The Most Enchanting Tahiti Garden

Tahiti, French Polynesia: There are two lovely Tahiti gardens to explore: the Harrison Smith Botanical Garden, also known in French Polynesia as “Jardin Botanique de Papeari,” and the Vaipahi Water Gardens, “Jardins d’eau de Vaipahi.”  

You can easily visit both in a day as they are 2 minutes apart by car on the island’s south side.  

Harrison Smith Botanical Garden features a magical mape forest and the flowing rivers of water lilies enchanting those who visit.

Vaipahi Water Gardens

The Water Gardens Vaipahi, also known as Jardins d’eau de Vaipahi, are a sacred place on the island of Tahiti. The centerpiece is the Vaipahu Falls, where according to legend, you will experience the “mighty breath of the spirit of the waters.”

For the complete garden tour of the Vaipahi Water Gardens, click on this featured post: The Beauty and Majesty of the Water Gardens Vaipahi Tahiti.

The Vaipahi Gardens are well maintained and draw more visitors than the Harrison Smith Botanical Garden, with majestic waterfalls and hiking trails.

Whether you are planning a trip to the Tahiti Botanical Gardens or are just interested in seeing them from afar, the Harrison Smith Botanical Garden (Jardin Botanique de Papeari) is located at the end of the post to assist with planning your trip. The Visitors Guide to the Water Gardens of Vaipahi is located at the end of the linked post, The Beauty and Majesty of the Water Gardens Vaipahi Tahiti.

Harrison Smith Botanical Garden

A Vision for a Tahiti Garden in Papeari

The unusual story of this garden goes back to the early 1900s and weaves together a story of an American Harvard graduate, Hollywood movie stars, acclaimed authors, a famous French Post-Impressionist artist, and heads of state. Their stories intersect on a small French Polynesian Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  It’s quite a fascinating story.

Harrison Smith’s Motu Ovini

This Tahiti Garden owes its existence to an American, Harrison Willard Smith: Professor of Physics at the famed Massachusetts Institute of Technology, World War 1 ambulance driver, and heir to a US property that produced enough oil to allow him to live a life of his choice.

Smith planted 250 new varieties of flowers and exotic trees on the land. Most of the plants helped improve life for the people on the island.

After Smith died in 1947, the Garden changed management several times, bringing us to the garden’s current state.

Harrison Smith Botanical Garden History

How did the creator of this garden, Harrison Smith of Boston high society, end up digging in the dirt in Tahiti until his death?

In 1903, Harrison Smith took a break from teaching at MIT and embarked on a round-the-world trip that included Tahiti. At age 37, he gave up his teaching career to move to Tahiti to live his dream. 

Smith’s straightforward goal was to do good in the world while living a simple life.   

Truly altruistic, he freely shared his love and knowledge of tropical plants, providing cuttings, seeds, and fruits to anyone who asked. He was affectionately known among the locals as the “Grandfather of the trees” for all the plantings on his land, which he called Motu Ovini (Wild Islet).

Over time, Motu Ovini became a meeting place for sharing plants and botanical knowledge.

Harrison Smith died in 1947 after a long illness. He was buried on the mountainside overlooking the garden. His tombstone read: Harrison Smith: A Good Man.

Smith planned to continue the garden by giving the land to Jean-Marie Boubee, the head of the Tahitian Agricultural Service. However, the size of the gardens and the maintenance were too much, and Boubee sold the land to Cornelius Crane, a wealthy American, to carry on Harrison’s legend.  

Cornelius Crane was forced to make a deal with the government to obtain the land. He agreed to give the government of French Polynesia 18 hectares of the garden that lay along the sea in the event of his death as long as two conditions were met:  

1. Preserve the land as a botanical garden

2. Give the public access to the property

In the event of non-compliance, the property will revert to the heirs of Crane.

So in 1962, the government of French Polynesia gained control of the 18 hectares by the sea. The gardens would go through the management of several governmental agencies, most recently landing under the purview of the French Polynesian Board of Tourism in 2017.

The Gauguin site was a successful museum for years, attracting the likes of Alfred Hitchcock and Brigitte Bardot, along with General De Gaulle of France and the President of Italy. The museum fell into disrepair in 2013.  

A Botanical Garden in the Rough

The Garden is a diamond in the rough. The entrance isn’t very welcoming. 

 In fact, you’ll wonder if you made a good decision to visit when you pull into the empty parking lot.  

Chickens and roosters peck about. A chain link gate is pulled back a few feet to let the visitor pass. But once you step through the gates and move further into the garden, you’ll see Harrison Smith’s vision. 

Floating Tahiti Flowers

A rainbow of colors floats in the lake with the sea as the backdrop.  Water lilies fill the lakes and rivers flower, reminiscent of a Monet Painting.

The water channels that feed into the lake are also filled with water lilies curving through the garden from one side to the other. 

The Galapagos Turtle

Immediately off to the left of the entrance to the Garden is the enclosure for a beloved Galapagos turtle.  

The gate to the enclosure was locked, but visitors could walk around the side and meet the octogenarian, Te Ara U’i.  

There were originally two Galapagos turtles in the botanical garden, a male and a female. Both were captured in a 1929 zoological expedition led by the Governor of Pennsylvania to collect specimens for the United States National Museum of Natural History. 

On arrival in Tahiti, the Governor offered two turtles to his American friend, the writer Charles Nordhoff, who you may recognize as the co-author of Mutiny on the Bounty.  Nordhoff lived in Tahiti, where he wrote adventure books, many of which were turned into Hollywood films.

After Nordhoff and his family left Tahiti, the turtles were rehomed several times, eventually ending up at the Garden around 1965.  

French Artist Paul Gauguin

In the corner of the Harrison Smith Botanical Garden is the former home of Paul Gauguin, the famous French painter and frenemy of the artist Van Gogh. Gauguin arrived in 1891 and did some of his most impressive works here.  

Renovation of the Harrison Smith Garden and Gauguin Compound

The second phase will focus on landscaping the botanical garden, the Motu Ovini, and the remodel of the former Gauguin Museum into a space called “Maison Harrison Smith” for activities related to botany.

The Most Enchanting Tahiti Garden

Upon exiting the Harrison Smith Botanical Garden, a motorcycle maneuvers through the narrow front gate and heads to the turtle enclosure. It looks like lunchtime for Te Ara U’i.  

Of the two Tahiti gardens, the Harrison Smith Garden and the Vaipahi Water Gardens, the Smith Garden was my favorite. I loved the unique experience of the quiet, majestic Mapé Forest and the abundance of water lilies in this quiet, serene place.  During my visit, I saw no other visitors besides a family picnicking by the sea.