Day 14
I woke up this morning and jumped up to look out the window to see the glorious Tahitian sun. It was like a typhoon! The palm trees were bent over from the rain and wind and the hotel workers were hunkered down in the building outside our window. The ferry was actually heading out, but I couldn’t believe it would go out in such a storm. As I turned to tell Guy about the impending evacuation, I saw ants crawling all over the cookies they had left for us in our room. We decided to go ahead and pack up since we wanted to catch the noon ferry over to Moorea Island where our paradise awaited us. We checked out and the lady said that a cab ride from the airport was 1500 Franks, but after 8pm it became 2800 Franks. (some kind of night time charge) So our lady last night didn’t rip us off, just the island in general seems to be a rip off. I asked the concierge what the forecast was for today and tomorrow and you would have thought I’d asked her to wash my underwear. She mumbled something under her breath and I had to say “I’m sorry?” to get her to repeat the words cloudy with rain. We called a taxi to take us to the ferry and he said to hurry up if we wanted to make it in time. I don’t see what the hurry is, I can see the ferry dock from my room! Well, we pulled out onto the road and I saw why. The traffic was horrible! We got into town and it was really dirty and people loitering all over. Locals it looked like. Just sitting along the road. I’m not sure if they were waiting for the bus or what, but I would be a bit afraid to shop in that area. So far Tahiti looks pretty bad and with the rain out, it doesn’t seem like such a good idea now. Anyway, our driver drove like a mad man but got us to the ferry in plenty of time. He said one of you get out and get tickets, the other one stay with me. So Guy got out to get tickets and he pulled the taxi up to the ramp where they had a place to put your luggage. He hoisted our bags into the bin and I paid him and thanked him. At least he was helpful in showing us what to do.
The ferry was huge and actually really nice inside. The upstairs had hard wood floors and leather seats that reclined. It had a TV show on that was obviously a soap opera, and I had no idea what they were saying, but I was depressed by the time I got to the other side. One lady cried the entire time. The main character was a bad looker like Fabio (that long haired dude from the butter commercials years ago). We laughed. - If the weather was good, I think the scenery would have been amazing, but the low clouds blocked the view of the mountains. Once we got off the boat, we got our luggage right away and an older gentleman took us in his cab to the hotel. He was nice and his English was pretty good. It was quite a ride to the hotel, which was on the other side of the island so I knew the price was going to be pretty steep. He said you couldn’t get lost here since there is only one road which was about 40 miles that goes around the perimeter of the island. He gave us his card and said he’d be happy to come and get us tomorrow. Just call him about 2pm and he’d be here at 3:30. His ride was 3000 Franks. So no wonder he’d like us to call him. After he dropped us off he could just quit for the day. Ha ha.
This is where our sunless paradise begins….we walk into the hotel and 3 people are greeting us and have big smiles on their faces. One lady introduced herself and shook Guys hand. She is the one who Guy had emailed back and forth with when booking the room. They gave us moist towels while standing at the desk along with a cold glass of iced tea. It was really good. After checking in, a young man took us in a golf cart to our hut. He pointed out the highlights of the hotel and carried our bags in. In our room, which is the coolest room of all time, had fresh flowers lying all around and we had slippers on our bed. I took some pictures real fast before we got it cluttered up with all our bags. What a room! Off the back there is a deck with lounge chairs and a table and chairs, then just to the left the stairs went down to our own private dock. From there you could look down into the crystal clear water and see coral and the most unusual colorful fish swimming all around. It was amazing.
Now we need food. We walked up to the restaurant and it wasn’t raining, just heavy clouds all around. We got a perfect table with a view to die for and service was fast and the food was good. I had a steak sandwich and Guy had a tuna steak sandwich. His was better than mine, so he split with me so I could enjoy his, too. *smile* After lunch we hustled back to our room as we could feel the 24 hour clock ticking down in paradise. We got back to our room and Guy jumped in for a swim. It was a bit too breezy for me and as much as I wanted to put my swimsuit on, I was just a bit chilly. I laid on the dock on a towel in some pathetic sunless attempt for a tan and watched the fish. They entertained me to no end. Guy crumbled up some Pringles we had in our back pack and you should have seen them coming! Big ones, plain ones, tiny gorgeous ones…what a blast. I got a few shots and took some moves. One of those little suckers had TEETH and you could hear him CRUNCHING the chip as he grabbed it. It was awesome.
