Little Lolly's Small Adventures: Tahiti

Showing posts with label Tahiti. Show all posts

On MS Maasdam at last!

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.

Farewell to Moorea.

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

Mo'orea Airport (this was actually taken when we arrived on Mo'orea)

Pape'ete is somewhere down there.

Our luggage is being offloaded

Intercontinental Resort Tahiti

From Pape'ete to Mo'orea, French Polynesia.

Leaving Tahiti

We arrived at Fa'aē International Airport, Pape'ete, Tahiti, in 26℃ humid heat at 5.30am and wondered what the midday temperature was going to be like. We already felt as if we were starting to melt.

Pape'ete, Tahiti to our left

We had thought about renting a car in Pape'ete and heading over to Mo'orea via ferry but we didn't because we were unsure if the car rental places would allow us to take a hire car from one island to another. Also the ferry crossing bookings were very unclear and, if not being guaranteed a place on the ferry at a designated time, we didn't want to wait all day to get to Mo'orea. So Paul decided it would be more convenient to fly across and then rent a car. So we had to wait a few hours for our 10am flight to Mo'orea.

The aeroplane we boarded was smallish aeroplane with engines under the wings. If only I had lived on the islands - I could have tried to applied to work as an air hostess as the overhead luggage compartments weren't too high to reach for a change. Being short, I was never accepted for air hostess training either in Cape Town, South Africa, nor London Heathrow because of height restriction criteria.

Our flight from Pape'ete to Tema'e, Mo'orea was only about 10 minutes only. We arrived at a tiny airport where you collected your luggage beside the check-in desk once it was offloaded from a small truck.

We looked for the car rental desk and an airport staff member kindly told us that we had to phone in advance to the car rental office in Vai'are to request the car be dropped off at the airport. This

Flight from Pape'ete, Tahiti, to Tema'e, Mo'orea

Mo'orea is in sight!

we didn't know because our car rental booking stated we would pick the car from the airport. The lady kindly spoke to an elderly wizened lady (she looked looked as if she was in her 80's and still going strong!) who owned a mini-bus - she was one of the locals who provided a taxi service on the island, and everyone who provided a taxi service to visitors charged the same price. The lady's driving left much to be desired and we just clung on to our seat, leaving our lives in fate's hands. Fortunately we got to the car rental place in one piece! Giving paying her, we gave the lady a quick hug before she set off back to the airport.

To our accommodation along the coastline.

Getting our rental car went smoothly. As we were going through the paperwork Paul looked out the window and discovered that there was a Suzuki in the yard. The rental website didn't show as having any available at the time and it would have to be brought over from the mainland at an extra cost so Paul booked a small car on the website instead. On seeing the Suzuki outside Paul enquired as to whether we could rent it or not. Yes, it was available and we could rent it at the same price that we had booked the car for. Wonderful!

Patio of our lodgings

It was a half an hour journey around to the other side of the island to our AirBnB house rental which we eventually found after a few false hopeful stops. Staying in a hotel on the island is very pricey, ditto staying at Bed & Breakfast place. The place that we rented was at a good price - similar to that of staying at a local backpacker's lodge so we opted to have a house and privacy.

After a quick shower, we headed to bed for an afternoon nap; got back in the Suzuki and looked for a grocery shop so we could at least cook ourselves a meal, of sorts, for tonight. We were going to have soup but discovered that the crooking pots at our rental place are huge; our soup would have liked a mere drop in a bucket. So we ended up ditching the idea of soup and 'wined and dined' on a baguette with some cheese.

It is a balmy evening outside but inside it is warm. Methinks we will sleep with the fan on. Time to go inside - we are getting bitten alive by mozzies!

PHOTOGRAPHS

Leaving Tahiti

Arriving on Mo'orea

Our accommodation

Los Angeles International Airport.

We are tired 😫!

We had an uneventful flight from London to Los Angeles (LA) and were lucky to have a three seat row to ourselves, which included a window sea. I spread myself out and tucked into two seats for a nap. Paul watched films, played games or snoozed now and then.

Going through passport control and security was better and faster than the last two times when we have flown into LA. Maybe it is due to the fact that we arrived late at night rather than during the day when the terminal can be a lot busier. I'm not sure but in any case we were happy.

Flying to Pape'te, Tahiti

We had to pick up our bags from the incoming luggage carousel and walk them to the baggage drop-off point for our next flight to Pape'ete, Tahiti. We still had to check in for the flight to Pape'ete because for some reason we couldn't do so online. The ground staff were nearly half an our late (island time? 😉) )and there was a nice queue building up behind us.

Looking at the time, we have been flying anticlockwise so we are technically still on 3rd April rather than 4th April; gaining an extra few hours. And we will gain more time by the time we arrive in Pape'ete; arriving early morning on 4th April.

We now have a 2 hour wait for our flight so time to relax a bit.

The last few days since getting back to the Netherlands have been hectic. Paul will be starting work at sea again soon so we had to do a few things: clear out the caravan and take it to storage facilities (a former greenhouse), take a load of stuff in the garage for recycling, fetch the quad bike and put it in Paul's mum's garage and then finally take the car to an underground garage for safekeeping until we return to the Netherlands.

Gwenny, Paul's sister, came to visit us before we left and then it was all systems go with sorting and packing things that we will need for the next 3 months.

