Licence to Chill

Let the rat race run, roll around in the sun until
Trouble turns funny, songs get sung
A little bit of money, the night's still young
Leave me alone I've got a license,
A license to chill

- Jimmy Buffett


We awoke this morning to overcast skies and mercifully light winds. The hurricane force gale that came up yesterday evening had died off at some point during the night, somehow not managing to take the thatched roof of our bungalow with it. The wind was so bad at times, we actually contemplated packing a small grab-and-go bag, just in case!

After 5 lovely days in Moorea, we were ready to set off in search of our next adventure – the island of Huahine, which is described in our travel book as “immaculately tropical”, “exotically lush”, an island to visit for “extreme calm and communing with nature”. In case you didn’t know it either, that’s code for “it rains a lot here so expect to sit around doing a lot of nothing”.

Huahine is exactly what we needed.

There have been many moments of amusement already on the trip – the airport code for Huahine being one of the best so far - “HUH”.


That’s pretty much how we hope to be feeling when we leave here for Bora Bora on Saturday.

Our new abode, the Tiare Vanira beachfront bungalow at the Relais Mahana resort is absolutely darling. On the 30 minute flight over from Moorea, Mark warned me not to expect the same level of luxury as we’d had at the Hilton. I’d have to say that this bungalow was actually nicer!



Mosquito patrollers included!

And when the sun shines (and it has for 20 to 30 minutes at a time), it turns the lagoon waters the most beautiful shades of turquoise, azure, and aquamarine. And the sunsets...well...they’re awfully nice too.