Well, the drizzle began, so I downloaded my pictures and sifted thru them to put on the blog for today. There is internet here, but we have to go up to the bar area and pay of course, but that doesn’t really surprise us.
OK, so my first impressions of Tahiti were bad, but this is really paradise. Man, if the sun were out and I had a week just to lay here and watch the fish, swim and snorkel, I’d do it again in a flash. I think the island of Tahiti may not be too great and it looked like it wouldn’t be too safe at night, but our cabbie today said the island of Moorea only has 12,000 people on it and everyone works and everyone knows each other. He said it is very safe. The island is really beautiful with tall pointy mountains. Reminds me of the King Kong movie as we pulled up. The road only goes around the bottom of perimeter and really nothing is up in the mountains except lots of palm trees and bush. Quite lovely.
The humidity is about 214% here, so my hair is not really a sight to behold. Even fixing it will last about 10 minutes. We are contemplating just room service tonight, just to enjoy the solitude of our hut. Probably a once in a life time opportunity. We are staying here on Starwood points, but if we were paying for it, it would be $800 per night. So this is probably it. Maybe I’ll stay awake all night so I can not sleep away this opportunity.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Day 13
Day 13
We were up and about early so as to be ready for Rhondda at 10:30. She was right on time and was a real delight. She took us around town and showed us the local sights. She was full of fun information and treated us just like she had known us for years. She took us to a beach that had a lovely café where we had brunch. I ordered pancakes, but what that really meant was crepes, which was even more of a treat as I love crepes. Guy and Rhondda both had scrambled eggs and toast. Everything was all piled on top of each other. ;) We had a great conversation as Rhondda is a trauma nurse at Auckland’s largest hospital and apparently has a very important job there. She travels all over for work and pleasure and was full of great stories about her and her mom. After brunch she drove us around a bit more and headed for the airport. She hated to drop us off early, but we assured her that was just fine. We told Rhondda that next time we were in Auckland we’d call her and treat her to dinner. She said next time we come to Auckland we can stay at her house. What a sweet lady. I wish we had more time to spend with her. That just added to our already sad faces to leave New Zealand. What a magical place. Two weeks isn’t even close to being enough time to see it all. At least we have our bearings now and when we go back we’ll know where to fly in and out of better and how long it takes to get from one location to another.
It was a good thing we got there a bit early, because the line to check in for Air Tahiti Nui was LONG. We stood in line for well over an hour and by the time we went thru security, I had NO TIME TO SHOP FOR DUTY FREE ITEMS because our flight was already boarding! Bummer! But we loaded onto our plane, which was huge and I just don’t see how those suckers take off. It was a nice flight with only minor bumps and was only 4 ½ hours long. I had dinner, which was actually pretty good and watched two movies, only snoozing for about 45 minutes. It was dark when we arrived so we saw nothing, but I get a feeling it is like Jamaica….some shady areas that you’d have to watch out for and then your nice resorts. We got some money exchanged at the airport in Auckland so we could pay for a cab to the hotel. I asked the girl at the Tahiti airport how far away our hotel was and she said only about 15 minutes away and to take a taxi. When we got to the hotel, which only seemed like a 10 minute ride, the Sheraton was now a Hilton and we thought she’d brought us to the wrong hotel. But apparently they have just recently switched. The cab driver told us it would be 2800 Franks so we paid her that, but figured we were getting ripped off. We did as we later found out there are around 87 franks to the dollar. So our 10 minute cab ride cost us over $30. The guy who carried our bags to the room was walking out and I handed him 2 French coins and told him I had no idea how much I was giving him. He said that’s okay and “Thanks”. I’m still not sure how much I gave him. With that said, the hotel menu shows a club sandwich at about $21 USD. I did hear someone say it was really overpriced here. So with our big plans of sunbathing only, I don’t think we’ll rack up too much in expense here.
When we checked in they were not very nice here. Maybe they don’t care for Americans since they are French. Either way, our room is very nice with a hard wood floor and we are only here for the night. Tomorrow when we get up we are heading out for the boat ride to the other island where our “hut” is going to be waiting for us. The forecast said 30% chance for thunderstorms but I have a feeling it is like Florida where the hot afternoons stir up a few short showers. It is like 80 degrees here tonight at 10pm. Our plans for tomorrow are to be in our swimsuits all day then eat supper, sleep, then be in our swimsuits for as long as we can possibly stay. Our flight doesn’t leave until 11:30pm, so we’ll have to figure out what to do all evening.
