Blogs from French Polynesia, Oceania

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas 2023!! The Marquesas Islands…. A trip we have looked at for a couple of years and finally decided to do it! It was the year of the every 4 year Matava’a O Te Femua Enata or The Marquesas Islands Arts Festival. Started in 1986 to promote cultural exchanges between the 6 Marquesas islands. And it was fascinating! We attended 2 of the 4 days of it which included multiple dance troupes, a communal lunch and several evening shows. The 12 day cruise on the Aranui is a combination freighter/passenger boat. The front third of the boat is loaded with the cargo including multiple shipping containers, forklifts, pickup truck and 2 buses to shuttle us to the festival sites. At each island stop we watched the shipping containers off loaded onto ... read more

Tour Day 17, Cruise Day 17 - Island Drive & Belvedere (3.5 hours) - Tour the island of Moorea by bus. It is 38 miles around, and along the way you will stop at lookout points and special landmarks. From the Belvedere Lookout Point, located up in the mountains between the two main bays of Moorea, you will take in the sweeping views of Cook and Opunohu Bays. Pass some inland pineapple fields and stop at a marae -- an ancient, sacred site -- to learn about Polynesian culture. Heading down the east coast, you will come to the Ia Ora viewpoint, showcasing the clear blue lagoon of Temae Beach nearby and the island of Tahiti, only 10 nautical miles away. Notes: The guide will comment on daily life on Moorea but will not offer a ... read more

For those of you that know us, you are familiar with how we travel and why I select certain places over others at particular times. It's all about the points, miles and free travel because we surely can't afford travel like we do on our public safety salaries alone. Of course Tahiti has always been on our travel bucket list, but it quickly rose to #1 when I scored a 48 hr flash sale on United for about half the miles it would ordinarily cost (approximately 1 credit card sign-up bonus for two round-trip tickets). Tahiti, or more aptly called French Polynesia for it's collection of 118 islands and not just the one largest island of Tahiti, has enticed me not for the $2k a night over the water bungalows but rather one of the few ... read more

The following morning we took the ferry to the island of Moorea, a short 45 minute ride across the channel. By all accounts Moorea is just as beautiful, if not moreso than Bora Bora, but for a fraction of the cost and only an inexpensive ferry away. We thought the mountains plunged straight into the sea on Tahiti, well the landscape was even more extreme here. Sheer jagged peaks and spires leap vertically from the lagoons here in a postcard perfect landscape. We stayed at Residence Vainau ($83), one of the last beds on the island despite my booking months in advance. Not necessarily out of popularity but just because there is not much tourism here at all either. In the 1960s there was less than a dozen hotel rooms on the entire island, and by ... read more

Today we head back across to Tahiti, the main reason for this being a tour into the island’s interior which we’ve got planned for tomorrow. We’re very sad to be leaving our relaxing bungalow on the shores of the Moorea lagoon. But first the hazards of check out. The delightful young French girl who’s job it is to shepherd us out of our lodgings knows how to say “check out”, but that seems to be about where her English stops … and our French … well “bonjour”’s about it. We got the accommodation to book us a taxi to the ferry terminal, but we still don’t know when or if it’s coming or how we’re supposed to pay for it, and no amount of talking slowly and hand gesturing seem to be getting the questions across. ... read more