Our first stop, Tahiti! Tahiti is actually just one island in the Society Islands of French Polynesia. The main city of Papeete, on the island of Tahiti, is busy and crowded, not at all like the beaches that everyone identifies with Tahiti. Many tourists head out to popular islands such as Bora Bora and Moorea to find paradise. We chose to stay on Moorea, which is a smaller, less-touristy and less expensive island just a short ferry ride from Tahiti. It was just as you picture in your head… beautiful clear blue water, green lagoons, coconut and palm trees standing tall over white sandy beaches. This heart-shaped island is surrounded by a coral reef, providing protection to the lagoon. We hadn't booked a reservation, so we hopped on the local bus and hoped we'd be able to stay at Billy Ruta Bungalows (it sounded good in the guide book). When we got there, the place seemed deserted except for lots of random chickens running around the grounds. We finally found someone who informed us (via very broken English and lots of arm waving) that the lovely bungalows were not available (we figured out later that people were living in them long-term), but we could stay in a private dorm room. It was the barest room… two low twin beds, simple wood floor and a light. The bathroom was outdoors, with cold-water showers and toilets with no toilet paper. We put our bags down and just sat on the beds for a minute, taking it all in… this was our life for the next 12 months!
Let's backtrack to our actual arrival in Tahiti. We were greeted at the airport (at 2am) by beautiful Polynesian women who put flowers behind our ears while a little three-man ukulele band played.
Stephanie: "They still use the outdoor stairways that pull up to the plane door, rather than pulling up to an enclosed terminal walkway. I love those walkways, because since I was little, I always knew I was on vacation when I walked down one of those (at least that's true when you're from Seattle where nothing is ever outdoors). There's a wonderful, overwhelming feeling of anticipation when you walk down those stairs as you take in the initial sights, sounds and smells of your destination. It's when the planning and anticipation of the vacation turn into reality."
Everything smelled like flowers when we arrived in Tahiti (except the bathrooms!). The late night air was warm and humid as you'd expect. We were disoriented because it was so late, and because we'd just spent ten hours flying in total darkness over the Pacific Ocean to what felt like the end of the earth. We hadn't slept much for the prior week because of all of our packing and last-minute things to finish, but at the same time our adrenaline was pumping because our trip was finally beginning… we had really done it! We lugged our bags around the airport like silly tourists, wearing our clunky hiking shoes, feeling out of place in exotic Tahiti. We didn't have any hotel reservations, so we really had nowhere to go. It's difficult to describe the range of emotions we were feeling, but the overwhelming one was just feeling tired, so we did like many cost-conscious travelers do and set up fort in a corner and got some shut-eye for two hours until dawn.
THE SHARK AND RAY TOUR: The highlight of our time on Moorea was the Shark Feeding & Ray tour we took through Moorea Camping, a local hostel (for those of you traveling here - we highly recommend it and the cost was only $15 U.S. Dollars each). We began by taking a small boat out to the far end of the lagoon, close to the reef. The guides then threw chum (fish bits) into the water to attract the Black-Tip Reef Sharks. Within a few minutes, about 8 sharks, ranging from 4 feet to 6 feet long, came swimming up to the end of the boat to feed.
Our Guides: "OK, get in the water!"
Stephanie: "I'm sorry, I see sharks circling our boat and you want me to get into the water?"
