The High Cost of Food in Tahiti

The cost of living in the islands is not what I was expecting. Yes I did think things would be more expensive but I was not expecting the jump in prices that I have been seeing. A few days ago my five year old Teyauna left her sandals at a cold fresh water spring we went swimming at. I didn’t realize it until the person driving us took us to another stop 30 minutes later and Teyauna was walking around barefoot. She informed me that she thinks she left her shoes in the car… but they were not there. Today I went to the largest Walmart style store called Carrefour to see if we could find her some new sandals. I was rather shocked to see flip-flops/plastic sandals were about $25 and the cheapest crocks for Teyauna were about $10. I should have known after spending a week here. It’s hard for us to go to the grocery store without spending $100 to $200.

Fortunately the French government fixes the price on certain essential food items such as baguettes (50 cents each), eggs ($3.50 / dozen), milk ($1.15/litre), flour, fuel ($1.69/litre) and certain building supplies but the list of these items is rather small. As a result a box of taco shells are $8, a bag of Doritos costs almost $5 and nectarines are $5 a pound. The cost of food is probably due to the fact that most items have to be imported and arrive by ship or airplane. I think that at least fifty percent of the income of the local residents must go toward the food they eat.

Even with these high costs they are probably only going to get higher if we insist on buying anything other than the basic necessities that the locals eat. These are the prices of items in a big department store, when we were in the little islands they were much, much higher. When in Rome do as the Romans and when in Polynesia, eat as the Polynesians (or pay the price). As we travel to other islands we will continue to do our best to eat the local fruits, fish and other items to keep our costs down but when trying to buy enough for nine people a good portion of our budget can’t help but be dedicated to what we are eating.

My mom is flying in from Hawaii in two days and so we sent of a list of the clothing and foods that we are unable to get or that are costly to get here in French Polynesia. While we definitely can do without, why not fill up the airline baggage allowance with some treats and other items from home? We are looking forward to her coming to visit us for two weeks and plan to travel around a few islands while she is here with us.

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We are all doing well in Papeete, Tahiti. We should be here until about Aug 5th visiting Tahiti, Moorea, Raiatea, Tahaa, Huahine and Bora Bora before moving on to Niue, Tonga, Samoa, Wallis, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and then Australia.