T-BEAR RETURNS TO PARADISE

 

BY TEDDY BEAR

Being on the road as much as I am, photographing and telling tales from far flung places, motorcycles and beautiful women takes it's toll on me. Just the bike events this year alone. Sturgis, Laconia, Laughlin, Cali, NYC, Vegas, Oklahoma and that's not even mentioning the air miles I've racked up going around the world for my non-biker stuff. OK, I'm not complaining, I love my work and I know I'm one lucky S.O.B. but I'm getting a little long in the tooth these days and all the traveling kicks my tired old ass.
At Sturgis this past year I had the opportunity to arrange for 14 of my pals from the Tahiti Harley Riders to come over for their first taste of the BIG RIDE. We had a blast going all over the state and I enjoyed the hell out of seeing it all again from their eyes. ( you can read all about that here in the Bikernet family Sturgis reports in the events section) After two weeks of playing tour guide for their group, they invited my wife and I to return to Tahiti to visit with them. Any chance one gets to go to Tahiti should not be missed, but to go as the guests of folks who live there is a rare experience indeed. You get to see and do things that the average tourist can't even imagine. This was a combination business/pleasure trip for sure. I had meetings scheduled to put together the "Bikers in Paradise" group trips so I can share my new adopted home away from home with all of you.

When we first arrived at the airport in Papeete, Tahiti's Capitol City on the wide-bodied Air Tahiti Nui flight direct from L.A. I was met at the airport by Jacquo and Kiki, the president of the Tahiti Harley Riders club that I did Sturgis with. I was wound tighter than a cheap watch and they had the tonic already prepared for me. Kiki told me that I looked like I was ready to explode and that they arranged for us to spend a quiet few days chilling out at one of the member's private weekend place on the beach. This sounded like just what the Dr ordered. I envisioned a little house set back from the road noise and a few days wandering around seeing the sights on Tahiti Iti ( small Tahiti). Well, they tossed our gear in the back of an old pick up and we headed away from the noise, traffic and tourists of Papeete. After about a 40 minute drive along the coast, the road just sort of ended…."Hmm", I thought, "Where's the house?" Bleary eyed, I gathered up my stuff and headed out towards a small marina. Kiki told me that the road didn't go where we were headed and just flashed one of his big grins at us.

Eugene was waiting for us at the marina with his boat. After loading up our gear, a few cases of fine French Bordeaux wine and Hinano Beer ( you can't get this golden elixir outside of Tahiti) we headed appx. 10 miles down the coast towards Ueva's beach house. On Tahiti they call them Fare's. True traditional Tahitian abodes. No electricity, no cell phones, no TV or radio. Just pure paradise A'la Gilligans Island. Idyllic to say the least. We settled in quickly. Napping on the beach in a hammock under the shade of a giant Acacia tree. We awoke to the sounds of guitars and eukelalies a few hours later to find the rest of my friends from Sturgis and a whole passel more had arrived to see us during our siesta. We needed to feed the whole group. They had brought a whole butchered baby cow and it was already roasting nicely over a fire of coconut shells. They tossed me an ice cold Hinano and asked me if I'd like to join them fishing on the reef before dinner.
I live on a lake here in Upstate NY and consider myself to be a fair hand with a rod and reel so I was anxious to toss out a few casts. Well, that's not how they do it on Tahiti. We took an old homemade outrigger canoe out to the reef where the water was shallow. The men showed me how to set up a gill net. We set it up in a semi circle facing the tide, swam away then proceeded to walk towards the net, beating sticks on the water like native bearers driving lions to the hunter. In about 30 minutes we had harvested enough yellow fin tuna, Mahi Mahi ( dolphin fish, NOT the flipper variety) and assorted other fish that I can't even pronounce to feed the whole group for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the 3 days we would be there. My wife and the other women had gone around the fare and picked ripe bananas, pineapples and mangos for the feast.
 Man, I thought I died and had gone to heaven, which knowing my past was quite a shock in itself. It seemed that everyone was musically inclined except for me and they all brought their instruments along. We spent the evenings sitting around the beach fires singing, dancing, telling stories and drinking ourselves into peaceful slumber.

One of the gents that showed up for the weekend to hang out with us was Jean-Noel. Jean Noel is in charge of sales and marketing for all the Sofitel Hotels in French Polynesia, Truly the finest hotels in the islands. He's a wise Belgian world traveled ex-biker who in his younger days rode the Paris-Dakar Rally on a bike. We hit it off famously and he was anxious to show us his famous hospitality. He had arranged rooms for us back in Papeete at the Sofitel Maeva Beach Hotel for a few nights, also for our stay on the island of Huahine for the start of the Hawakinui Va'a the worlds largest outrigger canoe race ( Tahiti's answer to the World Series and Super Bowl combined) and on Bora Bora for the finish as well as a deluxe

Beach Bungalow on my favorite island of Moorea. The Sofitel Hotels are part of the international Accor Hotel Group and are swank! I'm a dirt bag and my idea of luxury accommodations is a tent at Glenco in Sturgis. Both my wife and I were truly impressed. A room with a private balcony overlooking the pool in Papeete with a marvelous view across the channel of the island of Moorea awaited us on our return to civilization.

