Huahine, Day 4

More rain.

Rum's almost gone.

The TV shows only French channels.

Have finished all the reading material we packed.

Mark has resorted to binge eating from the mini-bar in our room.

Have only each other to talk to as all other guests marooned on the island parler seulement en francaise.

On the upside, we've been adopted by a local border collie cross, who is content to sit between us on our porch for hours at a time. We have named her Sneaky Tiki.



Unfortunately, the fresh pain au chocolate for breakfast and generously portioned gourmet meals served at lunch and dinner are hard to work off that way. The food here is out of this world. Gilligan and his crew never ate so well as we have been doing.



Bon appetit!

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.

Take the Weather With You

Everywhere you go you always take the weather,
Take the weather, the weather with you

- Jimmy Buffett (lyrics by Crowded House)



Pretty sure when Jimmy recorded Take the Weather with You, he wasn’t talking about rain. Or banana winds - the kind that blow the bananas right off the trees!

It’s beginning to feel a lot like our rain-soaked visit to Kauai 2 years ago! Are we cursed?!

More likely this is the weather one should expect during shoulder season visits to tropical locales. With more than 2 weeks still to go, we’re not nearly as upset by the lack of sunshine as we were in Kauai. Plus, it’s going to take a couple of days before Linette’s ready for any more UVA’s or UVB’s.

There were plenty of long faces around the resort today. Most of the people here seem to be newlyweds on their honeymoons. Imagine, coming all this way and then having to spend your whole honeymoon, cooped-up indoors together. Hopefully they brought books to read and cards to play like we did. :o)

But seriously, we are supposed to fly out first thing tomorrow. It’s hard to imagine we’ll be going anywhere in this weather – which we are hoping NOT to take with us to our next stop - Huahine (wah-hee-knee).

Cheeseburger en Paradis

Cheeseburger in paradise (paradise)
Makin' the best of every virtue and vice (paradise)
Worth every damn bit of sacrifice (paradise)
To get a cheeseburger in paradise
To be a cheeseburger in paradise
I'm just a cheeseburger in paradise

- Jimmy Buffett

We have fallen into a routine of snorkelling in the morning (while the conditions are at their best) followed by some sort of activity away from the hotel in the afternoon. We see as many fish on our walk in from the bungalow as we do underwater here.




















Our first venture out was to Le Petit Village, one of three main “shopping” areas on the island which consisted of a 7-11 sized mini mart and handful of tiny souvenir shacks. Despite our best efforts, Linette’s search for just the right pareo (Polynesian wrap-dress) and black pearl continue.

In preparation for today’s adventure and as an homage to Jimmy Buffett, Mark realized his long-time dream of enjoying a cheeseburger in paradise. Mmmm...
















Our attempts to converse in French have been met with mixed reactions ranging from total confusion to mild amusement to responses or menus politely offered in English. We’re pretty sure we haven’t inadvertently insulted anyone’s mother...yet. Optimists that we are, an almost complete inability to speak either of the local languages (Parisian French or Polynesian), we were determined to rent a dune buggy for the afternoon after hearing how much fun they were from a couple we met at dinner.

Apparently, there’s not a lot of emphasis on mechanical reliability in these parts. Within two blocks of leaving the rental place, the buggy began lurching and sputtering like a drunken sailor. To add to the excitement (read: danger) Mark’s Fireball cap flew off and landed smack in the middle of the road behind us.



Miraculously, no one swiped it or ran it over before we were able to retrieve it. Upon returning the sorry bucket of bolts to the rental agency, we were grudgingly upgraded to the luxury model.



It wasn’t quite the RX8, but it suited Mark just fine. This one had a gas gauge and – hallelujah – somewhat responsive steering. Within a few minutes, Mark got the hang of things and we were whizzing along at the posted 60 km/h speed limit, much to the chagrin of the local drivers who flew past us at their normal maniacal rate of speed (perhaps the sign meant 60 mph?).

In retrospect, we should have been more concerned when the brakes didn’t slow the buggy enough to safely make the turn onto the road leading up to the lookout point, Belvedere. We came back at it from the other direction, slowing early enough to manage the turn without flipping and headed up a long and windy one-lane road, dodging oncoming traffic at every 90 degree switchback along the way. We were already a fair ways up when it dawned on us that there might be a problem with the return trip. What goes up must come down...and hopefully more slowly. Rather than continue to increase our chances of dying this day, we thought it prudent to pull off and enjoy the view from where we were...which turned out to be about 50 meters from the top. We had to enjoy the view in turns as the vehicle could not be trusted to remain stationary, even with the emergency brake fully engaged. Here is Cook's Bay from the viewpoint.



It was a small comfort to hear from a passing couple in our same make of dune buggy that they had no brakes either as they began their harrowing descent down the mountain. C’est la vie. Ou la morde.

We fully expected to find the smoking ruins of their buggy as Mark rode what was left of our brakes, in low gear, slowly down from Belvedere towards Cook’s Bay. Instead we caught up with them at the petrol station. We exchanged the small nod of those who’ve stared death in the face and lived to tell the tale. Emboldened by our continued breathing, we carried on for a few more miles, retreating home in time for happy hour and a couple of extra strong boat drinks.

The view of Cook's Bay from the main road is beautiful. The movie The Bounty was primarily filmed right here!



...and the pineapples here...small but wonderful. They are like candy!

