Sofitel Ia Ora Moorea Maharepa

... br>Moorea is so amazing because it's so untouched &#8211; not a lot of<br>buildings &#8211; one main road (no traffic lights) and very light<br>traffic. There are also no signs of pollution anywhere &#8211; the water<br>is so clear and no trash in it. We did some swimming and snorkeling<br>at the beach today and saw the most amazing fish that I have ever<br>seen &#8211; neon colors: one fish had black and ...

... laundry on site - which struck me as odd for a big posh affair like this. Usually they just charge you the price of house to do it for you. My hunch was right. But not to be outdone by false advertising I'm complaining to the receptionist and asking for the manager before you could say **** streak. Room 168 ....again... I win the argument which in fairness was easy - even in French - and get all my duds washed and ironed for free. My kyacks are even ...

... Jacuzzi which pumped hot water into places that polite people don't talk about. There was a free shuttle into Pape'ete, Tahiti's Capital, so we explored the town & bought our "supermarket banquets". We did have one meal in the restaurant when they had a "Traditional Tahiti Gala Evening" with grass skirted dancers & girls dancers as well. Pape'ete still has a strong French influence, apart from speaking French. The supermarkets sell French cheeses & stock ...

... Captain Samuel Wallis. There is no monument of Wallis. Did I mention that Tahiti is still part of France. We walked until noon, then went back to the ship for lunch and a little rest from the hot humid temperature of midday. But we were soon back off the ship and looking for the Papeete City Hall. It is a beautiful old building that looks more like an old French Villa than a city hall. It is open and has lovely balconies that you can wall all the way around the building ...

... the vegetation and so on. I understood almost half of it and translated half of that for Gordon. There were splendid views down to Papeete and across to Moorea. The Manet was clearly visible - easily the biggest ship in the harbour. We stopped for photographs about two-thirds of the way up and also peered into a small cave. It was a lava tube cave and went on as far as I could see, but required ...

High cliffs, cascading waterfalls, dense forests, beautiful, stunning, magnificent, dark lava rock, spectacular= it could only be Tahiti! Part of the windward islands, Tahiti is one quarter the total surface of French Polynesia and Papeete is the capital. The language is French, the currency Francs and the prices accordingly; A hamburger and soda costs 40 dollars and that is U.S. not è. Seems hard to believe I was here only last Sept. I have ...

... so dam good. On saturday went down to the beach swimming and snorkling for the day with the lads from the guesthouse. Had also met a Norwegian couple who had just arrived to the island and they had a rented car so myself and dave did a full tour around the island with them which was fantastic, visiting waterfalls, blowholes, numerours beaches and swimming to cool off as it was bloddy warm. My last day in Tahiti i took a ...

... of the island, so we were glad to see civilization again on Sunday. The problem with reaching civilization, however, is that the busses don't run on Sundays. So... we hitched all 60 km back to Papeete. At first our hopes were not high because we were told that no one heads into town on Sunday, not to mention the majority of the islanders were heading to Mass (yep, surprisingly devout there). But right after we got out of our first ride, who let ...