As Stephanie was still pondering the whole scenario, Ken had already jumped off the side of the boat into the water (he was of course the first one in!). Once Stephanie and the other frightened females saw that the sharks weren't tearing people apart, they jumped in. The rule was to stay between the boat and the outrigger (a floating strip that runs parallel to the boat). We each wore a mask and went underwater to watch the sharks as they pounced on the chum. They seemed curious in us onlookers and would occasionally swim toward us, then turn away 5 feet in front of us to go back to their food (fortunately, they didn't mistake any of us for their "food"!). We were told that the reef sharks are "safe" because their mouths don't open wide enough to bite a human, although Stephanie is certain they could have gotten an arm or something if they really wanted to. Watching them was like being at the aquarium when you watch sharks through glass - we were just missing the glass this time (minor detail). The experience was a little scary but actually really fun. However, the best part of the tour was still to come - swimming with rays. They simply call them "rays", but from what we could tell by looking at a diving guide book later, they were stingrays! Guess our guides didn't want to scare us with that little piece of the puzzle. Our boat went to a shallow part of the lagoon and we jumped into the 3-foot deep water, this time being free to go anywhere. There were about 20 rays swimming around, between 2 and 4 feet wide and 2 and 4 feet long, plus a very long, thin and spiny tail. They would literally swim right up to you and alongside your midriff, especially if you had food to give them. They would hover right at you, gliding along your stomach and back as that's where the surface of the water was. It was incredible! Stephanie was again completely freaked out at first, but after awhile, was loving it. There were others taken aback - there was a blond German guy who literally raised his arms up, scrunched his face and made hilarious yelping sounds every time a ray glided by him. He was so funny to watch. The rays were beautiful and just flowed under the water and along the surface. Stephanie was really enthralled with the rays and was the last to come in, until she saw one of the reef sharks glide through the water, past the boat, between the rays and about 20 feet from her. I'm sorry, but we were supposed to be done with the shark portion of our tour! You've never seen someone move so fast to get out of the water. She started to think she imagined it, but the German guy had been at the head of the boat and indeed had seen it too. Yikes! After that bout of excitement, we were taken to a deserted motu (basically, a very tiny island between the reef and Moorea) for a gorgeous fruit snack - the freshest fruit we ever had - with pineapple, coconut, papaya, etc. We were also shown how to break open a coconut (see Ken's step-by-step on that one in the pictures). A few of the rays followed us to this island so we sat in the shallow water and they swam right up to us, repeatedly. They were so peaceful and graceful. We also did some snorkeling, so we were able to watch the rays swim right up to us face-to-face (they don't really have a face, but you get the picture). The only odd thing during this tour was a local guy who caught a fish while we were at this beach, then messed with it a bit (probably taking off some scales), then literally bit into the side of the fish like it was corn on the cob. We're all for sushi, but this was hideous!
LAZY DAYS ON THE BEAUTIFUL ISLAND: Moorea was truly beautiful. If you looked inland it was lush with tropical greenery, and if you turned around you faced clear blue lagoons and palm-fringed sandy beaches. We spent our days swimming in the lagoon and watching serene sunrises and sunsets. We walked up the beach several times past resorts and along the busy beach of Club Med, where Ken's parents had honeymooned over thirty years before. We also wandered each day into "town", which consisted of a couple of youth hostels, small hotels (bungalows on the beach), several cafes and a supermarket.
BRITISH MATES: Another highlight was meeting Stuart and Sarah, a great couple from England. They were spending a week in Moorea before moving to Auckland, NZ. We met them at the Tahiti airport while waiting for dawn, and then again by the docks as we waited a few hours to board our ferry to Moorea. We sat with them at an outdoor café and had a lovely breakfast of croissants and fresh pineapple juice. We chatted on the boat and bus, and then went separate ways at our different hotels, hoping to run into each other again. We ran into them later that day and the next night in complete darkness on the side of the road (we were walking to dinner and they were walking back), and from then on we spent the majority of our time there together, having dinners, sightseeing, and going on the shark tour. They were lots of fun to hang out with and really made our Moorea trip even more enjoyable!
EXPLORING THE ISLAND: On our last full day in Moorea, we rented a car with Stuart and Sarah and spent the day together. The car was a Fiat Panda, this tiny little hatchback that ran surprisingly well considering that it was even smaller than Stephanie's VW Cabriolet. We first went to the Belvedere, a look-out point toward the top of the two extinct volcanoes on Moorea. We could see out toward Cook's Bay and it was beautiful. We then made an impromptu stop at the most gorgeous lagoon we've ever seen. We jumped in and swam for awhile, taking in the amazing scenery - lush green hills surrounding the clear blue water. We didn't want to leave there, but we finally tore ourselves away and drove to a waterfall. We had a 30-minute hike up - mostly easy, but slightly sketchy at times with a few small stream crossings and steep muddy trails. We got to the base of the waterfall and it was lovely. The pool of water at the bottom was shallow but unfortunately very rocky so we were doing tai-chi-like movements to get to the end where the waterfall fell. Ken of course felt the need to try to climb part of the steep slippery rock at the side of the waterfall - he got up a bit but couldn't go too high (which was fine for Stephanie). We cooled off under the waterfall, let the water fall hard on our shoulders and backs (which felt great except for Stephanie's sunburn) and then hiked back down to our car. Later that day we stopped at a pineapple-growing plant, with the freshest pineapple juice we've ever had, then went out to dinner that night at Alfredo's, which was recommended as one of the best restaurants on Moorea. It was. Stephanie had a grilled tuna steak - two inches thick - with an amazing mustard sauce, and Ken had prawns in a curry sauce.
