Aurinkoinen paratiisi Ranskan Polynesia ei ole ollenkaan hullumpi paikka. Aurinkoa, merta ja santaa riittää, mutta täytyy myöntää, että viikko oli aivan riittävän pitkä aika tälle saarelle. En ole mitenkään erityisesti rantalomailutyyppiä, joten viimeisinä päivinä meinasi jo alkaa iskeä pieni puutumus. Asuin koko viikon leirintäalueen parakkibungalovissa. Sattui olemaan hiljainen kausi, joten sain koko huoneen itselleni :) Päivät vietin uiskennellen laguunissa ja rötväten rannalla, illat rupatellen niitä näitä muiden matkaajien kanssa. Varsin rentouttava kokemus. [View Full Entry]

---

---

The thing about French Polynesia is that you have to plan and book well ahead and do your research thoroughly...apparently...so it's a bit of a shame that we didn't read this until we were in Tahiti. The islands were a stopover on the flight to south America and we hadn't really thought about what we'd do while we were there. We knew Tahiti would be expensive and had tried to budget accordingly but when basics like food and accommodation are heinously expensive there isn't always a lot you can do. There was no low cost accommodation or camping on Tahiti so [View Full Entry]

---

---

Huahine Our next stop was Tahiti, and from there we caught a tiny plane to the beautiful island of Huahine. We were really lucky to find a slice of paradise called Motu Mahare (an even smaller island separated from Huahine by a few hundred metres of water in a truly amazing setting) which was made even better as we were the only guests. Our hosts, Kim and Walter were fantastic, lending us their kayaks, bicycles and snorkelling gear so that we could explore. It was lush, especially the crystal clear lagoons and colourful coral reefs. We spent a day cycling around [View Full Entry]

---

---

On the start of our trip from Papeete Tahiti to Brisbane Australia, I was unable to download pictures. Hopefully I have fixed the problem and will now be able to share some of the sites we visited. [View Full Entry]

---

---

So the BBC's top list of places to see before you die. Hmmmm. Well, all I can say is that I nearly did when I started my research (36 hrs before my flight). But what exactly did I find out? Well, let me share it with you: -'start planning your trip 3-6months in advance, this will allow you to scour the web for the best deals' (Lonely Planet) -'even the cheapest meals bought off street vendors will cost you 12,000 CFP (9 pounds) (Lonely Planet) -regarding accomodation even the worst flea pit will cost you a small fortune (Lonely Planet) And [View Full Entry]

---

---

Rangiroa Atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago Feb 20th, 2009 Again the Aranui crew was absolutely capable at their respective duties. We were hauled off the boat at anchor in the lagoon, brought to shore and disembarked on a beach. Some went on a glass bottom boat and some of these went snorkeling, others went scuba diving. Terry and I swam a bit on the rocky, coral strewn beach; not conducive to snorkeling as there was a heavy sea and the water had too much turbulence. Then we were brought by air-conditioned bus to the Gauguin Pearl Farm; after an explanation and [View Full Entry]

---

---

Nuku Hiva and Ua Pou Feb 18th 2009 Terry and I are still struggling with the computer camera thing. We spent a few hours this morning with Bernard at his computer in Ottawa, Canon on their customer help line, Terry on our machine and moi on the ship’s Internet trying to get help, still nada! We skipped the 2 hour archeological site visit situated at the middle of the bay and stayed on board: these islands are very humid and people came back completely drenched- good call in our part. This afternoon, we stop at Mila’s home island, a second stop [View Full Entry]

---

---

nice Saturday Feb 14th Nuku Hiva- T he biggest island Disembarqued at Taiohae, ride to town to see many arts and crafts and clothes Long cherry wood or sandal wood log instrument with ornamental carvings on the outside and a slice hollowed out in the middle- with drum sticks, hit at different places is a lovely percussion instrument. We visited the Cathedral with all 14 stations of the cross sculpted from one tree, the stations are semicircles about 3 feet high, just lovely except when the carver asked the bishop what an olive tree looked like for #1, the bishop said [View Full Entry]

---

---

Ua-Huka February 17th, 2009 Alarm set for 5:30 so that we could see a 180 turn of the boat within 2 rock cliffs in the bay of Vaipaee. The sun was coming over the rock cliffs, one side was grey while the other was Grand Canyon red, almost on fire, and changing every moment as time progressed. Sailors were sent to each side where cleats had been cemented to the rock floor; for the photo opportunity, the men wore white t-shirts and white hard hats and to make the maneuver more dramatic, there was a (staged?) pirogue that came flying by [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hiva Oa et Tahuata Le 16 février 2009 La Polynésie française (les Marquises en particulier furent découvertes en 1575 par les Espagnols) est annexée à la France depuis les 1850 isme. La publicité en France amène beaucoup de voyageurs français, et quelques allemands. Ils y a aussi des américains dont nous avons faits de bons amis (Pat & Bruce) et quelques canadiens, nous sommes 5(amie Dominique). Donc nous parlons souvent français. Les guides sont forts en français et en marquisien mais ont quelques fois difficultés en anglais. Nou, les bilingues, devons traduire pur eux. Durant une escalade [View Full Entry]

---

---