Pearl Resort & Spa Maharepa

... of the ancient Polynesians
and the lizards. And the smell of vanilla was so strong – we could
smell it at the top of the mountain where you can see both bays:
Cook's Bay and Oponuhu Bay. It's always so quiet on top of mountains –
almost eerie. But on the way down and at hour 4 we were beginning to
feel like: are we there yet?? Our goal was to reach the Agriculture
School where we could have smoothies and ice ...

... so
next time the machine in New Zealand. We decide to rent a scooter
for a couple of days so that we can explore the island. A scooter is
perfect for island life – we were able to stop quickly to see
whatever we wanted. Mike is a great scooter driver! Mark describes
Moorea as paradise and we have to agree with him it's the most
beautiful island we have ever been. The pics speak for ...

... pizza. My credit card is worryingly not accepted - but I have enough cash.

Yesterday I get up early and decide to go for a snorkel around the lagoon - it's beautiful - best snorkelling yet - largely because the water is so calm and clear and the fish are amazing. I then go back to the room for a snooze and then off to the gym again waiting to kill time until dinner. I also decide to do my laundry. The hotel website advertised there being a self ...

... would bring drinks to your sun lounger but we didn't avail ourselves of that service as we didn't want to re-mortgage our house just yet. Tahiti is in a group of islands which include Moorea & Bora Bora, so we thought we would enquire about moving to one of them. A fellow traveller told us that the world "credit crunch" had closed down many of the hotels & restaurants on Moorea & it was looking a bit sad. Bora Bora is one of those places where "if you need ...

... 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 ...

... 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 ...

... pinch myself that I am on this cruise. Having a great time, weather has been fabulous, been exercising daily in the gym and losing inches; Only complaint is the passengers.....old, really, really old. More later. Difficult to type on this French computer which has different keys....§é£µù Ship sails at 5 pm today so check the Princess webcam and see us sailaway. We are 2 hrs behind Calif. We will be enroute to Rarotonga, arriving Feb. 3RD. Linda

... 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