NOW THAT'S A TASTY BURGER: Our first morning, after we checked into our room, we headed into town for a meal. We came across a "hole in the wall" snack shop. The place was literally just a shack with a menu in French, so Stephanie could only figure out what a few of the items were. Ken chose a hamburger, and against all odds, it was the best hamburger of his life. It was REALLY good! Stephanie had a great meal too - a bowl of fried rice with all sorts of tasty ingredients. Tres bien!
KAYAKING IN THE RAIN: On our last day, we headed over to Stuart and Sarah's bungalow to hang out with them for the day. They had free access to kayaks, so off the boys went.
Ken: "We had such a great time! We paddled out to the reef, maneuvering between the shallow corals, beached our kayaks on the edge and took a short walk (we regretted not bringing our shoes). Just as we got back in our kayaks, a rush of water swept us off the reef and back on our way. Perfect timing! It started pouring rain on our way back. It was like taking a warm bath. I couldn't have been happier! I even glanced at my watch and realized that it was 2pm on a Thursday back home in LA and I would have just gotten back to my cubicle from lunch. It was quite surreal."
CULTURE SHOCK: The biggest challenge for us on Moorea was simply adjusting to our new lifestyle, and the fact that there was nothing we "had" to do! Those of you reading this from your work cubicles are not feeling too sorry for us, but it truly took a few days for us to begin to feel comfortable with our surroundings and with the fact that this would be our lifestyle for the next 12 months. We would not have a home, and we would constantly be changing locations. Everything would be new, all of the time - the faces around us, where and what we eat, even how the toilet flushes. While this constant stimulation of "new" is attractive to us - which is why we chose to take this trip - it's also wearing on you when nothing is familiar. And just as something or someone becomes familiar, it's time to leave. We've both traveled extensively before so we understood this going in, but there's certainly a period of culture shock at the beginning. And as beautiful as Moorea was, it certainly wasn't traditional paradise. As for modern conveniences, there were none. The bathrooms were outdoors, our showers were cold-water and there was often no toilet paper, let alone soap (Stephanie's day was made when she went to a restaurant that had a full roll of toilet paper, a normal clean toilet seat and liquid soap at the sink!). You took your life in your own hands if you actually sat on some of these toilet seats, so there was a lot of quadricep-strengthening squatting going on. Because of the lack of amenities, if you forgot to bring your own "essentials" to the hostel bathrooms, you had to wing it. You can't drink tap water, so we had to brush our teeth with bottled water (and if you didn't have any, you didn't brush your teeth). We had to get used to being hot, dirty and smelly. Laundry was done in the sink with cold water and then put on a clothesline to dry. There were no lights at night, so walks from town or trips to the bathroom were in the dark, other than the small light from a flashlight. There were geckos, moths, mosquitoes and small spiders in our room, but you just learned to ignore it. We also had one or two cockroach sightings near the bathroom (Ken unknowingly crunched one on a late night trip to the bathroom). The sun was hot every day and we had to wear sun block all of the time. There were no televisions, radios or newspapers, so we had no idea what was happening in the world. None of these things alone were necessarily tragic, but taking them all in at the same time was culture shock, plain and simple. On the flip side, however, we were having the time of our lives. We were relaxed, learning about new cultures, meeting great people from around the world and living a completely opposite lifestyle than before. Ridding ourselves of our American corporate lifestyles meant that our time was ours. Nowhere to report to, no one expecting anything from us, no responsibilities to uphold. The realization of this freedom was unbelievably liberating. We could do what we want, when we want, how we want, or just not at all if we couldn't be bothered. In the weeks and months before we departed, we were both going at a frantic pace… packing, moving, selling cars, saying goodbyes. And now our pace was shockingly slow - almost too slow at first, for two individuals so accustomed to the crazy paces of LA and Seattle. We had so much to do to get ready for our trip that it was really hard to immediately slow down once we got there. We had to learn to just "be", truly relax and slow down every aspect of our lives. So maybe buses are late and clerks are slow and it takes twice as long to do things. So what? What's the rush? Despite all of the challenges or uncomfortable things we experienced, we were still positive that it was better than working the tedious 9 to 5 (or usually more) back home! So there we were, two fish out of water - but not for long. We were ready to change, which is why we undertook this trip in the first place. We just needed a few days to get into the swing of it.
