Hotel Taharaa, Papeete, Tahiti (hotel)

That's a great tale of the trail, No No.

Part of me still wishes we would have continued on that trail, but the cautious side of me is still glad that we made it to Rarotonga instead of sitting in a Tahitian jail :wink:
Would have loved to explore & document the place in it's current state on film....

What a great story No No! While growing up my family never dared to dream of let alone visit such an exotic locale. By sharing your insider stories I've been able to visit this grand hotel in some ways better than if I had been a guest. Thanks!

Thanks for the kind words. Below, is a summary of the hotel history that may help you understand where your experience with the hotel fits in the big scheme of things.

Societe Hoteliere De Tahara’a
Beginning to End
This is the sad story of arguably the finest architectural achievement in hotel design in Polynesia and its tragic slide into ruin. I will attempt to summarize the ownership of the hotel so that you can better understand its fall from grace if you ever get a chance to see it.
• 1966…. Joe Long negotiates a loan with the French Government, takes on Pan American Airlines as a partner, buys Tahara’a Hill, establishes the project team and work gets underway.
• 1967…. Hotel construction commences. At that time, I went to Pateete to select a nurseryman and start growing most of the plants required to landscape the property. A small Pitch & Put golf course was laid out at that time.
• 1969…. The grand opening followed two years of design, construction, decorating, landscaping, staffing and training. It was operated by International Hotel Corporation, a subsidiary of Pan American Airlines.
• 1974….The operating agreement with IHC was terminated and the day to day management of Tahara’a was handled locally for the next thirteen years.
• 1987…. Joe Long sold the hotel, thus ending a 21 year long love affair with Lone Tree Hill, Tahara’a. The buyer was Adriaan Zacha, the head of a Hong Kong Investment Company.
• !988…. The hotel was renamed the Hyatt Regency Tahiti.
• 1989…. Zacha then sold the hotel to a Japanese investment company called E.I.E.
• 1994…. E.I.E. in turn, sold the hotel, still operating under the moniker of Hyatt Regency Tahiti, to a holding company named Societe Hoteliere De Tahara’a. The head of this group was Gaston Flosse, the president of French Polynesia.
• 1995….Another group, whose majority shareholder is Reginald Flosse, Gaston’s son, purchased the hotel.
• 1997….Hyatt continued as the operator until their contract ran out in May. Flosse changed the name again to Hotel Royal Matavai and operated it until he promptly closed its doors on 1.1.98. Employees were laid off, furnishings were sold, as great plans for an 18 month renovation were revealed. Nothing ever happened and the hotel fell into disrepair! Ten years passed. Decay set in. Then….
• 1998-2008… A rebirth was announced, as plans to turn the old Tahara’a into a residence called Matavai Bay by 2010 were revealed. Well……just more smoke. Joe would turn over in his grave!
• The one bright spot in this tragic tale is the fact that the gardens, for whatever reason to this day, are still maintained and the Tiki still stands tall!(47 years later) A fact that is not lost on me. Jan Prince, a writer for the Tahiti Beach Press, told me that this last July, during the Annual Festival of Music, a concert was held in the gardens. I wish I could have been there.

Just a few thoughts that came to mind in the past week. When I arrived in Tahiti, I was so eager to please Joe that I tried to be every where at once and do everything right and make no mistakes. So, when I was out in the field watching the work and I saw something that was not being done correctly, I would rush over and say, no! no!.....do it this way....or no! no! do it that way. That scenario unfolded so many times the workers began to say....Here comes "no no." That name stuck while I was there. In construction, everyone picks up a nick name. That is why I chose "no no" for my username on Tiki Central.

Very interesting that the hotel was in operation for only 28 years, especially since Tahiti seems to have developed into a very desirable high end vacation destination. Did the locals have any aversion to the use of tikis? The Coco Palms in Kauai didn't have any, supposedly out of respect for local customs. Also, thanks for the insight to your TikiCentral name!

