Ia orana, maeva

Yesterday was one of the least fun days we’ve had on our travel. But it had to happen. We’d been very lucky so far, all the travelling we’d done was self-contained. When we originally put the itinerary together, we toyed with the idea of breaking the journey and spending a couple of days in Buenos Aires (this would have been our third visit there, it’s an awesome place) but the airline schedules didn’t work out unfortunately.

And so it is what it is.

We left Los Angeles at 22.40 and flew to Tahiti with Air Tahiti Nui. Everything about this airline is fun. They give you flowers; the crew dresses in floral uniforms, the branding is all pastel colours. The flight was uneventful. Andy slept most of the way and when he didn’t, he chatted away to the crew in Spanish, and the hostess would then turn to me and ask me – in French – what he’d said. Bless.

We landed in Papeete at 5.05am. Get this. There was a band and dancers to welcome us, and we were presented with a traditional flower lei. Immigration was a doddle – very few people on the plane were Europeans, and so we breezed through the E.U. queue – please spare a thought for poor Andy who will have to use the non E.U. queue in the near future!

With all the paperwork done and the luggage collected, we left the terminal, went to the cashpoint… and checked in at the domestic terminal. We had just over 3.5 hours to our flight to Moorea.

The last leg of the journey was precious however. We could see our destination clearly from the runway as we boarded. As we we were seated, we had the announcement about making sure we put our seatbelt on, and then there was an announcement to say that we were preparing for landing. Our flight duration was eight minutes :-).

Seating on the left of the plane afforded us amazing view of Moorea and its jagged mountain peaks and its lush jungle. This place was on my must see list and I’m thrilled to bits to be here… 31 hours after we left Panama City.

The island feels familiar and yet so different from the scenery we had grown accustomed to. The hills are rugged and the flora’s different. The temperature’s pretty much what we’re accustomed to by now. Hot and sunny… maybe a tad too humid. But let’s be clear, we’ll take this. We’re travelling here during the shoulder season and we were told that rain would not be uncommon. This is the risk we took. The alternative would have been to come here half way through our New Zealand trip and so it made more sense this way. So far, so good.

Our transfer to the hotel was easy. The hotel reception greeted us with ‘Ia orana, maeva’ (hello, welcome). With the end in sight, we both started thinking about taking a nap on arrival… but our room wasn’t ready. Bummer. We seriously needed some TLC by then. Undeterred, we rummaged around our bags to get our swimmies and hit the beach. The water was warm, the sun was out… and just by swimming for 15 mins or so, we saw an incredible amount of fish. Easy snorkelling around here we reckon. Swam in the sea, loungers, infinity pool, loungers, swam in the sea, loungers, infinity pool… repeat.

We got our room at 2pm and laughed. I had deliberately asked to get a standard room – as opposed to a bungalow over the sea as there is quite a lot to do in Moorea. I’d anticipated that we’d never leave the bungalow if we stayed in one. Our room is amazing – spacious, the hottest water we’ve had since leaving London, a massive bed and an outdoor private balcony.

We are staying  at the Manava Beach Resort and Spa Moorea and it’s not too shabby… let me tell you! The staff are incredibly friendly. The place is beautiful, the water is potable and it’s run as an eco-friendly place. The bungalows over the sea are located over corals rescued from the lagoon. There is a man who goes round checking on the health of the coral (pollution, global warming, tourism), and he brings unhealthy coral back to the resort and tries to restore it to full health. This, in turn, brings in an crazy variety of fish which you can see really well (this is the clearest water we’ve seen on the trip yet).

We can’t wait to explore the island further. It is supposed to be unspoilt. With so much to do and not much time, we sat down to draw of a list of the activities we’d like to do. As we were busy planning, there was a knock on the door, and when I opened it I was faced with a man with a pineapple in his hand. A welcome gift.

We played three games of table tennis and I lost all three. True, I was getting distracted by the view but also some of my shots were shockingly bad.

Ah yes, the view. No photos today I’m afraid. Too tired to function, but full service will resume tomorrow.

For dinner, we opted for the resort’s themed buffet (‘food of the world’). At 5900 CFP (Franc Cours Pacific, or the Pacific Franc) per person, which is roughly £42 a head, it’s not cheap, but we’re too tired to go and explore. Also, we’d seen the menu in advance and there was tons of salads. Imagine, salad we could finally eat without the fear of getting unwell! And we sneaked in a tiny bit of salmon for an Omar lookalike cat.

At 8pm, there was a dance performance by the pool. It was great to see some Polynesian culture… for ten minutes. All the travel finally caught up with us and as good as the dancers were, we left. Because… bed.