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Published: February 1st 2007
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What do you mean, one bag?!?
Believe it or not folks, all this fit into my 80L pack, much to Jess's amazement! Anyone know a back specialist for when i get home...? just kidding. So, finally I'm able to start the recap of our 'Round the World in 80 days'....
After a fabulous family Christmas in the Byrnes of Riverdale (thanks again!) and a way to brief visit home in Albany, i headed off carrying only my 80L pack on my back (ONLY!). First stop was LA, where i picked up my partner in crime, Dr. Katie Loftus. After a lovely dinner in LAX and classfully knocking back a sneaky bottle of champagne, (a pressie from Siobhan and Scott - thanks a mil!) we flew off into the sunset on New Year's Eve. On the long haul flight, we were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves enjoying a generous helping of more champagne and some not-so-generous renditions of Auld Lang Syne, courtesy of Air New Zealand.
We arrived early (and hungover/jetlagged/cracked) on the first day of the New Year in Pa'pete, capital of Tahiti, the main island of French Polynesia. We took the excellent advice of Andrew, our Trailfinders travel agent, and immediately flew out of Tahiti for it's more beautiful and less spoiled neighboring island of Mo'orea.
As we flew over the South Pacific waters on a little puddle jumper of a
Amazing Mo'orea
This is not a postcard. Just a typical view around the island... Wow. My favourite pic so far. plane, you could almost see the fish in the clear blue water. The vibrant colours of the water and barrier coral reef, contrasting with the white sand and striking rising green lushous mountains is a memory i won't soon forget. Like nothing i had ever seen before... Wow. We were greeted off the plane with a trio of hukelele's and gorgeous tahitian women giving us our own fresh hibiscus to put in our hair.
We headed out to the Pension Te Miti, a cute little guesthouse between Opohohu and Cooke's Bays on the Northern Coast. As we're on a hard-core budget, we opted for the dorms, which were virtually a large open air attic above reception, with view of the blue-green water and mountains. Ahhh... One look at the view and a quick breakfast of tea, fresh pineapples and baguettes then we collapsed into comas for the majority of the day. When we awoke, we found ourselves in paradise and it wasn't just a dream... This island is amazing! What we didn't expect were the astonishing prices... I was warned that Tahiti was expensive but never anticipated it would be this outrageous. Katie and I survived on a budget
Dazed and Confused
Post coma realization that we're on a tropical island... The state of us. of 80 to 100 USD a day, staying in a dorm bed and eating only one meal a day! Crazy. But so beautiful. We couldn't afford most of the activities so we just rented bikes on the 2nd day and cycled half-way around the island, taking loads of 'blow yer mind' photos (see below). We didn't realize it got dark so early which resulted in an interesting journey home... in the dark. After a multitude of hail mary's and dodging a bazillion massive crabs on the island road, we arrived back to our little Pension Te Miti and swore never to be as stupid again.
Katie's favourite quote so far was when we were having dinner in a nice restaurant and anyone listening in would've heard me say, 'And if we fell into the ditch, we definitely would've come out covered in crabs'...
Anyway, we survived the low budget by sneaking into the fabulous intercontinental hotel and using their facilities. This place is incredible... they've their own lagoon, dolphin enclosure (where you can swim w dolphins for only the cost of your first born child) and a sea turtle rehabilitation center. Not to mention the world recognized Polynesian Spa
and spectacular over-water bungalows. A little piece of heaven on earth. Glad we could blag our way into it.
After our four days of total R+R on Mo'orea, we found ourselves completely revitalized and ready to face our mission of seeing the world in 80 days.
Had to head back to mainland Tahiti for our final night before we flew out to Rarotonga, Cook Islands. Tahiti is not al all what you'd expect. It's big, dirty, busy and smelly... and just as expensive. The beaches that we saw were rocky and dark sand... not impressed. Had a nice relaxed picnic on the beach and a bit of a walk but it wasn't a tap on our first few days. So so so glad we went to mo'orea, best advice ever! Had to get up at 4am to make it back to the airport for our flight and start the next adventure...
Promise to write about the cooks in the next few days. Sorry again to all those that were anticipating a blow by blow encounter... I've got some serious catching up to do but will do my best to get up to date in the next few
days.
Love and miss you all and hope all's well.
xoxo
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