable conches. It is guaranteed to make you smile and it is a smile you’ll continue to wear for the rest of your stay at Te Tiare.

We began our stay at one of the cheaper garden bungalows toward the back of the property and were a little disappointed with it. It was certainly spacious and comfortable enough but it felt a little boxed-in by other villas and the only view was of another bungalow and the expertly manicured tropical gardens that surrounded it. The outer trim of the low slung thatched roof – so designed to keep out the sun and preserve the cool inside – restricted even that limited vista and was a constant hazard to anybody above midget-height.

But at lunch on the first day we were approached by the helpful Hotel Manager Henri and offered a swap to an overwater bungalow. Since this was the highest level of accommodation at the resort – the lower two tiers are the garden and then the beach villas – it would have been churlish to refuse. Now this was more like it. Located at the end of a long rickety walkway, our new home was situated directly on the lagoon and faced the rippling surf break about a kilometer away, out to sea. There wasn’t much difference in the pleasantly simple and open-style interior of this bungalow, except that the bathroom now featured a tub as well as a shower. But what you are paying for is the view from the room and the extensive deck and the direct access to the lagoon from your own pontoon.

Huahine is not anything like as glamorous as Bora Bora and it is just as well to lower your expectations a little here. Minor grumbles like the spa bath not working and the bathroom flooding when you empty the tub melt into insignificance the moment you realise that Te Tiare is giving you a much more genuine taste of French Polynesia than in Bora Bora.

Service at Te Tiare is both less tourist-weary and more laissez-faire than on Bora too. One delight, as long as it is not too early in the morning, is that everybody, from chambermaids to handymen, make their way around the property pedalling a bicycle and singing sweetly. Reception and restaurant staff are nearly always ready with a smile and you put up with the occasional “pardon, monsieur, ce n’est pas possible” because you know that is the way the island works. The DVDs on your in-room TV are for instance piped through pretty much at the whim of hotel management: you wait until they are ready to put a film on and then you get what you are given. Mind you, it’s hard to imagine a more apposite choice than “Finding Nemo” with cute French voice-overs for the fish!

On arrival at Te Tiare we met a lovely older American couple from Santa Barbara, Steve and Brooke, who were on their second visit to the resort and had clearly fallen in love with the place on their first. They were full of good advice and showed the way to best experience the resort. They were often seen paddling a two-person kayak in the lagoon, heading out to the better snorkelling close to where the ocean broke onto the reef. On most evenings, they would also sit in their canoe in mid-lagoon, toasting their holiday with champagne and watching the fiery orange sun fall dramatically on the horizon. At night, they advised us to put on our under-bungalow lights and wait for the floorshow of ravenous and strange-looking fish gobbling up plancton just beneath us.

In general the reef around Te Tiare is in far better condition than that near any of the resorts on Bora, where heavy development and El Nino have had deleterious effects. Apart from making the snorkelling around your bungalow more enjoyable, it also makes it difficult to get along the walkways linking it to the rest of the resort without stopping to admire the large purple coral heads and tropical fish they attract. The snorkelling beyond the resort is even more rewarding. One afternoon, I took a half hour walk along the beach – be careful of falling coconuts – past somnolent fishing hamlets and discovered a very healthy reef offshore, with untarnished corals and the most beautiful diminutive seahorse dwelling among them.

If all you are after in French Polynesia is plenty of not much, in a scene out of a postcard, then Te Tiare is undoubtedly a good place to do it. But it would be a shame to come all this way and not dip into the local culture. And with Huahine’s capital Fare just a fifteen minute boat ride away, it is easy enough to do that.

We went into town a couple of times. The first visit was to have dinner at the Fawlty-Towers-esqu Te Marara restaurant, where virtually everything was 'off' the menu and an extravagantly drunk older Tahitian lady was causing mayhem. But what was 'on' the menu – the traditional Tahitian dish of 'poisson cru', raw fished served in coconut milk or slightly spiced Chinese-style – was tasty and the serving was generous.

But the cultural highlight of our entire trip to French Polynesia came, ironically, courtesy of an ex-pat American on a Fourwheel drive tour of Huahine, the next day. Run by Paul Atallah (www.island-eco-tours.com) who has lived on the island on and off for thirteen years, these tours are a real eye-opener to the realities of the history and everyday life in the Tahitian islands. What’s excellent is that this trained anthropologist/archeoligist/historian tour guide is full of thought-provoking insights into a place he clearly has a great love for. It just feels valuable to be in his company for a morning, being shown the impressive remains of the marae (pre-European sacred sites) in the village of Maeva. You learn much about life before Cook arrived in the late 1760s and it becomes surprisingly easy to picture the interactions between his sea-weary sailors and the sensual, open islanders. The tour takes in both the large (Nui) and small (Iti) islands of Huahine, separated, according to Polynesian legend by the god Hiro when he rammed his canoe into the land. Huahine Iti is even less developed than the large island and more stunning too, with the offshore lagoon merging almost iridescent colours, running the spectrum of blue from turquoise to the deepest of navy. There is a chance too to stop in on a vanilla shop, where an old laid-back Huahinian sells beans for about a fifth of what you’d pay elsewhere and to take a look at the island’s highly-unusual blue-eyed (too much time in the lagoon, I suspect) eels. Here Paul went beyond the call of duty by being bitten by one of the writhing monsters as he fed them mackerel in a stream.

Less satisfying but with as much potential is the diving available in the passes offshore. At present the French one-man band running the dive operation in Fare is a little lackadaisical. You’ll probably spend as much time waiting around for him to gather his customers as you will actually diving. But even an ‘ordinary’ dive off Huahine is pretty impressive. We were quickly surrounded as we dropped down onto the reef by about twenty reef sharks – of three different varieties (white and black tipped and grey) - and they are happy to come in as close as you’ll let them.

After a day out, returning to Te Tiare is very much like coming home. The main large overwater bungalow that you arrive back to incorporates reception, the restaurant, the lagoon-side bar and lounge and the occasionally open gift shop. There is also an internet connection but it only works periodically. The overall feel here is open and welcoming. It is decorated in French Polynesian style with plenty of cane furniture, mood lighting from sea-shell encrusted lamps and an ornamental canoe with a thatched sail suspended at the centre of it all from the high ceiling.

Dining at Te Tiare doesn’t exactly reach lofty heights but it is fairly economical (for ultra-expensive Tahiti) and perfectly reasonable, with an understandable leaning toward freshly caught fish, cooked Polynesian-style. A particular success are the shrimps in curry sauce and the grilled mahi-mahi pierced with vanilla sticks and garnished with hollandaise sauce but the reef lobster risotto and tuna sashimi are good too. Just avoid anything with the words ‘caesar’ and ‘salad’ in the mis-description.

In the end, it is the simplicity and laid-back nature of the experience that has you leaving Te Tiare Beach resort with the smile still in tact on your face. That, and the memory of the sun creeping up each morning from behind the palm-clad hill at the back of the resort and it setting back into the sea, directly in front of Te Tiare, each night.

For more information on Tahiti and her Islands including latest deals, contact Tahiti Tourisme on + 612 9281 6020 or visit www.tahiti-tourisme.com.au