At 7 am the next morning at the hotel there was a knock on the door. My friend Carl had come by to drop off his Heritage Springer Softail for us to use for a few days. Quite a nice surprise indeed. Man, we rode all over Tahiti. Getting envious looks from the rest of the tourists on their mini busses being shuttled around to all the sights. We blew by them getting the thumbs up. The roads on Tahiti are perfect for riding albeit that the speed limits are quite slow compared to U.S. standards. But when in paradise you really want to take your time and see all there is to see, and there are plenty of breathtaking views around each curve. High rugged volcanic mountain peaks inland and the sea coast road will knock your socks off. Truly! Everytime we stopped at a scenic view with the tour mini busses we were besieged by tourists asking where they could rent a Harley for a day. It was my sad duty to tell them that they couldn't. But, we have arrangements with the club to put you on one while there if you're lucky enough to come along with our group when we return.

Huahine is about a 45 minute puddle jumper flight from Papeete's Faa'a airport or a 7 hour boat ride away. We hopped over to see friends with Kiki and his wife, Gloria and to catch the start of the outrigger race. Huahine is mainly an agricultural island from which come the world's most costly vanilla beans.

The beaches are pristine and it has very little tourism to speak of. The Sofitel Hotel there consists of beach and garden bungalows and it's the perfect place to head to if you need to just chill out and rid yourself of all the stress of everyday life.

Two days later found us on the most famous of the islands of French Polynesia, Bora Bora. The race was ending there and we had to be at the finish line. Team Shell was the winner and the team sponsored by the Sofitel came in a respectable 4th place out of over 100 teams. Bora Bora was the sight of a U.S.Marine battalion and hill naval top gun emplacement during W.W.II. There are a lot of blue eyed Tahitians in residence on Bora Bora as a tribute to the friendliness of the natives. Truthfully, this is a beautiful island geographically, but I found it to be a tad too touristy for my tastes. We headed over to the world famous Bloody Mary's Bar for a few cocktails and dinner. While sitting at the bar, I felt a tap on my shoulder. Rick, Bloody Mary's manager and a biker himself from Montreal recognized me and wanted to say hello. We had a few drinks together and he asked me if he could put my card up on the board behind the bar and we took a photo together for their celebrity wall of fame. He told me that they don't get too many American Bikers there and it was a treat for him. Who am I to say no. Who would have thought all those years ago that I would be famous on Bora Bora? (laughing).
The next stop was undoubtedly my favorite place on earth. The island of Moorea. Moorea is about a 45-minute high-speed ferryboat ride across the channel from Papeete. Lush, tropical, unspoiled by tourism as of yet with just a few hotels scattered along it's beautiful coast. There's enough to keep you busy if you want to go that route and it's secluded to relax on if you don't want to be bothered. Again, Jean-Noel had arranged a deluxe air-conditioned beach bungalow at the Sofitel La Ora Hotel for us. About 5 paces from the best beach on the entire island. The hotel is about 3 miles from the ferry dock and offers the most spectacular view of Tahiti across the channel you can imagine.
 There we met up with friends we had made on our last trip there. I had previously phoned the world famous Master Tahitian Tattooist, Roonui and his charming wife Lynda to let them know we were returning. They invited us to their home and Roonui showed us the new artist studio he had build for himself on the side of the hill behind his home. Studio hell, I could live there for the rest of my life and never want to leave the view of the ocean and surf crashing on the reef over the top of the coconut palms.

We had dinner together that night and Roonui, upon seeing the tattoo he had done for me the year previous thought that I needed a new arm band just below it to truly set it off. Now you never argue with an artist, especially about his art. He asked me to be at his shop the next day to have him do it, Traditional hammer and nail style again! After having been tattooed the year before in the traditional method, the previous fear was gone and I arrived bright and early for the addition to my collection. We hung around with Roonui and Lynda who had also become fast friends with my wife. I was tattooed while the ladies caught up on all the latest gossip and U.S. fashion trends or whatever women really talk about when their men are pre-occupied elsewhere. That evening, They came back to our hotel to hear a very good Brazilian trio play by the beach. After the show, we got together with some of the staff that I had met previously at our beach bungalow and continued the party into the wee small hours.

The next day found us heading back to Papeete to hang out with the Tahiti Harley Riders for sadly our last two days in paradise. We stayed at Kiki's home and he threw us a bash that we will remember for a long time to come. Our last day was finally upon us. Our flight left just before mid-night. Kiki gave me his Harley for the day and Maggie and I rode all around the island again saying our far-thee-wells to friends old and new. Kiki had asked us to be back at his home around sunset. When we arrived, it seemed that just about every motorcycle on the island was there. The music was playing, people were partying and the Hinano was again flowing. Too short a while later, The group put out bags in Kiki's truck once again and gave us a royal procession back to the airport for our trip back to New York. At the airport, bikes lined the no parking zone as they waited for us to check in two hours before our return flight. The throngs of tourists wearing their traditional single strand of farewell shell lei's gawked at us in awe as we waited bedecked in so many native shell lei's that only left our eyes and Tahiti Harley Riders baseballs caps visible above them. We went over to the airport lounge and awaited our departure with our friends. We were the last to board the Air Tahiti Nui flight back to L.A. and as we took our seats the flight attendants came over and said, " Well, it's easy to see who on this plane had the best time in Tahiti" I just grinned and settled back in my seat for the long ride home.

Teddy Bear

 

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