So the weirdest part of today is we left Auckland at 3:30pm on Monday and arrived in Tahiti at 9pm Sunday. So somehow we backed up a day and we are thinking we are now only 4 hours difference from home time. That we can’t figure out. I try not to think about it, but I think I saw an old twilight zone show about it. Ha ha
Ok. No internet unless you pay for it, so I’ll try to find a wi fi spot tomorrow or pay for it when we get to the other location. Hope to get some great shots tomorrow of our hotel. I hope it is all we think it will be. :)
Cheers!
We were up and about early so as to be ready for Rhondda at 10:30. She was right on time and was a real delight. She took us around town and showed us the local sights. She was full of fun information and treated us just like she had known us for years. She took us to a beach that had a lovely café where we had brunch. I ordered pancakes, but what that really meant was crepes, which was even more of a treat as I love crepes. Guy and Rhondda both had scrambled eggs and toast. Everything was all piled on top of each other. ;) We had a great conversation as Rhondda is a trauma nurse at Auckland’s largest hospital and apparently has a very important job there. She travels all over for work and pleasure and was full of great stories about her and her mom. After brunch she drove us around a bit more and headed for the airport. She hated to drop us off early, but we assured her that was just fine. We told Rhondda that next time we were in Auckland we’d call her and treat her to dinner. She said next time we come to Auckland we can stay at her house. What a sweet lady. I wish we had more time to spend with her. That just added to our already sad faces to leave New Zealand. What a magical place. Two weeks isn’t even close to being enough time to see it all. At least we have our bearings now and when we go back we’ll know where to fly in and out of better and how long it takes to get from one location to another.
It was a good thing we got there a bit early, because the line to check in for Air Tahiti Nui was LONG. We stood in line for well over an hour and by the time we went thru security, I had NO TIME TO SHOP FOR DUTY FREE ITEMS because our flight was already boarding! Bummer! But we loaded onto our plane, which was huge and I just don’t see how those suckers take off. It was a nice flight with only minor bumps and was only 4 ½ hours long. I had dinner, which was actually pretty good and watched two movies, only snoozing for about 45 minutes. It was dark when we arrived so we saw nothing, but I get a feeling it is like Jamaica….some shady areas that you’d have to watch out for and then your nice resorts. We got some money exchanged at the airport in Auckland so we could pay for a cab to the hotel. I asked the girl at the Tahiti airport how far away our hotel was and she said only about 15 minutes away and to take a taxi. When we got to the hotel, which only seemed like a 10 minute ride, the Sheraton was now a Hilton and we thought she’d brought us to the wrong hotel. But apparently they have just recently switched. The cab driver told us it would be 2800 Franks so we paid her that, but figured we were getting ripped off. We did as we later found out there are around 87 franks to the dollar. So our 10 minute cab ride cost us over $30. The guy who carried our bags to the room was walking out and I handed him 2 French coins and told him I had no idea how much I was giving him. He said that’s okay and “Thanks”. I’m still not sure how much I gave him. With that said, the hotel menu shows a club sandwich at about $21 USD. I did hear someone say it was really overpriced here. So with our big plans of sunbathing only, I don’t think we’ll rack up too much in expense here.
When we checked in they were not very nice here. Maybe they don’t care for Americans since they are French. Either way, our room is very nice with a hard wood floor and we are only here for the night. Tomorrow when we get up we are heading out for the boat ride to the other island where our “hut” is going to be waiting for us. The forecast said 30% chance for thunderstorms but I have a feeling it is like Florida where the hot afternoons stir up a few short showers. It is like 80 degrees here tonight at 10pm. Our plans for tomorrow are to be in our swimsuits all day then eat supper, sleep, then be in our swimsuits for as long as we can possibly stay. Our flight doesn’t leave until 11:30pm, so we’ll have to figure out what to do all evening.
So the weirdest part of today is we left Auckland at 3:30pm on Monday and arrived in Tahiti at 9pm Sunday. So somehow we backed up a day and we are thinking we are now only 4 hours difference from home time. That we can’t figure out. I try not to think about it, but I think I saw an old twilight zone show about it. Ha ha
Ok. No internet unless you pay for it, so I’ll try to find a wi fi spot tomorrow or pay for it when we get to the other location. Hope to get some great shots tomorrow of our hotel. I hope it is all we think it will be. :)
Cheers!
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