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Zhe best hotel-bargain has got to be a place in Tahiti near Jawntown Papeete where you pay 150 francs (S2Z-T47 fora room. Unless you want a door, then it’s 200 francs. Across from the cruising boats on Papecte’s waterfront is the Stewart Hotel (about $16), a favorite among cruising people who want to get off their boats. At the opposite end af the spectrum are the big glassy high-rise hotels. where you pay $50 and more to meet other tourists. [stumbled into a happy compromise: the aging Te Puna Be Air, a hotel four miles outside Papeete frequented by Americans and Europeans who visit Tahiti often. Quiet, charming and inexpensive by Tahiti standards (about $20-522), it’s sandwiched between tvo American-style luxury hotels and you can hike over to their white-sand beaches. One of the charms of the Te Puna Bel Air is its incoasisteacies: | met four women from Sacramento who were staying there and they had ro hot water (I did), I had a wasp nest on my balcony (they didn’t), they had ice in a refrigerator {{ didn't) but I had a bottie of Scotch (they didn't), We pooled pur resources and scon felt we had a fuxury suite. Also, we met islard people who freat the hotel bar and restatcant as a local hangout. Two of us explored a nearby reat with Amiatican seuba Givers who lve in Tahiti, and white we erarlotod on the jurtwe, tley weul down yu teet and brougnt up black coral. . Vhey calied ¢ coral whips, and it looked like wire coa changers someone had straightened out. They said it sells for about $360 a pound locally. ISLAND-JIOPPING BY BOAT : Inter-isiand freighters offer expeditions for visitors: one is a §0-day trip wich steps at 116 islands and. atofis. and it costs about $300. Fer the visitor on a brief vacation, Tohn Stegenga of the schooner “Candide,” four years out of Marina del Rey, suggested this ore which he took: . “The ‘Timi Hani,’ a 150 foot diesel freighter, feaves Papeete every Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. You sleep on deck with other travelers, including many Tahitians who sing and dance at night, and there are always people playing guitars. “The freighter puts in a Huahini, Raiatea, ‘ahaa and Bora Bora and you go eshore and buy food at the Chinese grocery stores that are always close to the docks. You cook on deck. “The ‘Timi Hani’ brings you back to Papeete on Sunday or Monday and you have spent about 700 frances ($10) plus grocerics for a week-long tour of some of the most’ beautiful islands Tithe South Pacific." : “Komnoemence DB Cooper-14595