Blogs from French Polynesia, Oceania - page 41

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) ... read more

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 night´s sleep. Sunday we just got organised, walked through town, had great difficulty finding anything to eat (quite bad pizza´s), and in the late evening got dropped of at the airport again for a red ... read more

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 unusual for this time of year" or, on the day we arrive, we get "it was lovely yesterday, and there were whales and dolphins right in the high street". We saw so much rain, in ... read more

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. Dad would be proud....up at 4.30am, morning run at 6.30am and in the ocean at 7am for the traditional Frodsham swim! Although sunbathing was great, I did of course managed to burn most parts of ... read more

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 was taking onwards to Tahiti an hour later. So they basically offloaded it, gave it to me and I signed a paper I had received it, we got it re-tagged, and back on the same ... read more