To Mo'orea from the Netherlands

Today we are staring our journey to Mo'orea, Tahiti, and sitting at Schiphol International Airport in Amsterdam, waiting for the call to board our flight to Heathrow Airport and then on to Los Angeles, Pape'ete (Tahiti) and then on to Mo'orea (French Polynesia, just across from Tahiti). It is going to be a very long day ...

First leg of our flight - heading to Heathrow.

A taxi picked us up from Rijsbergen at around 7am. Traffic was bad all the way to the airport. I guess everyone is going back to work after a long weekend. Just as well that we had set off early to the airport - we made it with plenty of time to spare to drop our luggage off, go through security and passport control as well as the long walk to the gate.

Now we are just waiting for the call to board our flight.

Pape'ete, Tahiti. Excursion: Tahiti's Natural Treasures.

Pape'ete, Tahiti.

Yesterday evening we attended a yoga class held by the gym instructor, Matt. Balance is still a bit of an issue during a class, on the ship, due to the rocking motion but last night Matt added in one or two poses that required standing. Trying to keep my balance, my foot muscles worked a bit overtime and my foot arch muscles cramped quite a bit. Paul later on suggested to Matt that he do the same pose but in line with the side to side movement of the ship (i.e. facing port and starboard) rather than doing the pose facing fore and aft-ways. It was good fun though in all. As the cruise has gone on and word has got around, more staff have attended the sessions. Some people are more flexible than others but that is the way things are. There has never been any religious aspect associated with the sessions - it has been about relaxation and stretching, and this time around - balance, even though a bit rocky!

Venus Point with its black sand beach.

It was cloudy and overcast when we docked in Pape'ete, Tahiti - no surprise to us because the sun has been struggling to peep out from between the clouds over the past few days.

I'm watching you!

I joined my assigned tour group on the bus and we headed off in an anti-clockwise direction around the island, stopping at Venus Point in the northern part of the island. This was the landing point for Captains Cook, Wallace and Bligh. The point, surrounded by a black sand beach, is also where Captain Cook observed the transit of the planet Venus. There was a lighthouse designed by Robert Louis Stevenson, the Bounty Monument and other commemorative monuments to navigators who made it to the island and created a historic impact there. Near the beach there is also a memorial to the first London Missionary Society Protestant missionaries who made their landfall at Point Venus.

Gaugin Restaurant.

According to our guide, Lydia, there are usually arts and craft stalls but today there was only one open which I visited briefly then took a walk around the grounds/gardens. Part of the waterfront path was undergoing a face-lift but the parts that were re-done were nice. Whilst walking near a flower bed a movement caught my eye but I missed what it was. However I saw a nice hole in the ground and took a peek. There was a crab, and I think that is what I had seen when it darted to its hole. It was too shy to come out even after I remained still for a bit so in the end I left it in peace.

Spring Garden of Vaipahi.

We headed southwards down the east coast and stopped on the south coast at Gaugin Restaurant where we had refreshments. It was a lovely big restaurant on the edge of a bay, surrounded by a nice garden.

Heading up the west coast our next stop as at the Spring Garden of Vaipahi, a beautifully landscaped garden with exotic plants and trees; streams and ponds with lots of water lilies. There was a waterfall but with not much rain recently - it was not as spectacular as it could be. Sod's law - it started to drizzle towards the end of the walk around the gardens. But I didn't mind - the cool rain was a welcome change from the oppressive heat. Thank goodness we were travelling in an air-conditioned bus!

Taharuu black sand beach.

We had a brief stop to see the Taharuu surf beach near a river mouth. There were a few surfers in the water, having a great time. I was very tempted to have a quick swim in my shorts and T-shirt but decided against it. I would not be popular if I got back on the bus dripping wet!

Maraa Sea Grotto.

The final stop on our tour was Maraa Sea Grotto. A fern-lined path led to the grotto inside of which there was a nice natural pool with clear water. Some locals appeared and went in for a dip. How I envied them!

When the tour arrived back at the pier Janos from Shore Excursions handed me a diving gear bag from another bus. Someone had left the bag behind so I took it to the ship's reception to add to their lost property collection. It was noted down in a book and a corresponding ticket was attached to it. Hopefully the guest will collect his bag otherwise he won't be going snorkelling or diving!

The food market.

The shops and markets in town were still open and I felt like going for a walk. Paul couldn't go ashore because the Captain and his wife and gone so I decided to stay on the ship and enjoy the cool cabin. Later on, when the Captain came back, Paul and I took a walk through the small nearby market at the port entrance and wandered a bit around town. Unfortunately, by that time, most of the shops were closed for the day. Near the port gates, alongside the promenade, there was an evening food market - catering vans had parked up on the square and 'opened up shop' for the evening. Tables and chairs were set up around the vans, and menus were
on display. Types of food sold was mainly Chinese fayre or French crepes and pancakes. We decided to have a savoury crepe. It was nice sitting outside in the balmy evening, watching life go by on the promenade and also on the square. The crepes were very filling but delicious. It was a nice treat from the ship's standard menus.

A short sail to Mo'orea

As we headed back to the ship guests and staff were heading off out to explore Papeete's night life and seek out restaurants and bars/pubs. We have an overnight stay in port until 4am tomorrow morning (yes Paul will have to be up at "sparrow's fart"!) and then the ship will head to and anchor in Ōpūnohu Bay just off Mo'orea, which is a short distance from Tahiti.