myrainasia

OK, OK, I promised to keep everybody posted and I have not done a very good job of it, but internet time in French Polynesia is a budget buster and the French keyboard resulted in some very weird looking words (the q was where the a should have been, the w replaced the z, the m sat in the colon space, you had to shift to get a “.” and I’m still not real sure how one located the @, but you had to do something odd) so I deserve forgiveness.

I just arrived in Aukland last night and here I am. By the way, don’t look too hard for photos yet, I opted to e-mail today and am hoping to learn photos tomorrow.

So, French Polynesia was really beautiful, but it was quite wet. It was drenching wet the first week, but things improved after that. Note that I said French Polynesia and not Tahiti. Lesson here- Tahiti is the main island in the Society Islands, which, themselves, are only 1 of the island chains in Polynesia. (Others include the Marquesas, and many others which will be found in French Polynesia 102- this blog ends at 101)

I was on 5 islands, although I was on 2 of them for about 5 minutes each (stopovers on the plane). I landed on Tahiti (Eric, you were right about the pronunciation of Papeete- pah’-pay-ay-tay) and transferred for my flight to Bora Bora. We stopped on Raitea(sp?) where we dropped off the “football” (soccer to us) team for a big game. (I have no idea if I was traveling with the equivalent of the NY Giants or some triple A team, but they looked excited) Then on to Bora Bora for 10 days at Club Med. Club Med is Club Med, not much more to say. I ended up staying 2 weeks because I figured I would rather be depressed from the rain in a resort where they were at least trying to keep me amused, then to sit in some little hotel feeling suicidal. Not to mention the free alcohol which helped dispel the misery of permanently frizzy hair.

I realize most people don’t consider Club Med the ideal budget travel destination. Actually, I think it was the best deal in Polynesia. Bora Bora is a beautiful island, there are 2 mountains in the center which make it look exactly what one thinks Tahiti should look like. Pictures will follow shortly, I hope- I just asked the guy at the front desk if he can find someone to teach me how to download my pictures onto the internet. But the area where the Club Med is located is the same as most of the hotels on Bora Bora and it feels very touristy. Not much to see or do other than the fantastic snorkeling and diving, or so they told me, since I do neither- to the dismay and amazement of just about everybody there. I still feel strongly that I would rather see my fish on a plate, broiled with a little bit of butter. They do have a pier at the Club where they actually grew a coral reef and people throw bread off and all the little fishies come for a snack, so I saw those. Lots of the little yellow ones with the 2 black stripes, but also some bright blue ones, and a few other various and assorted whose names and identities will remain forever a mystery to me.

And the water—absolutely amazing! Puts the Caribbean to shame. It comes in 3 different shades, all clearly delineated (kind of like a jello parfait cup), ranging from a light sea greenish color to a vibrant turquoise and then a more royal blue color. I’m told the color changes have to do with depth as well as location of the reefs. The water by the shore at the Club was kind of murky sea water color with lots of coral on the bottom making it difficult to go in, but they run a shuttle boat to the motu (Tahitian for island) and that’s where the swimming and snorkeling take place.

So after Club Med I flew to Moorea, with a stopover on Huahine (that brings us to 5). Moorea is also stunning. There are a lot of mountains on Moorea and I took another zillion pictures there. I stayed in a small bungalow with no A/C- at about $130 a night it was the cheapest thing I could find, so I forced myself to pass on the additional $30 for A/C. Not much public transport on the island and I was the only one I saw walking on the road, but it was pretty and relaxing was okay after 2 weeks of Club Med – lost my voice at the end from talking too much- in French and English.

Last 2 nights spent on Tahiti in a really lovely little family run hotel outside of Papeete. I spent 1 day walking around Papeete- about 4 or 5 hours more than really needed, but I’m a city girl and that’s what floats my boat. I went into a pearl museum, mostly to take advantage of the A/C, but actually it was a pretty cool museum.

I was priding myself on having avoided buying a black pearl, after looking at 97 different black pearl shops (they’re everywhere), but, as fate would have it, I found a bracelet that just called my name at the Tahiti airport (I did not see that style anywhere else) so now I am the proud owner of a Tahitian black pearl (Aren’t you proud of me, GinnY?)

And now I am in Auckland. I did not do very much today, but I did go up to the Sky Tower (Auckland’s symbol and the tallest building in the southern hemisphere) and watched people do the Sky Jump. I don’t think it’s as scary as bungee jumping because there’s no free fall, rather, the fall is controlled by a cord attached to a seat harness (imagine hanging a wooden bird on an elastic cord and that’s pretty much it), but since I couldn’t even walk on the clear glass tiles that are inserted into the enclosed walkway at the observation deck level, who am I to dis the “jumpers”?

OK, I’ve left out a lot, but you are all sort of up to date and, at the rate of $2/hour, I will try to be more faithful for the next few months.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate, and happy healthy New Year to everybody.

P.S. This is a blog, not my e-mail. Those who are kvetching about my failure to update should direct themselves to my e-mail for prompt response and/or deletion.

Tags: Auckland, Club Med, French Polynesia, Tahiti, Travel

This entry was posted on Friday, December 21st, 2007 at 1:21 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.