Fare Vaihere Moorea

... same distance back. Admitting defeat I turned around. Just at the point of collapse, it was HOT and way too sunny, a guest called out to me from a local cantina and I stopped and chatted while sipping a cold Sprite. After our chat I was surprised and elated that the local market was literally around the corner.<br><br>I met up with a friend in the market and we went to a shady place and sat ...

... we just know they got here. Then along came various dutch, british and french trade boats which stopped in the bay for supplies. It is well documented that the Tahitian women of the time were most forward in their welcome dances (as good as spread eagled on the bed begging for it). This was documented by Cook and Bligh and various others. Bligh of course was subject to a somewhat famous Mutiny on his boat - i think this happened sometime in the 80s ...

... was really cool but also a little scary as the stingrays climbed on your backs, got under your feet and tried to kiss you, they were all over us wanting to be fed. After we had fed the stingrays we then fed the sharks which had been swimming around and amongst us. We were told not to touch the sharks or to get too close, not much chance of that happening, we all kept a save distance. The sharks looked rather fierce when they were eating and you did not want to get amongst ...

... with the perfect azure blue water retreating into the distance. At the end of the beach was one of the luxury hotels with small cabins out over the water, it looked like an amazing place to stay. After a week of this sun drenched living it was back to Tahiti and the next leg of our trip to Auckland, New Zealand. We waved good bye to Siri and Andrew again as we left the camping, they had a few more days before they came on to NZ. Bring on the Kiwi's, wine and the dreaded bungy jump!!!!

... to cover - That's 3 books in 25 years! In the past month I have read 4 books! And not just simple little short stories or mini novels, 3 of the books were around 500 pages and one of them was between 200 and 300. This is beyond an achievement for me and I just wanted to share that with you all. Although Andrew has not shared my dismal history with reading to the same extent, the amount of time and interest in this new hobby is also an ...

... beach. Not many will beat the place. At one stop, a small reef shark went to swim next to me. Nice one!!! Plan for the 10th: wake up at 4am to start walking at dawn and try to summit at 11am. It is a walk given in two days and 12h. Let's see.

... which is pretty cool. It seems an appropriate trade-off though since France uses these islands for nuclear testing - the least they can do is offer a passport. We were happy to move on from Latin America in many ways....many ways but one. Not being able to speak French, we were literally back to square one in terms of being able to communicate with locals. Ah well - we were only there for a short time so we just did the best we could. Fortunately for us ...

... popped into a supermarket for a baguette and some brie and headed off round the coast. The island is reasonably big at 75km all the way around and is shaped like a heart. We were on the East coast and headed North to the famous Cook Bay area to enjoy the views. From there we headed to an arts shopping village on the West coast, there was some nice stuff but it was generally overpriced and half of it seemed to be made in Singapore, so we made a decision to buy it out there ...

... nothing except go into town and buy some food to cook at the accommodation. I spent, and wait for it, 220 euros! Ouch! On the final day Ana who was looking for a place to live wanted to go the islands and book her tickets. What an experience so many islands, timetables and to cap it off she was travelling when the tahitians go on hoiliday. Found a cafe for several hours to work out where she wanted to go exactly to narrow down the choice. By 4pm it was booked ...

... Know when I tell you "everything" closes on Sunday, I am not kidding. We walked around town for a couple of hours and the only thing open were a couple of eateries and bars. We went to the airport at 5 PM and then it stopped raining for about an hour or so and then it started to get dark. We hung out in the airport until out flight at midnight. So unfortunately paradise did not want to cooperate with us. Talk to you you guys later, Greg