Hinano Girl
You will see this Tahitian looking girl a lot as you walk around Tahiti, on the back of cars, on t-shirts, murals, surf boards, even door handles. Sometimes she is wearing Tahitian clothing, other times not and just a mere naked outline.
The girl actually comes from the Hinano brand of beer which is brewed locally in the valleys of Tahiti Nui and now distributed to a select group of countries around the world.
The design and the beer dates back to around 1955 when the very first “Heiva I Tahiti” cultural festival was created.
Since then the design has …
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Car License Plates
Around 1973, French Polynesia started issuing license plates for private vehicles in the form of a number followed by the letter P, for Private. e.g.
00001 P
As more and more cars were registered, the number was simply incremented sequentially. So these days, you can easily see roughly how old a car is, or whether its newer than your neighbors by comparing numbers.
Whilst you’re in Tahiti it is a lot of fun to see which is the oldest and the newest car you can spot on the islands.
It is now 2016, and the new car number plates are …
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Flowers
Tahiti is a tropical island filled with all kinds of fragrant flowers. One of the most notable is the Tiare (or Tahitian Gardenia). The Gardenia is present around the world with 5 to 9 petals, but the majority of the Tahiti variety have exactly 7 petals. It was first recorded around 1770 during Captain Cooks voyage.
The Tiare flower is now the National Flower of both Tahiti and the Cook Islands and you can see it prominently displayed on the tail of Tahiti Nui airlines planes.
Just like Hawaii and other areas of Polynesia, Tahiti has a tradition of wearing …
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Plane Spotting
There are various planes to see around Tahiti Faa’a airport.
The main plane to see is the Airbus A300 of Air Tahiti Nui which flies from Papeete to Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Aukland. There are about 5 of these planes in use and they are each named after a different island.
The next plane to see is the ATR 42 of Air Tahiti which flies to the various islands such as Bora Bora, Tahaa, Huahine, etc.
Another plane to see is the Britten-Norman BN2T which flies exclusively to Tetiaroa Island which was formerly owned by the actor Marlon Brando, and …
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Street Art
In 2014 and 2015, Tahiti invited artists from all over the world to participate in something called the “Ono’u Festival of Graffiti and Street Art”, where each were given pieces of wall in which to make a large work of art.
As a result of this, today, you can still see exhibits remaining on various walls and buildings around Papeete town.
The murals are usually bright and colorful and have Tahiti native themes. One was even made into a commemorative stamp by the post office.
Lets hope the festival returns in future years as there is currently no sign of …
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Stray Dogs
Apart from the wild chickens, another thing to look out for are stray dogs which roam the streets particularly around the Faa’a neighborhood and in the more remote areas of the island.
They’re not particularly dangerous, however they can appear threatening because of their large size.
Most are just unwanted pets presumably because the cost of feeding became too much, who just roam the streets looking for scraps and generally feeling sorry for themselves.
If renting a car, be careful not to hit one of these poor guys as they cross the road without a care in the world. Sometimes …
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