Paradise at last...
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2004
1
21
Trip End
Dec 11, 2004
Papeete,
French Polynesia
Saturday, December 11, 2004
We arrived in Papeete at 11pm. It was hot hot hot. Papeete is very expensive and our plan, along with many others was to wait in the airport and get the first ferry out to Moorea and stay on a campsite. Sleeping in airports and camping on a beach was not going to help Liam. We had no other choice but to book into one of the expensive resorts, they were nearby, air conditioned, with pools and had beds to help one get better. We had checked out a few hotels and standard was priced at around US$300 per room per night. We got a taxi from the airport and decided to check out one of the hotels. At this point we wish to warn anyone travelling to Paradise Islands that they are not cheap, our introduction to this was in the taxi when she charged us US$27 for a 5 minute journey and we checked out afterwards, she wasn't even ripping us off
01 View from our balcony
. Michelle frantically appeared at the check in desk of the Sofitel Maeva Beach Hotel and explained the sick boyfriend, need bed situation to the 60 odd year old receptionist in an Hawaiian shirt with flowers in his ears. We think he felt sorry for her and gave her the half price locals rate... hooray a bit of luck, expensive luck but it was something.Our two full days in Papeete were pretty similar. Woke up at 4am, 5am, 6am and eventually decided to stay awake. We lingered over our American style buffet Breakfast to get value for money all US$30 each. The first day was rather entertaining for Michelle. We discovered that 30 French Gendarmie were staying in our resort, what a sight! We spent the mornings by the pool with them and occasionally walked down onto the beach which was also attached to the resort. Post 'middle of the day, get out of the sun' sleep we would go back to the loungers and do nothing. The first evening we ate in the resort and like everyone else went to bed at 9pm. That is all people do sun bath, swim, eat, get up really early and go to bed really early.
On our last evening, the hotel was hosting their weekly traditional evening. We booked two tickets and Michelle excitedly got dressed up. Then she discovered Liam sick in the toilet and we had to cancel. It was not the sort of evening that you would go to on your own so after eating room service she sneaked into the bushes and photographed from afar. All the happy honeymoon couples seemed to be having a great time and she thanked God that this wasn't our honeymoon because we would have been divorced before leaving Tahiti. It was exactly as you would expect and the local guys and gals were well able to wiggle their bums, the tourists who were forced to join in however need to work on the dance routene.
5am check in tomorrow morning sees goodbye to our brief trip to a Paradise Island, it proved to be two days to long for Liam but a bit of a welcomed break. At last it will be hello to English speaking doctors. Auckland, New Zealand here we come....