Hey TropicDrinkBoy....
To answer the first part of your question, I believe that towards the end of his life, Joe Long lost the fire in his belly to keep his Tahara'a dream alive. After the sale, it was all down hill from there on out! To answer the second part of your question, Tiki is an integral part of Polynesian culture. The Marquesas were thought to be the point of origin for Tikis and they can now be found throughout Polynesia. They are considered protective statues, each with its own personality. The Easter Island Tikis, known as Moais, are much larger: some weighing in at over 10 tons. How they got there is still a mystery. I carved one out of volcanic stone for Joe upon my return from Tahiti and it still has a place in their gardens. The main aversion to Tiki amongst Polynesian natives is voiced by the large segment of the population that has converted to Christianity. As you may know, Christians believe that there is but one God, and they do not worship idols which they consider false gods.

[ Edited by: No No 2013-10-13 19:49 ]

More thoughts....
On my first flight to Tahiti, I was accompanied by George Whisenand, Architect/Civil Engineer for the project. George was uniquely qualified to solve the challenges presented by this project. In the 10 hours we sat side by side, I learned more about Tahara'a than I could have ever hoped to have learned in any other setting. The foundation for my work had been laid....thank you George.
The site for Tahara'a was a difficult one....remote, steep, unforgiving and full of surprises. Added to the physical limitations, were the local building code requirements. The goal was to construct a 12 story, 200 room hotel, the likes of which had never been seen before. The building code required that no building could be any taller than 2/3 the height of the tallest palm tree on the island!! What?? We needed to circumvent this requirement. So George reasoned that if each floor of the hotel was an entity unto itself, both structurally and architecturally, the design would comply with the code. He flipped the hotel upside down, staggered the floors to make them separate structures and cascaded them down the cliff. Floor 12 instantly became floor 1 and the design problem was solved. Compaction testing of the slope confirmed that the weight bearing capacity of the soil would not have held up such a tall building anyway. Many other construction difficulties were overcome including the weight of the concrete and the concrete blocks manufactured on site. Originally, they were way too heavy. We finally found some light volcanic gravels to use....all turned out well.
The next adventure is the saga of the hammer head crane.

[ Edited by: no no 2013-10-14 13:59 ]

Most high rise building projects require the use of a crane. Tahara'a was no exception. this is a story of the hammer head crane used at Tahara'a.
Tex, the project super, was in his job site trailer, looking out the window over Matavai Bay. He was anxious and cranky. Mumbling under his breath about some innocuous construction problem, we all knew the real reason for his irritability. Where was his house boat? It was several days overdue. With his binoculars he scanned the horizon all the way to Moorea. Then without warning, he let out a jubilant cry...There it is!! There it is!! He jumped up, ran out, got in the Rover and headed to Papeete. It seemed that Tex had hired a sailor of sorts to bring his house boat from Sausalito,(near San Francisco) to Tahiti. A daunting task, to be sure, for the very best of nautical men. Tex was happy. The red haired, bearded adventurer was not so happy. He was out of a job. But Tex had a solution to that problem. See that pile of crates over there, Tex said with a smile,... those are crane parts. That over there, is the concrete pad where it gets built. I am going to sail my house boat to Moorea for 2 weeks. When I get back, if it is standing tall, you have a job....see you later. Oh, by the way, the assembly instructions are written in French......The sailor became a hammer head crane operator.

Time passed and things were not well with red beard. I am very sorry, but I do not remember his true name. It seems that he contracted a parasite in his belly while in Central America that went undetected for months after he arrived with Tex's boat in Tahiti. He lost a lot of weight and all his energy. He was put on "rest leave" so that medical treatment could bring him back to good health. An understudy of sorts, "the wild A-rab" took his place. In general terms, he operated the crane with reckless abandon. In actuality, he somehow got the job done fast, efficiently and safely which was a key factor in keeping the project on schedule.
Let me digress for a moment and explain one of the most consternating problems this project faced. In simple terms....French, English, Tahitian. Arabic, German and Chinese. Maybe there were more languages spoken that I was not aware of, but those were the ones I knew of. To communicate to "The wild A-rab" just exactly what I wanted was done with sign language and a wing and a prayer.
As the project came out of the ground, rising from floor 12 to floor 1, There were certain landscape elements that needed to be put in place. Palm trees needed to be planted between the floor groupings. With a dump truck and back-hoe we went into the countryside, bought full grown palm trees from land owners for $25 +/- dug them up and brought them back to the site. Large holes were dug between the rooms. The palm trees were placed in nets and secured to the crane drop line. I mounted the root ball and away we went!! I directed the decent, twelve stories down, with hand signals. The tree was successfully placed in the planting hole. The process was repeated many times over.

