Nach anstrengenden 13 Reisewochen haben wir uns eine Auszeit in der Suedsee redlich verdient :-). Wir haben 10 wunderschoene Tage auf den Inseln Moorea und Bora Bora verbracht. Fuer einmal haben wir Weihnachten und Neujahr am Meer bei heissen Temperaturen verbracht. Und es hatte ausserdem den Vorteil, dass wir Neujahr doppelt zu Schweizer Zeit und dann noch zur lokalen Zeit feiern konnten. Moorea haben wir mit dem Scooter unsicher gemacht und in Bora Bora sind wir wirklich nur auf der faulen Haut gelegen. Hat das gut getan! Und die Bilder sprechen wohl fuer sich..... [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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When we got to the Auckland airport bound for French Polynesia, it was so strange to see Los Angeles as the final destination of our flight. Even though we were taking a layover of five days in Tahiti, it was the last place we’d see, the last stamp we’d get in our passports, that was it. Next stop was home. At the time this made me both excited and sad. With every hour that passed I think the balance shifted to more and more sad than excited. As the reality set in that we would be going home in only a [View Full Entry]

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What do you do during a 24 hour stop over in French Polynesia (ok, Papeete is better, we did not see much more of Tahiti)? Je ne sais pas. Even better, we flew in on Saturday night, so next day would be Sunday, which in most French dictionaries reads as FERMEE (that´s closed in English, and lacking the accent on top). So we just hooked up with Sunny and Emma (Ireland) for a few pitchers of local brew on the Saturday night, admired the dressing style of the local female basketball team, and headed back to the hotel for a good [View Full Entry]

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We'd been informed that Tahiti was extremely expensive so we were very wary of how this would effect our miniature budget. When we arrived at the airport at 1am it seemed ridiculous to pay for somewhere to sleep for only a few hours so we made ourselves comfortable on the floor in the airport lying on our sleeping bags and using our bags as pillows. It was very uncomfortabel and when the large fan above my head turned on I was being blown strongly in the face which meant I had a pretty rubbish night's sleep. When morning came and the [View Full Entry]

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Well, Polynesia is now in the rear view mirror as we fly to New Zealand (me, at least, glad to be getting out of here). I thought I would do a top ten of the frustrations I had in this part of the world which I feel has lost its way as a place to visit, given the beauty of the natural surroundings. Don't take it too seriously, I just need a rant to get it off my chest. Perhaps they just don't like backpackers? Number 10 - The weather As with so many places we visit, the weather was "most [View Full Entry]

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Just to say we have been in Tahiti, Moorea and are now in Huahine, heading for the airport and New Zealand in 2 days. Internet is sparse, expensive and controlled by french keyboards, so we will wait until Auckland for pictures and more detailed news. Jacko got bitten by a stingray during a feeding session, but it is ok, the stingray recovered well. We are enjoying the mails and comments that we are getting from the blog, thanks to you all for them, they crack us up. Till the weekend (which comes 1 day early, as we cross the dateline on [View Full Entry]

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Well we are trying to live the dream but only managed to afford two days! We are in the rather expensive Tahiti. After a very long and delayed flight from Chile we were welcomed by the warm breeze, singing and flowers for our hair that you might imagine these wonderful places offer...and this was all at two in the morning. Papette is a wonderful place but the cost to do anything is quite high thus we were limited to one meal a day! A struggle to say the least! But our hotel was wonderful, with a 200m walk to the beach. [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday evening I went to a traditional Polynesian dance show, which was one of the things I had been looking forward to do in Tahiti. Many hotels offer these dance shows some days a week, although my hotel did not have a show any of the days I was staying. However the receptionist made some calls and found out there was a show at the Intercontinental Beachcomber Hotel, just a few minutes walk from my hotel, very convenient! Actually nowadays even the locals go to these shows, there has been an increased interest (especially among young people) in traditional Polynesian dance. [View Full Entry]

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Ia Orana and Bonjour from Tahiti and la Polynésie Française!! Before I go on with my usual "I did this and that"-stuff I'm going to say, Patrick, I did make it to a Polynesian dance show and pics have been uploaded, even as a separate entry. Enjoy!! Tahiti is about 1h 30min from Cook Islands which was my previous stop, so a fairly quick hop. On the flight we actually had a local VIP, "The Queen's representative in the Cook Islands", whatever that means... And I got my suitcase back, it arrived with the flight from Auckland, the same flight I [View Full Entry]

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