Tour around Tahiti and fly again!

  We woke up early. The sun was getting into our hobbit bungalow. In front of the bed we had a huge glass with incredible views. The roof of the bungalow was like a boat upside down, with the peculiarity of having plants and grass on the roof. Nothing was symmetric. We had breakfast. We had still some stuff we bought the day before in a champion supermarket. We wanted to get up early (and we did) because at 2.30 pm we had to be in the airport, give the car back and take the flight to New Zealand. We left Vanira at 7.15am and we started our trip around the island, stopping at many places.

First (and following Karin’s advise) we went to the mountain in the iti island to see the views over the main island. Tahiti is the biggest of the islands in the French Polynesia. It is also like the Reunion island: a paradise for randonees. There are tons of valleys and rivers, waterfalls and the surroundings are beautiful! There are no nice beaches though. Only long rocky beaches with big waves where they do surf. The one we visited yesterday was famous but the water was pretty flat. The waves where now in the north east. We sat and watch the surfers for a while, while eating some peanuts.

We mange to be on time at the airport. Before that we stopped in Papeete because Nuria wanted to buy a perl. She bought it. Certified and very nice. I will post a photo when I can. We also bought a crappy one in the street market for me, for a fraction of the price, but I’m happy! Now we both have a perl.

We arrived at the ariport around 2.30pm, gave the car back and cued for hours to check in. So slow these guys!

Now, the day after, we have lost one day!!! yesterday it was 27 for us now is 1st of March. Incredible. We took the plane to Auckland and we watch movies and movies and movies. This I will blog later on today’s post.

Tahiti again

Thursday and today is our last day in Moorea. At 10am we have to leave Motu Iti bungalow and before 9 we have to give back the car. We asked the lady of the house if she could arrange transport to the airport and she did. 1.35pm and flight is leaving at 2.20pm. So we have until 10am to enjoy the quietness of our bungalow and from 10 to 13.30 to sit down in the on-water terrace to write the blog.

First thing we drove to where we rented the car. In addition the the negotiated price and the 3 entries to the tiki village the previous day, we also got a voucher for a free perl in the shop around the corner. So we went and got it. The lady drove us back to Motu Iti and we packed, paied and moved to the terrace to write the blog.

At 1.25 the guy with the van came, with 4 other tourists and dropped us at the airport. Only us, probably he was taking the other guys around. At the airport, which can not be called airport… we saw Desiree, the nice lady from Air Tahiti that helped us with Steve for the lost bags from Steve. Looked like they had little faith in finding them. Poor Steve. He had a bible with 20 years of annotations in it… We waited a bit and then a little plane, very very very small from air Moorea, came. We had nearly a private flight (of 10 minutes because Tahiti is very close by). We were 4 in a plane of 20. It was quite an experience. Of course we saw the cabin (we sat in the first raw). 

Once we landed in Tahiti we realized that we were in the domestic terminal. Smaller than our flat. We walked to the main terminal (50 meters) and went asked where was the car rental section. We rented from a local company, Daniel rental. They gave us a peugeot 107, 4 doors and air conditioned. Nice car!! Tahiti is more expensive than her islands. We paid around 8.400 (I’m not sure now). The plan was to give a tour around the islands. Tahiti are two islands, and the south one is nicer and smaller than the other one. They are linked by road. The whole tour is around 160km and we wanted to go to the south island, west coast where the Vanira Lodge was located. Remember that we blogged about the Vanira lodge before. We never confirmed the booking with them because as you might remember (if you have been following us) we improvised on the routing we did in the French Polynesia. Anyway, we reached the Vanira lounge by 5. Traffic was pretty awful around Papeete. The property of this vanira lodge is astonishing. Incredible surroundings and views. Unfortunately the Karine was not there. Her husband (who built the bungalows) told us that she was having her dancing lessons and she was going to come back in an hour, so we took the car and went to the end of the road of the west side of tahiti iti (iti is small) to see where the billabong surfing championship is done. Now the see was pretty flat, but there is where you get the famous kumbaia wave. We saw the sun going down there. Beautiful. Then we drove back to Vanira (5 minutes) and there she was. Nuria made the arrangements while I went up to the bungalow to take pictures with the nikon of the end of the sunset.

The bungalow are ART. Every little detail is taken into account. All different. All beautiful. Ours was like a hobbit bungalow, a dream bungalow with views over the ocean. I have no words. I will try to put a photo but they are in the nikon and now I am writting this from Auckland from the Aspen Lodge and I want to buy some internet to post it and we are supposed to pick up the car now at jucy. I can always go back to the post and edit it.

