LA to Tahiti to Raiatea, French Polynesia

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After a short stop over in LA to help me break up my travel I was off to Papeete, Tahiti. A little over eight hours on the plane and I was ready to be off. As the passengers filed through the glass automatic doors we were greeted by a traditional Polynesian quartet. Three were playing stringed instruments and one was clapping and dancing; all were singing. On my way through customs I was handed a small white flower, don’t ask me what kind, I have no idea. The flight arrived just after 11:00 PM local time. I was greeted by a young Polynesian woman holding a sign “BLECHA” and a lea. She placed the flowers around my neck and handed me the vouchers I would need for my cruise, I hailed a taxi and was off to my hotel.

The room I had on Tahiti was nothing special. My flight to Raiatea was early the next morning, so the accommodations did not matter much to me; it was still a nice room with a view of the garden, I only had to walk through the bungalows to reach the ocean the next morning. I did a half assed unpacking job and tried to get some sleep. My morning started early, I walked out to the water to see my surroundings for the first time as I arrived well after dark. After a brief walk I made my way to breakfast. This is the first that I really felt the French influence. For some reason foods always remind me of my travels, and so it was with mon petite dejeuner ce matin. After breakfast I made my way back to the room where I showered and finished packing. My suitcase is already bulging as I packed away my travel uniform of jeans and tennis shoes and traded them for flip flops and shorts; that and I picked up a bottle of vodka in the duty free as I heard drinks could be expensive here. Check out proved to an easy process and after I was done I asked for them to call me a taxi to l’aeroport. I’ll go ahead and let you know that my French is not what it used to be. I figured out that I am okay speaking once I have some time to prepare what I want to say, but trying to decipher the response causes me some problems. Hopefully my French progresses somewhat on this trip.

The plane ride to Raiatea was more eventful than I could have hoped for. First we made a stop in Bora Bora where much of the plane deboarded and filled up again. I was lucky to have a young boy about Maleka’s age, 10/11, sit next to me. He was pretty garrulous kid who spoke very clearly and almost slow enough that we could talk. So after offering him a few Dots we became fast friends, and although we didn’t understand everything each other said we certainly were able to get across main points. The kid was very excited about the flight so I told him how I flew planes, petite avions. He let me know that is what he wanted to do when he grew up. Pretty cool. Well when we reached Raiatea I was able to share some knowledge with him, and his mother and brother sitting behind us. I have had to do a few go-arounds as a pilot, never as a passenger on any commercial flight though. A go-around is done when the landing picture does not look good, you may be too high, too fast, or get hit by a gust of wind that really throws things off. All you do is punch the throttle, push in the carb heat, if there is one, and then flaps up in increments to prevent sinking, and then you turn out and enter the landing pattern again. Not such a big deal when you are the one flying the plane, as a passenger it is a little more worrisome. So I tried to explain this all to the kid using my book and the fold down tray to demonstrate along with my limited command of the French language. He got pretty excited and asked if we could land in the sea. I let him know that I hoped not. Ahhh… fun kid.

The resort I am staying at, just for the night before disembarking on my yacht tour of the Society Islands, is the Hawaiki Nui. This is the best place on the island and it shows. I was supposed to have just a little garden room, but I made fast friends with the young Polynesian running the front desk, she told me she liked my accent. I asked how much to upgrade to one of the over water bungalows, she let me have one that was available for no additional charge. I thanked her and she showed me to my quarters. These bungalows are everything you read about! There is a glass lookout in the floor where I can watch the fish swim underneath, but the real beauty is that there is amazing snorkeling right off of my private dock. There is a yacht parked right outside of my door. Outrageous right? Once I got settled in I dove right off of the deck and into the beautiful blue waters. There are no real beaches here per se what there is is coral reef. So I swam with some fish for while, once I got tired I used the fresh water shower right there on the deck to rinse off and then laid out in the sun relaxing. There were a couple of coconuts that drifted close enough to the little dock that I was able to walk down and grab one. I husked it using the corner of the dock to break the shell, I then used a pen to puncture one of the eyes, and then I drank the milk. It may have been a little salty, I couldn’t quite tell. Hopefully I don’t end up sick; I’ll be sure to keep you updated. Anyway, after a bit of laying around in the sun I decided to type up what I have done so far for those of you out there paying attention.

There are free sea kayaks and bikes here, as well as a friendly looking bar. I think I am going to go check them out now. Be sure to subscribe to this blog if you haven’t done so already. You can follow me on the rest of this adventure and beyond. Also, I enjoy the comments and I encourage you to share this blog. Hopefully we can inspire others to get out there and see the world.

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Photos

Air Tahiti
This is the plane that had to do the go around.

Comments

[Pat Zwink]

Amazing
The love of travel is a lifelong passion! I am so happy that you have the opportunities to experience so many amazing facets of life. The beauty of sun, sand, and paradise -hmmm- it will be really tough coming back to cold Nebraska! (BTW - I love the photos. What camera do you use? The saturation is fantastic!) Enjoy!