PULL UP A HARD CHAIR AND MAKE YOURSELF COMFORTABLE: Air New Zealand flights originate in LA or Auckland at normal times of the day, and therefore make stops in Tahiti, Rarotonga and Fiji in the middle of the night. We left LA at 7pm, and arrived in Tahiti at 2am (Tahiti is 3 hours behind LA, so that felt like 5am our time). Rather than travel in the middle of the night and spend money for a half-night's sleep, we chose to spend our first night overseas as many other travelers do… sleeping in the airport. We found a quiet corner, locked our bags together with a cable alarm, and made ourselves comfortable (not!) on narrow, hard rows of chairs. We caught a little shut-eye and a few hours later, made our way out into the Tahitian sunlight. We wandered around and caught the local bus ("le truck", it's called) to the docks so we could catch what we thought would be a 6am ferry to Moorea. Since it was a Saturday, the first ride wasn't until almost 8am, so we suddenly had another couple of hours to kill. Fortunately, this is where we had breakfast with Stuart and Sarah before catching the ferry a couple hours later - see British Mates above.THE DREADED ROOSTERS: For those of you who think that roosters are harmless farm animals who only cock-a-doodle-doo at dawn, think again! The numerous roosters running around Billy Ruta Bungalows make noise ALL day and ALL night. We seriously woke up several times in the middle of the night to loud roosters announcing, well, we're not quite sure… perhaps "Dawn's coming! T-minus 3 hours… 2 hours… 1 hour… almost… don't get excited… here it comes… there it goes…!"
PARLEZ VOUS FRANCAIS?: The local language is French (this is French Polynesia, after all), which meant that all communication fell on Stephanie as she had studied French for three years in high school (and she was surprised at how much came back to her - she enjoyed the challenge of communicating in a foreign language, with the occasional "charades" to substitute for a forgotten word. She actually "woofed" to a French guy when she couldn't remember the name for "dog").
PITCH-BLACK DARKNESS: As lovely and peaceful as Moorea was during the sunny days, it was equally dark and quiet at night. There were no street lights or overhead lights, so when we'd take the short walk into town, we were literally stumbling down the narrow road in pitch-black darkness. We had a flashlight but it was the little kind you had to squeeze so we'd only have periodic light. One night, after walking awhile in the dark, we turned on the flashlight only to see a random dog standing right in front of us on the road. We would have run right into him! We later had the same experience with a crab.
TRANSPORTATION MESS: Moorea was certainly not touristy, but that made for some difficult traveling around the island. We walked most places and rented a car one day, but the bus system (called "le truck") was interesting to say the least. On our last day there, we needed to catch the bus to get us back to the ferry dock so we could get back to Tahiti. We were told that the bus comes "once in the morning, once in the afternoon, usually - just stand by the side of the road". Could we be a little more specific? No, afraid not. We deducted that a bus would probably come by between 1pm and 1:45 pm, so we hauled all of our bags to the side of the road and sat in the hot sun, eyeing the road for the bus. There were a bunch of cows behind a fence, and when they saw us, they came over to us with the most frightening "moos" Stephanie has ever heard. She wouldn't even turn her back on these cows - something was up with them. Anyway, by 2pm we were worried - no bus and the ferry was leaving from the other side of the island in an hour. Fortunately, a guy stopped and gave us a ride since he was going to the ferry dock as well (hitchhiking is common in Moorea - we did it several times). He was from France, and spoke about as much English as Stephanie spoke French. It was fun, though, using both of our broken second-languages to communicate. We chatted the entire car ride, for about 30 minutes. He told us that the afternoon bus doesn't come to that part of the island, so if he hadn't stopped, we'd still be sitting there next to those vicious cows. He was a real estate agent and told us some of the property prices on Moorea (quite expensive for the nice homes). Stephanie made a comment that there were a lot of dogs on Moorea, and he told us that some people eat them. Lovely. They're not supposed to, but he said that many people do catch them and eat them at home. Stephanie made sure - twice - that they are not served in restaurants and he assured us that they're not, thankfully. Anyway, we arrived at the ferry dock for free, with plenty of time to spare, and Stephanie got to try out her French one last time (he said her French was very good!), so this challenge turned into a positive experience.
