A regeneration holiday

---

A regeneration holiday
With 39 degrees on the thermometer and two bottles of penicillin in our bag we left the red continent - tonsilitis as a farewell present: thank you very much.
For the first time on our 19-months long trip we hopped onto a plane for a longer flight. It offered good service, decent airplane-food and as compensation for the uninevitable (but small) jetlag an extra day for rehabilitation. Three movies later and one evening earlier we arrived in Papeete, capital of French Polynesia and definitely one of the more exclusive places on earth. We spent 15 US dollars for a five-minutes ride in a hotelbus and another 60 for a decent, but little double room - one of the cheapest in town. Bienvenue a Tahiti. The next morning we crossed over to Moorea, the nearest island in the Northwest where we managed to find an even smaller room for only half the price and with ocean view. Quite a bargain! As there was a tonsilitis to be cured for once we didn´t bother with sightseeing, but spent the time reading, sleeping and relaxing.
As the seawater was about ten degrees warmer than the following shower and only a few degrees less than the air and somehow even during high tide too shallow for proper snorkelling, we preferred to just sit and admire the incredibly green blue water from above. Our afternoon walk along the beach - our only attempt to be active - took an unhappy turn as we were unsuccessfully trying to get around or over all the barbed wire fences and back to the main road. When we finally did find an open gate a friendly French informed us that this track was with costs. Thus, we retreated again into our hammock with the nice view (well done Nico, that we haven't got rid of it a long time ago) and cared for our wellbeing. Nico swallowed penicillin and I swallowed French baguettes with real butter. Mmh! Nicos pills started to help and my baguettes were not only delicious, but cheap as well. Merci et au revoir.






Find more stories and pictures on our Lovelyplanet-Homepage.



Planet Portrait

* Top 3:

Gazing at the sunset from a hammock

Watching the tides go in and out from a hammock

Reading a book and eating baguette in a hammock

* Our route: Papeete - Tiahura

* That was bad: Tonsilitis

* Money saver tip: Go camping on Moorea

* Visa: Free on arrival

* We paid for a baguette: 49 pacific francs.




Planet Pictures

---

Photos

The green mountains
Unfortunately we didn't make it to the interior of the island.