Day 20 - February 3, 2007, Saturday, Bora Bora, French Polynesia Time: 7:30 am (11:30 CST) Latitude: 16 degrees 30.46 minutes S Longitude: 151 degrees 45.41 minutes W Speed: At Anchor Seas: 1.5 - 4 feet, slight Winds: Moderate breeze Miles traveled from FLL: 7256 nautical miles Weather: Partly Cloudy/Rainy, 81 degrees Oh, what a beautiful sight Bora Bora was to wake up to this morning! The crystal clears waters and the majestic mountains make Bora Bora and unforgettable island. Bora Bora is an island in the Leeward group of the Society Islands of French Polynesia [View Full Entry]

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Day 18 - February 1, 2007, Thursday, At Sea—Bound for Bora Bora Time: 6:15 am (8:15 CST) Latitude: 23 degrees 29.35 minutes S Longitude: 136 degrees 58.78 minutes W Speed: 19.4 knots average Seas: 1.5 - 4 feet, slight Winds: Moderate breeze Miles traveled from FLL: 6310 nautical miles Weather: Partly Cloudy/rainy, 78 degrees Clocks back another hour last night. Day 19 - February 2, 2007, Friday, At Sea—Bound for Bora Bora Time: 5:47 am (9:47 CST) Latitude: 20 degrees 13.11 minutes S Longitude: 145 degrees 23.90 minutes W Speed: 19.5 knots a [View Full Entry]

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On leaving Melbourne, last wednesday morning, after what seemed the hottest day in the world I was fully prepared for the idea that Tahiti would not be the ¨hot tropical getaway¨ from a cold Melbourne winter and was probably going to be cooler. Indeed the 28 degrees at 9pm in Tahiti was a welcome relief from the Melbournes 34 degrees when leaving at 5 am. One thing I did not take int account however was the idea that it would be wetter. Yet to say that it was wetter would be an understatement. The auspicious title of wetter than south eastern [View Full Entry]

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Gene and I decided that we would spend our final day on the Tahitian Islands learning about its history and culture, so we booked two tickets on the tour bus. Little did we know, we were hopping on the bandwagon of old fogies. On a better note, our tour guide turned out to be a very educated Tahitian woman with broken English, but a mad sense of humor. She went to school for accounting and spent time studying in Fiji. She claims that she is still in the process of mastering the English language, her 4th language. She originally worked in [View Full Entry]

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Gene and I started our morning off on the internet after Gene hacked into somebody’s IP address…ah, the benefits of being married to a computer geek. We spent the entire morning again locked inside of our room as the rain pelted our roof. As Gene stood at the reception desk for check-out, a French news reporter approached him and asked him about our stay. As I sat with all of our luggage, I chuckled as I watched Gene struggle with the language barrier, trying to find an alternate way to convey the meaning of “a break in the 8-year drought.” Well, [View Full Entry]

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The other side of Tahiti looks a lot like Mexico, except that it’s on an island in the middle of nowhere. Once you step outside the grandeur of $1000 per night over-the-water bungalows it becomes very apparent that French Polynesians are a simple people socially enslaved by the French to more or less function as Mexicans do in the United States. Today marked our first day in Papeete (pronounced Pap-a-ate-a), the provincial capital of Tahiti. The seaside city reminds me of Tijuana except that the vendors hock cultured black pearls instead of chiclee and Chinese stars. [View Full Entry]

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I had my hardest laugh of our trip today on our way to the internet café. As you know, Gene and I rented bikes yesterday as our mode of transportation. We rented them only for 24 hours and had to return them today no later than 10:00 a.m. Considering the internet café does not open until 9:00 a.m., we had only one hour to get there, check our email and get back to the hotel to return the bikes. That means, rain or shine, we were going. We were lucky from the get-go since it was only drizzling when we left. [View Full Entry]

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While eating dinner tonight, I listened to a guy from Omaha karaoke Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door while a Frenchman played the electric harp. Oddly, his slow tempo rendition sounded much better than anything Axel Rose put out. What struck me the most is that the moment put me at peace with our trip. The rain has been incessant since our arrival in Tahiti but even it was soothing this evening as it pelted the tin roof of our restaurant. Earlier in the evening we spent about two hours with one of the original ‘Bali Hai Boys:’ Muk. His real name isn’t [View Full Entry]

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Today, Gene and I rented two bicycles and took a tour of the island. Hopping onto my beach cruiser, my leg muscles quickly reminded me just how many years it has been since I last rode a bike. The scenery was absolutely beautiful and the Tahitians overly friendly. I felt as though I was in a Disney movie as I journeyed down the main road and was greeted, “bon jour” with a nod and wave by the locals. We have quickly learned how friendly the Tahitians are. Gene, being the gentleman that he is, volunteered to ride the defective bike - [View Full Entry]

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It is day 1 of our trip. Funny, I thought that I was beginning our adventure in a tropical paradise…tropical, yes..paradise, not quite…it has been raining cats and dogs since we got here. Nonetheless, it makes for an interesting travel experience. Gene and I spent our last night in the states out to dinner with some friends. Lesson of the day: Do not mix muscle relaxers with alcohol. I had two glasses of wine and was three sheets to the wind. However, I did sleep 8 hours of our 10 hour flight to Tahiti, so it all seemed to balance itself [View Full Entry]

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