The Love Shack, Baybee

The Love Shack is a little old place
where we can get together
Love Shack bay-bee! Love Shack baby!
Love Shack, that's where it's at!
Huggin' and a kissin', dancin' and a lovin',
wearin' next to nothing
Cause it's hot as an oven

- B-52's

It was an 8-hour overnight flight from LAX to Papeete (pah-pey-eat-tay), Tahiti so we were pretty exhausted by the time we made it through the slow and sweaty customs line-up. Thank goodness for the two hot meals they served us on the flight. (Yes, I did say TWO HOT MEALS. And they were served with silverware, albeit plastic, just like in the olden days!) Our travel agent must’ve wanted to get us used to the concept of “island time” early on when he decided to have us cool our heels in Papeete airport for 3 hours before we jumped on our connecting flight to Moorea. We used the time to get lei’d (always wanted to say that) and make our first acquaintances with the tropical island heat and several friendly and hungry mosquitoes.



Within minutes of clambering into the tail end seats of an outbound Air Moorea plane, we were treated to breathtaking views of the island of Moorea and the band of aqua blue lagoons that surrounds her.



The plane bounced to a stop, we hopped out, met the fellow who was sent to bring us to the hotel, grabbed up our bags, and hit the road.

You know how travel brochures make everything look so unbelievably fantastic, and then when you get there the reality is something else entirely? Well, the same was true for the Hilton Moorea Lagoon Resort and Spa. Only this time the reality was EVEN BETTER. Maybe it was the lack of sleep or the diesel fumes or early sunstroke but wow, what a place! From the balcony of hotel lobby we could see the blue lagoon, the overwater bungalows, and a handful of requisite coconut palms swaying lazily in the breeze. A smattering of well-oiled guests lay stretched out on lounges under palm palapas on the white sand beach while others splashed about or snorkelled in the crystal clear waters just of shore. Paradise found!



And it didn’t end there. We stepped into our overwater bungalow, with its charming thatched roof to find a luxury hotel suite.



Off the back were two decks – an upper deck complete with loungers facing toward the sunset, and a lower deck with a fresh water shower situated handily just in front of steps leading down to the lagoon.



At high tide, it’s only about 4 feet deep.











Even still, it is full of coral heads teeming with all sorts of colourful coral, tropical fish, and graceful sting rays.



Within minutes, we’d dumped our luggage, slipped into our suits, grabbed up our snorkelling gear, and found a palapa on the beach. Although there are plenty of shells, coral, and lots of fish here, the Crown of Thorns starfish has already left a legacy of dead coral. Next to global warming, these creatures are the greatest threat to coral reefs. It’s odd that the local habitat preservation people haven’t put a bounty on the invasive starfish. We saw several. It won’t take them long to completely destroy this beautiful lagoon.






We finished off the day at the crepe and bar palapa located at the junction of the overwater bungalow walkways. The sun had set promptly at 6:15, so it was dark by the time we sat down.



Within minutes, we noticed several dark shapes gliding lazily through the lit waters below the bungalow gangways. Sharks! Some at least 5 feet long! Apparently the local black-tipped reef sharks have a nightly habit of coming in from wherever they spend the day to mooch for handouts below the crepe bar! The sharks are supposedly harmless but we both felt a little uneasy about snorkelling in those same waters just hours before (and in the days after!) seeing them.

Here is the panoramic view from our bungalow, taken just after sunrise the morning after our arrival.





Seriously, this place should be on everyone's bucket list!

Two Tickets to Paradise

I've got two tickets to paradise,
Won't you pack your bags, we'll leave tonight,
I've got two tickets to paradise,
I've got two tickets to paradise.

- Eddie Money



Every one of you reading this has a “bucket list”. You might call it a “wish list” or a “maybe someday list” or a “when I retire” list, but you’ve got one; that list of things and places you want to see or do before you...well, you know...

A trip to the South Pacific has long been at the top of Mark’s bucket list (“BL” – not to be confused with Mark’s BS, which is something entirely different). It’s not hard to understand why he’d feel that way. If you’ve ever oogled one of those “tropical beaches” calendars, you were probably looking at a beach in the South Pacific – more specifically, in French Polynesia. I mean, really – who wouldn’t want to go to a place that looks like that?!

I must admit, there were things ahead of French Polynesia on my BL. Since it seems I’ve got a few years to wait before my children will indulge me with the #1 spot (spoiling grandbabies) I was quite willing to follow Mark’s lead when he suggested we start looking into this next big adventure one cold, dark, and rainy day last winter. Obviously, the man knows a thing or two about timing.

You’d think it would be so simple. Just hit up a travel agent or two, tell them what you’d like to do, and voila – pay the bill and you’re good to go. Ya...not so much. Travel agents can know too little about a destination (as in, almost nothing at all). And the internet? Well, let’s just say too much information is almost as bad as no information. Luckily, fate eventually led us to Rob the Tahiti Travel Guru. We told him all the places we wanted to go, what we wanted to do, where we wanted to stay, how long we had, and how much we wanted to spend. Once he stopped laughing, he told us what we could do, and then he arranged everything.

Apparently, it’s really bad karma to talk about the cost of Bucket List items so we’re not going to go there. Where we are going to go are the French Polynesian islands and tuamotus of Tahiti, Moorea, Huahine, Bora Bora, and Tikehau.

What seemed like an impossible dream 6 months ago somehow became the final destination on our luggage tags today. After 4 months of non-stop renovating, packing, renovating, moving, renovating, unpacking, and renovating we are so ready for a break and for this trip. We had hoped the renovations of our new home would be pretty much finished before we left. They aren’t quite, but it’s probably just as well. Over the next 3 weeks, the renovation fairy will be finishing off the kitchen and wood floors that have had us living out of boxes these last 2-1/2 months. Or so we’ve been told.

And so, we’re off on our next big adventure. We hope you’ll join us. Please leave a note on the blog if you do!

A bientot amis!