Hotel Tenape Raiatea

Oh no, we've lost Tuesday! For the past two days we’ve had to change our clocks at night, making it an eight hour time difference from Michigan. Today however we have entered the eastern hemisphere and somehow we lost Tuesday the 13th. We’re now on Wednesday the 14th. For the life of me I can’t tell you what time it would be at home. We do have the t-shirts though ...

... of the time we do the buffet, as we’re hot and ready for the pool. Mornings are spent sunning around the pool and reading, relaxing in the pool to cool off, or relaxing in the hot tub. You’ll notice the key word here is relaxing. Usually there are activities around the pool which make for good viewing (see Mr. Rhapsody or pool volleyball, girls!) Then it’s lunch around 2pm followed by ...

... reading this blog the opportunity to take my work from me for free. It is so easy to screen capture or download almost any image from the WEB, so a slide show allows me to share my work in a way that is interesting yet produces small quality screen captures. Forgive me for this, I hope that you will choose to still enjoy the slide show photo presentation format.<br>

... 8217;t worry about returning here. One interesting note however. After we sailed about 5 pm, the captain told us that a tsunami warning had been issued for French Polynesia at 6:40 pm. Sure enough at 6:30 the water in the pool began to slosh from side to side. Apparently it was ok on Raiatea, but we can now claim to have survived a tsunami! Onward to Bora Bora.

... take a deeper plunge and go diving. There is a story here. We attempted to go diving until the divemaster on the boat very matter-of-factly mentioned that we'd see reef and lemon sharks on our frst dive - that was me off the boat. I wanted to dive with sharks but needed to dive first, get all those padi memories back and then see the big fish. At which point, the divemaster laughed declaring how there are sharks everywhere in French Polyneisa: 'Oh' I ...

We had a punishing sail back from Bora Bora, with high seas and strong winds hitting us straight on the bow of the boat (note for non-sailers, this is not good or much fun). 7 long hors later we arrived on the west coast of Raiatea and anchored in a strage little bay with strong currents holding us at anchor. We'd been told that there were ...

... sloped away. Suddenly they seemed to take fright at something and all turned and shot towards us, parting at the last minute as they passed through us. It was like being in the middle of a shower of arrows. Mesmerising. A solitary, 60cm, silver tuna moved slowly by us, a gorgeous fish. We had now swung round in a large circle and as we started to ascend I looked up and the sharks were above us. Perhaps they had decided it was feeding time! They parted as we rose in a group and then ...

... up early in line, but by the time all the people with kids get on (nearly everyone), we are well back, but still get a left side window, which gives us a good look at Moorea, Huahine and Raiatea on the way in. Ra'iatea is the largest of the Leeward islands, and the second largest in the Society group after Tahiti. It has no beaches on the mainland, but plenty on its motu, and doesn't get a lot of tourists, although its yachting marinas make it the sailing centre of French ...

... down beyond the port area, and back to the centre of town, passing a good beach, with people actually swimming, on the way. Get dropped off in centre of town, and spend some time finding internet place that will cut a CD for us. Eventually find one, and upload travelpod at the same time. Then spend quite a bit of time near the bus station, trying to find a bookshop, shown in our guide, which sells second-hand books, as we've run out of reading matter. No luck. This ...

... to the resort in hopes of conning them into letting us use their dock shower. Kevin, our official translator, approached the desk. "May we," he asked in English, "use your shower?" "But of course," replied the man in English, "just follow my mother." We did not use the dock shower, but rather were given access to a real shower, with hot water for as long as you liked it. Paul almost refused to leave. Kevin and Tom didn't mind him taking his time as ...