We are not going to sugar coat it leaving French Polynesia was hard. As soon as we got here and saw the blue of the water and experienced the friendliness of the locals we knew that leaving was going to be a problem. Life on the islands feels like it is lived at a slower pace than the rest of the world and it helped us to relax and put our worries on the back burner. That’s why we ended up minutes from getting on the plane with no place to stay on our first night in New Zealand (more on that later).
During our time in French Polynesia we stayed on 3 of the islands, Moorea, Huahine and Raiatea, flew in and out of Tahitia, visited Tahaa and saw Bora Bora in the distance. We skipped Bora Bora because we heard that it was like a Disney Land in French Polynesia and wanted to avoid the crowds.
Moorea was our first stop and we stayed a couple of days. Moorea is supposed to be similar to Bora Bora in looks and even has a couple of fancy hotels. We didn’t stay in a fancy hotel and opted for a bungalow with a shared kitchen and shared showers. It was an adventure shopping for our own food, getting our cell phone to work and finding a plug adapter to charge all of our devices. (On a side note if you happen to travel internationally check your devices to see if they will run on 220v/240v instead of the 110v that is used in the US because if you only have to buy a plug adapter instead of a voltage converter you will save a lot of money. It turned out that all of our charging cords only needed an adapter and from what I have read it’s mainly appliances that need a converter.) There were some wonderful white sand beaches (see the first picture in the last post) and a wonderful view from the lookout that we drove up to. We went black pearl shopping because we had read that it was the cheapest place to buy black pearls. Turns out cheap is a relative term and we left empty-handed. We did splurge and went out for one fancy dinner on the island. The dinner was wonderful, but after dinner we waited almost an hour for the check before figuring out that we had to pay at the bar. The wait staff had kept looking at us after we finished our meal and we can only imagine what they must have thought of us.
Our next stop was the island of Huahine which was my favorite because there were very few tourists on the island and the locals were incredibly friendly. Huahine is made up of two islands that are so close together that a bridge has been built between them. The two islands are Huahine Nui and Huahine Iti (big and little respectively). During our stay on Huahine we rented a room at a pension, which is similar to a bed and breakfast. The owner of the pension was a local guy named Juanito who was extremely friendly and very helpful. It rained a number of times while we were on Huahine and the intensity of the rain was incredible. It could be perfectly sunny and dry out and within 20 minutes there would be standing water everywhere over 2 inches deep. The nice thing was that even the rain was warm so getting wet didn’t bother us too much. We spent a large portion of our time on the beach or in the Fare town center. One restaurant in Fare was right on the water and had decent prices at happy hour so we were able to hide from a few downpours there. On one of our days on Huahine we rented a car and drove around the islands. There were a number of amazing views along the drive and we had an amazing lunch of poisson cru, raw tuna marinated in lime juice mixed with cucumbers, carrots, onions, green pepper and covered in coconut milk. On our last full day on the island we took a lagoon trip which included a visit to a black pearl farm, snorkeling, lunch on a motu (tiny island in the lagoon) and shark feeding.
Our last stop in French Polynesia and Jenni’s favorite island was Raiatea because we knew people on the island and got to experience things that weren’t in the guidebook. On Raiatea and Tahaa we learned how to move a cement mixer island style. It turns out that it involves a track hoe, a boat, a backhoe and a whole lot of ingenuity. We got a tour of the island that included stops at an old homestead with an orchard of avacado, grapefruit, starfruit, breadfruit, guava and rambutan trees, the most sacred marae in French Polynesia and several viewpoints. We had lunch at the Taputapuatea Marae and read about the history of the area. Legend has it that the point that the marae is on was where the Polynesians left the island to travel across the ocean to Hawaii and New Zealand. The next day we kayaked out to a motu near town and had a private picnic with an amazing view. On our last day on Raiatea we took a hike up into the middle of the island. The hike was tough and it was warm out even at 7:00, but the views were well worth the effort. We were back down the mountain by early afternoon which was a good thing because it poured for most of the afternoon. The water at the apartment we were staying in went out so I had to shower in the rain runoff from the roof. Our hosts told us that the water going out is a fairly regular occurrence because when work needs to be done on the water system usually the whole system gets shut off. In the evening we went to a Tahitian dance recital/cake sale/BBQ. The recital was for a dance class that had been rehearsing for a few weeks. A number of the women baked cakes and brought them so that they could be sold by the slice and there was a cow heart BBQ going on. The music was mostly rhythmic drumming and the dancing was mostly booty shaking.
We had to spend most of our travel day in the airport at Papeete because the connection times worked out that way. During that time we had planned to get online and make reservations for a place to stay in New Zealand, but by the time we got around to doing it, the internet café was closed. We ended up calling our friends on Raiatea and they were able to make a reservation for us (phew, that was close!). On our way to New Zealand we lost most of a day when we crossed the international date line and Jenni said that she was not happy that she was getting older faster. Our first night in New Zealand was spent staying up late to find a place for the next night. The next day we went to the hostel that we had picked out and started getting ready for our stay in the country. So far we have a plug adapter, a cell phone (e-mail us if you want the number), a bank account (with no money in it) and are in the process of getting our IRD numbers and finding a car.
The internet connection in French Polynesia was spotty and expensive where it was available so we didn’t get on the internet much to update the blog, but the updates should be more regular now. The best ways to contact us are through gchat (let us know if you want Jenni or my gmail address), skype (dylan.jenni), or by calling us (incoming calls are free for us).