Here I am again. Well it has only been 16 months since I last posted so I should not have forgotten too much of what I wanted to say. I found the above picture of Tahara'a and thought it would bring back some memories to those who have been there. I have to leave for a bit. More to come. The picture was sent to me over a year ago by Jan Prince who lives in Tahiti. because of my limited computer expertise, I was unable to figure out how to up load/down load content until now. I have recently found many pictures taken during the construction that I will try and figure out how to scan and upload to the Tiki Central site. (I have no idea how to do what I just said.)

[ Edited by: No No 2015-03-20 19:31 ]

No No,

Thanks for all of your stories and history. I spotted another postcard of the Big Guy under the A-Frame before the knee surgery.

And I found a great New York School of Interior Design exhibit about the Inter-Continental hotels and Neal Prince that included some really nice photos from the Taharaa Hotel.

The inside Tiki bar.

I wonder if the Tikis and panels are from Oceanic Arts as well?

The outside bar.

The pool, what a view from the top!

Another bar.

The Captain Cook restaurant.

and a well appointed guest room.

Here is the text from the exhibit:

DC

No No,

Also looking forward to you learning to scan and posting more photos.

DC

[ Edited by: Dustycajun 2015-12-21 16:56 ]

On 2015-12-21 16:53, Dustycajun wrote:
No No,

Thanks for all of your stories and history. I spotted another postcard of the Big Guy under the A-Frame before the knee surgery.

And I found a great New York School of Interior Design exhibit about the Inter-Continental hotels and Neal Prince that included some really nice photos from the Taharaa Hotel.

The inside Tiki bar.

I wonder if the Tikis and panels are from Oceanic Arts as well?

The outside bar.

The pool, what a view from the top!

Another bar.

The Captain Cook restaurant.

and a well appointed guest room.

Here is the text from the exhibit:

DC

Wow, what a VIEW that place had! No No, thanks for the great stories, especially how the giant Maori Tiki was not allowed in and involuntarily became the the front entrance icon.

DC, the Marquesan Tiki on the right is pretty certainly from O.A., here's their catalog:

The panel also has Marquesan designs on it but it looks like it was done locally.

DC, do you know what year was the New York School of Interior Design exhibit?

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2015-12-21 18:22 ]

On 2015-12-21 18:19, bigbrotiki wrote:

DC, do you know what year was the New York School of Interior Design exhibit?

Bigbro,

January 2013. Here is a link to the exhibit. It contains photos of many other Inter-Continental hotels as well.

http://www.nysid.edu/news-events/press-release/neal-prince

DC

Well, it has been 19 months since I have been on the Tiki Central site and I am looking forward to adding a few more comments and pictures. My long absence was for good reason. My wife had a heart attack followed by 4 open heart surgeries and and a long recovery period. Taking care of her and our home on 10 acres proved too much for me to handle. We moved to a much smaller home close to town, doctors and shopping. All was well, until I had a heart attach followed by a 4 way bi pass and valve replacement. Now we take care of each other. We are leading a much slower life. Just yesterday, the Cardiologist gave me the green light to resume a normal life (with some restrictions) My next post will continue my recollections of Taharaa.

Just saw this post
It was an awesome hotel
I was there in ??? 1990 I believe
No iPhone then or I would have 1000 photos I’m sure

Cheers

Another tourist photo of a girl, the Tiki, and the A-Frame!

DC