Huahine: Beyond The South Seas And Bungalows

It sounds like the start of a novel: "I awoke in a garden, on a faraway Tahitian island." But this isn't fiction. I left an overwater hut on Bora Bora to venture out to Maitai Lapita Village on Huahine, where I'm ensconced in greenery.

There are few tourists and one supermarket on the island. On a deck overlooking the pond, I can hear the birds at dawn and the fish at dusk. There's no tide. No crashing waves. It's a quiet Tahiti that has yet to change.