THE END OF THE RAINBOW

Surfers are drawn to Tahiti's southeastern corner for its mythical waves, but there's so much more for adventurers - from waterfall-washed peaks to hiking trails that take over as the roads run out

- CELESTE BRASH

HOT, STICKY AND ACHING FROM TWO HOURS OF HIKING STEEP JUNGLE TRAILS, IT'S A RELIEF TO LEAP OFF THE LAVA ROCK LEDGE AND FEEL THE MASSAGING EFFECT OF THE CHURNING OCEAN AS I ENTER THE WATER BELOW.

As I resurface, my hiking companions follow me in. Soon, there are five of us treading cool water, laughing from the adrenaline of the jump. Before long, we all scramble out onto the slick rocks and scale back up the 12ft, pockmarked cliff and repeat the leap.

I’m on a guided hike around Te Pari — the wild, uninhabited seven-mile-long coastline at Tahiti’s southeastern extremity. Te Pari simply means ‘The Cliffs’ in Tahitian, and from our vantage point its stark topography is laid out before us — a series of black, volcanic rock faces plunging vertically into the water, cut by a handful of lush, steep-sided valleys. Battered by wind and sea, the area is only accessible on foot or by boat when the swell is small enough, as it is today. When the ocean is more tempestuous, parts of the trail will be swallowed by legendary waves.

More than 250,000 international travellers make it to Tahiti each year. Most stay around the island capital of Pape’ete and its airport, before hopping over to French Polynesia’s popular island paradise of Bora Bora. The trickle of visitors who make it from Pape’ete to Tahiti Iti — the smaller part of this figure-of-eight-shaped island — tend to come for the surf at its southeastern corner.