Point Venus
Pointe Vénus
A black-sand beach and lighthouse on Tahiti's north coast, where Captain Cook observed the transit of Venus in 1769 and where HMS Bounty once anchored.
Point Vénus lies in Mahina, about 10 km east of Papeete, at the northernmost tip of Tahiti. In 1769, Captain James Cook of the British ship Endeavour set up an observation station here to observe the transit of Venus and calculate the distance between the Earth and the Sun, which gave the point its name. In 1788, Captain Bligh's Bounty also anchored here to collect breadfruit saplings, and the famous Bounty mutiny followed. The white lighthouse on the headland, built in 1867, is one of the oldest lighthouses in French Polynesia. Around it stretches a volcanic black-sand beach fringed by coconut palms, its scenery quite unlike the white-sand beaches, and on weekends local families come here to picnic and swim. The headland also has a Cook monument and a memorial to the first London Missionary Society landing party. Admission is free. Getting there: about 20 minutes' drive from Papeete, or take the island's circular bus. Note: the black sand gets very hot at midday, so wear shoes. There are rip currents offshore, so heed the warning signs.
Opening hours
All day
Nearby sights
- Lafayette Beach
- James Norman Hall's House
- Tomb of King Pomare V
- Papenoo Valley
- Fautaua Waterfall
- Papeete Market
- Les Roulottes at Place Vai'ete
- Notre-Dame Cathedral of Papeete