Tahiti, the true Pacific paradise!!

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Arrived Tahiti, the true Pacific paradise the traditional way; Tahitians singing and playing their tiny guitars, covered with flowers and smiling like they always do..

After a 4 days stop over in Auckland, New Zealand(coming from Tonga), it was REALLY good to feel the warm weather of the South Pacific again, and YESS we're truly getting spoiled with this lifestyle.

Since Tahiti is REALLY EXTREME expensive, we didn't know where to stay the first night, specially since the only place you can book online are at the super expensive hotels..After having a chat with the information lady at the airport, she told us about this French guy renting out rooms cheap(not cheap but cheap for Tahiti that is.."Le Tangara Pension" is the name of his place). He picked us up in his tiny little French car, talking French all the freaken time..and Marianne you did REALLY NOT deserve you're high score in French from Collage!!!
Anyway, good to get a good night sleep after 8 hours plane ride.

After a good night sleep(in a crappy bed), we headed off for the beautiful island of Moorea.
After a bus ride to the capital of Tahiti, Papeete, It's only a 30 min fast ferry ride from Tahiti to Moorea. Niice. The "french guy" in Tahiti knew a guy running a cheap Lodge in a great spot in Moorea, so he arranged for our stay at his place and a pick-up at Moorea harbor, great!!

Approaching the island of Moorea, we could really see the typical Polynesian island with it's high rise steep mountains, painted green with rainforest and clouds covering the mountain peaks in a way you can only see in the Pacific, what a sight!!
Closing up to the harbor we crossed the outer reef and a new world opened up; the turquoise clear water surrounding the island and some jumping dolphins made us really understand why Tahiti is really the true pacific paradise!!

Our host the first week in Moorea met us at the harbor as arranged, great. He drove us around the island showing us the highlights and gave us a lot of information before ending up at his bungalow place, Haapiti Surf Lodge. What a great place; big bungalow with kitchen and bathroom, just what we need to keep the cost down by making our own food and stuff!!

After check in, Peter, the host, showed us the best snorkeling spot by taking us out with his "big" boat on the turquoise water all the way to the outer reef, what a great snorkeling place!! A lot of fish and great corals.

During our week stay at Haapiti we went on several kayak tours snorkeling with sharks, stingrays and a lot of beautiful coral fish and basically enjoying the life in the amazing lagoon of Haapiti.

We also went on a day trip around parts of the island to see the mountain range, some plantations, some small villages, a tattoo studio making traditional patterns and the 2 bays; Baie de Cook & Baie d'Opunohu.
The last bay is where the famous movie based on the true story "The Bounty", with Mel Gibson was filmed.
Peter, our host, also had a small part in this movie, making Peter the second person Børre has met to play in a movie with Mel Gibson(the movie "Mad Max" in Coober Pedy, Australia was the first in line), fun stuff, next time I reckon Mel him self will show up, ha ha..

In addition to free kayaks, Haapiti Surf Lodge provided us with free bikes as well..Sooooo, we went for a looong bike trip in the extreme heat to the north east of the island, Hauru Point and it's village.
Looking for a new spot to crash for our second week in Moorea, and yesss we found the perfect place; Les Tipaniers Hotel. The very best bungalows and a perfect beach for a reasonable price(more expensive than usual for us, but what the hell..), what more do we need!!

The next day we headed off to our new bungalow place and it's perfect surrounding.
During our stay at Les Tipaniers Hotel we really enjoyed beach life with snorkeling swimming, kayaking and shopping for black pearls(Marianne likes her jewelery..).

Kayaking out to the Shark point close to the outer reef, we really had our best snorkeling so far on this trip; being totally alone far out in the sea, we were surrounded by lots of curious big Black Tip Reef Sharks and Stingrays while snorkeling..
Børre even followed some of the sharks back down to the bottom of the deep blue sea, being in the middle of a highway of sharks passing him like he wasn't even there, THE VERY BEST KICK EVER!!!!!

We also found the time to kayak around a smaller island, Motu Moea, and what a great trip..Making a couple of stops for snorkeling before heading back to Les Tipanier Hotel.

Hauru point, the area where we stayed, is truly a mecca for kite surfing when it's windy..Børre love his kiteing but to rent it for a couple of hours was crazy expensive(2 hours USD200!!!!!), like everything else in Tahiti..So he just had to enjoy the view instead, and of course remind him self to bring his own kite next time..shit!!!!

Our 2 weeks in Moorea came to an end, and we had to move on to the island of Tahiti.
The last day we spent in the capital of Tahiti, Papeete, exploring the city marked, streets, shops and "The Black Pearl Museum"..
Didn't take long time to get tired of the city due to the freaken traffic noise..(spoiled with silence on remote islands we reckon..).

Time to move on and jump on another plane, heading for Los Angeles which is the place we are at the moment (next blog).

Our 3 months traveling the Pacific islands made us realize that if there is a paradise on earth, it's really here in the Pacific!!
Meaning all the islands has it's special charm & beauty, and not to mention the wonderful people living here. It just can't be compared to anything else in the world we have seen so far..Even if it's general expensive all over the Pacific, you usually find a good deal, making your money worth while..
Love this place and we know one thing for sure; we'll be back!!!!


PS. Have a look at our video we made from Tahiti (click the link underneath the text)

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