The day ended with us going out with the car to buy some take away food at a place 1 km away from Vanira and eating in the terrace of our bungalow. Beautiful.

Hello paradise!

We still cannot believe that yesterday we were in San Francisco having a nice bacon burger at Luci’s diner and today we are in a wood bungalow facing the sea in Huahine in the French Polynesia. Before I must say that we do not have Internet access. I continue to take photos with the iphone and nuria with the n79. We also continue writing every day on what we do, but now offline in the VAIO. When we have access we will publish everything but for what I see, it is not going to be straight forward in this side of the world.

Anyway. Yesterday, well in fact I don’t even know if it was yesterday, but last thing we blogged was when being in San Francisco and then we were taking the BART train that stops at Powell and costs USD 5.35 to the airport. We arrived with plenty of time ahead. We had a coke in a nice bar inside the airport with the planes beside. Then we went to Los Angeles. Fortunately the bags were checked in until Papeete (Tahiti). The check-in in San Francisco with United Airlines was pretty straight forward. We had to do it in a desk with a machine and a phone… strange.

In LA we had to change terminals. We went to the one where Air Tahiti Nui operates, basically we were arriving at Terminal 3 and this one was on the left. 10 min. LA airport, at least the terminal were we were has nothing to be envied from a Malawian airport…. really pathetic. We waited until 23.50 (we were dead…) and we boarded the airbus that took us to Papeete. We sat and we got slept. We missed dinner.

One hour and a half before arriving to Papeete we woke up and they served breakfast. Cool. I had pudding. Now our time difference is of 10 hours.

Papeete airport is a small airport. The first thing we did after collecting our bags was to go to Air Tahiti and buy a "multipass" or "blue pass". It consists on a pass to fly to many islands for a fare that is (in our case) 50% of the regular fare. Yes we landed in Tahiti with no hotel booking. ;-)

We bought the following combination: Tahiti-Huahine. This is where we are now. Then after 2 days here we have a Huahine-Bora Bora. In Bora bora we will stay 3 nights. Then Bora Bora-Moreea. In Moreea 2 nights. Then Moreea-Tahiti. One night in Tahiti and then to Auckland (New Zealand).

Well all this flight was 28.400 Francs per person. Reasonable.

After buying a second Tour du Monde within the French Polynesia we went to the storage room and we left the backpacks there. Our flight was departing at 14.20 and it was 8am when we bought this in the airport.

We crossed the main road in front of the airport, and took le "truck" , basically a lorry acting as a bus (not better than the ones in India or Guatemala) that took us for 130 francs to Papeete downtown. I have to say that Tahiti and in general the French Polynesia is pretty expensive. Everything is like in Europe.

Once in town (15 min) we went to the Information Office and asked to info about guesthouses for Huahine, Bora Bora and Moreea. They gave us a lot of info. I took photos of all the pages of the folder they had with guest houses. I can post them once we are back. We called several in Huahine. All fully booked, but one that I liked (that is actually on the other end of the island) was very expensive. 20.000 which is around 200 usd per night… for a guest house…. wow.

After much sweating inside the phone box, we finally found one that is called Fetia. 8000 francs per night for the bungalow.

We went to visit Papeete. The ladies in the information office gave us a map with some itineraries that we followed until around 12.30 when we stopped to have lunch by the coast. Tuna that was actually 80% raw, with curry and coconut sauce. Very good. Then, "truck" back to the airport and flight to meet our Fetia guest house.

A wonderful lady, the owner came with his son to pick us up at the airport. Mini airport as you could imagine. The traditional belt for the luggage, here it was two shelves where they put the bags, extremely fast.

The guest house is pretty close to the airport so we went with their pick up for a non paved trail until her place.

We are in a big bungalow. Very very nice, all in wood, with a kitchen, toilet, a mezzanine. All in bamboo and wood. 10 seconds from a beach for us. It faces the ocean not the lagoon, so it is wild. First thing we did was to go and have a bath. Then walk in the endless beach. Then come back, have a shower and now I am writing while guess…. a super tropical storm is trying to take our bungalow to the outer space.

Now I guess that once is stops raining a bit (it was sunny until now…) I guess that the lady (petty I did not retain her name) will come to call us for dinner. She asked if we like fish. Yummy! She also asked if we have coffee in the mornings and that she will help us to get a car tomorrow so we can go and visit the island, that is one of the most beautiful ones of the Society islands.