Little Lolly's Small Adventures: Intercontinental Resort Tahiti

Sailing schedule while we are on board, until end of May

We slept very well last night but Paul was awake early. He hadn't heard the rooster crowing but yet his brain was switched to 'rooster is going to crow' mode. Oh well.

We had a nice breakfast and then had to wait for our lift to the port. The drive took longer than expected because of the high volume of traffic going through Pape'ete and the fact that there were roadworks as well.

Once we were cleared through port security were were allowed onto the ship where we were given temporary key cards and we would be able to fetch our ship ID and key card later when the crew office was open.

Paul had to get down to business with a handover from the outgoing staff captain. There was no time for him to unpack or get changed into his uniform. While he was involved with the handover I unpacked my suitcase and then started on Paul's. After unpacking and getting our cabin looking a bit like 'home' again I had a wander around the ship to see if there were any familiar faces on board - whether it be dining room staff, stewards, security staff, etc. Yes - a few were still on board which made me feel very happy, more so seeing them again. Some staff were on leave and there were some new faces as well.

The handover finished around lunch time and Paul dug out a uniform, found an iron in one of the self-service laundry rooms and pressed out the wrinkles - good enough to look suitable again. Later on we went down to the bosun's room and retrieved Paul's trunk which has got more uniforms in and other bits and bobs he needs.

The Maasdam's route to Fakarava

The rest of the day went by quickly and soon preparations were made to set sail.

Tomorrow the Maasdam will anchor just off Fakarava, Tuamotu, French Polynesia.

This morning I could have murdered the rooster that woke me up at 4am. I was so tired and wanted to sleep. I knew we had to get up at a reasonable hour in order to tidy up our rented accommodation before we left but 4am, to me, is unreasonable....

During breakfast we fed the hen and her chicks one last time. The previous day a bit of ham thrown to mum and her brood went down a treat but today a bit of leftover burger chicken didn't go down as enthusiastically as the ham. This time the hen allowed other hens and roosters to come for a bite rather than chasing them off as usual. We will miss our feathered friends.

On the way to the airport we made one last stop at an ice cream shop. It became our favourite stop during our stay on the island and Sunday was the only day that we didn't go in case the shop was closed. We said farewell to the ice cream shop owner whilst there, her smiling face turning a bit sad at the news that we were leaving.

At 1pm we boarded short flight to Papeete and were met at the small airport by a driver organised by Paul's company via the port agent. On the way into the town centre it became apparent that we were being taken to the harbour. There seemed that there was a misunderstanding about transport arrangements - our driver was told pick up Paul from the airport and take him to the harbour rather than a pre-arranged hotel. The cruise ship only arrives late tonight or early tomorrow morning. Paul ended up showing our driver the paperwork that he had, stating that the travel arrangements were from the airport to the hotel and then in the morning, at 9am, - hotel to the harbour. She believed Paul after that. Shame, it wasn't her fault.

Eventually we arrived at the Intercontinental Resort Tahiti (http://tahiti.intercontinental.com/), dropped our luggage off in the room and set off to explore the hotel and grounds. The hotel/resort is beautiful. I say no more. We ended up going for a swim in one of the infinity pools and later on we got our mask, snorkel and fins and headed to the "lagoonarium" to do a bit of snorkelling.

We had dinner in one of the hotel restaurants that looked out towards one of the swimming pools. There was a bar next door that had live music which was pleasant to listen to as we had our meal. The whole area was lit up when the sun went down and was very pretty. The dining room staff encouraged us to stay for the show but we were tired and wanted to head to bed.

Tomorrow we join the Maasdam and Paul's work begins.

PHOTOGRAPHS