Tahaa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Commune of Tahaa |
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| Location | |
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| Location of the commune (in red) within the Leeward Islands | |
| Administration | |
|---|---|
| Country | France |
| Overseas community | French Polynesia |
| Administrative subdivision | Leeward Islands |
| Commune centre | Patio |
| Mayor | Ismaël Tuahu |
| Statistics | |
| Elevation | 0 m–590 m |
| Land area | 90.2 km² |
| Population¹ (Aug. 2007 census) |
5,003 |
| - Density | 55/km² (2007 census) |
| Miscellaneous | |
| INSEE/Postal code | 98745/ 98733 |
| 1 Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel) only counted once. | |
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Tahaa (see footnote for variant spellings) is an island located among the Society Islands, in French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. The islands of Tahaa and neighboring Raiatea are enclosed by the same coral reef, and may once have been a single island.
Administratively speaking, Tahaa and the surrounding islets emerging from the coral reef form a commune (municipality) part of the administrative subdivision of the Leeward Islands. The administrative centre of the commune of Tahaa is the settlement of Patio.
Tahaa produces 70-80% of all French Polynesia's vanilla. Because of the pervasive aroma of vanilla, Tahaa is known as the "Vanilla Island". Tahaa's pearls are of exceptional quality.
Taha'a and its small motus (islets) can be reached by boat and outrigger from Raiatea. The short sail drops visitors on a motu beach with a perfect small lagoon, and in the near distance, a view of Bora Bora framed by the coconut palms and the lagoon. This is a short day trip to a more simple Tahiti.
[edit] Note
The name Tahaa is sometimes spelled Taha’a in Tahitian, using the apostrophe (in fact a variant of it hard to differentiate from the regular apostrophe when using small fonts) to represent the glottal stop, as promoted by the Académie Tahitienne and accepted by the territorial government [1]. This apostrophe, however, is often omitted. In old travelogues, the transcription Oataha is sometimes used.
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