HOW DO YOU KILL 11 HOURS IN AN AIRPORT WITHOUT GOING BONKERS?: During our week in Tahiti, we had the pleasure of knowing that we would be spending a number of hours bored in the airport, since our flight to Rarotonga left at 3:40am. To make matters worse, the latest ferry from Moorea back to Tahiti was at 3pm (see our hitchhiking story above), so we caught that and then rode "le truck" to the airport. We stored our bags and sat down. It was 4:30pm. That left, oh, 11 hours to kill. The airport café stays open 24 hours a day since people are always hanging around waiting for flights, so we alternated time there, walking around, and sleeping on even worse seats than the ones we'd slept on when we arrived in Tahiti - which were like pillow-top mattresses compared to these curved monstrosities - because they were all occupied. To rub salt in the wound, when we walked into the departure lounge, there were literal sectional sofas everywhere… why couldn't we have checked into the gate 9 hours early? Regardless, our 11 hours actually went relatively fast, and we had two bouts of excitement along the way - see our "Funny Story" below for details.
BITS & PIECES
YOUTH-HOSTEL LIVING: Our first night was spent at Billy Ruta Bungalows. We only lasted one day and one night there. Not only were the roosters annoying, but it seemed that the people living there were locals or long-term visitors. By our first afternoon, locals were lined up along the rest of the block of rooms, just sitting on the floor, hanging out and being very loud. That night we heard random music - a cross between disco and island music - until about 2am. Guess they were "clubbing". So, feeling like we were invading the locals and feeling so isolated from the town, we moved the next day into a hostel called Camping Chez Nelson. We liked it - it was clean, basic and most importantly, right on the beach! We had our own room and it cost about $32 U.S. per night, so $16 each. It was actually a little more than we hoped to spend there, since we're on such a budget, but for less money we would have been in an 8 foot x 8 foot concrete box room further away from the beach, so we decided to "splurge" (our vantage point sure has changed... we consider $32 per night a splurge, not a dump!). We were glad to leave the first place.
UNINVITED HOUSE GUESTS: In addition to the miscellaneous bugs and spiders that crawled along our walls and ceiling, we had two 8-inch geckos scrambling up and down our walls at Camping Chez Nelson. They were good house guests, since they eat what we would consider the more undesirable insects. The funny thing was how loud the geckos were! They made an incredibly loud screeching noise, primarily at night. The first time we heard it we didn't know WHAT was going on, we only knew that something odd was in our room with us!
GRUB: The food on Moorea was simple but good. We followed the other hostellers' cues and cooked our own breakfasts in the hostel kitchen - French bread with soft cheese, cereal and delicious fruit juices. To really do things the backpacker way (meaning cheap), you have to cook most of your own meals. We didn't get in the hang of this right away so we ate lunches and dinners out all week - pastas, thin-crust pizzas and fresh fish. Needless to say, we took a bit of a financial hit and did a lot of cooking at our next destination!
DAILY WEATHER FORECAST - HOT, THEN WET: The weather was hot and somewhat humid, as we expected, but manageable. The direct sun was uncomfortably warm, but it briefly rained every afternoon, which was a nice cooling off.
We had two, both occurring in the airport waiting to fly from Tahiti to Rarotonga.
"CELEBRITY" SIGHTING: First, we were sitting at a table in the airport café reading our guide book, the Moon Handbook "Tahiti, Easter Island and the Cook Islands" by David Stanley, planning our Rarotonga portion of the trip. A man at a neighboring table saw us reading it and asked if he could join us since he had the same book. We chatted for quite a while and he gave us lots of great advice on Rarotonga and Fiji, our next two destinations. He had a few beers and even exchanged our U.S. Dollars (all we had left) for Tahitian money so we could buy some sandwiches and Orangina for dinner. After awhile, Ken asked him what he did for a living. He was David Stanley, the author of our guidebook! He had just spent time in the islands to update his book. What a coincidence! Here we were, quoting things out of the guidebook, and he had written it. You can visit David Stanley's website for great travel information to various destinations in the South Pacific at http://www.southpacific.org.
WATCH YOUR TOES!: Our
other funny story occurred at that same table, while we were chatting, when
all of a sudden people at neighboring tables started jumping up, freaking
out and grabbing cameras. It was like the wave at a baseball game, one table
following the next. We looked under our table and there was a huge land
crab there. It was 12 inches wide with huge front pinchers, just looking
for someone's toe to snap off. He was huge! He had just wandered
into the airport (it's an open-air airport, covered but open to the outside
in the terminal). We of course bust out our cameras and have some nice
photos to remember him by.