Bobbi's Australian Adventures...and more!: Tahiti and Moorea...a convenient stop-over

On our way back home to America from Australia, we thought it would be kinda fun to stop in Tahiti for a few days, or more like 6 days. So we did. We flew from Brisbane to Sydney, and Sydney to Tahiti, but not without drama. After sitting in the plane, at the gate, in Sydney for 2 hours, we ended up getting in to Tahiti at 4 in the morning instead of 2. We had booked a hotel right across the street (or so we thought) from the airport, so that we could get a few hours sleep and a nice shower before getting on a ferry to the small island of Moorea at 9 that morning. So after getting our bags (minus the one of Sarah's that got left in Sydney) and going through customs, it was about 5 in the morning. We figured it would a waste to get the hotel after all, since it was so late, but they wouldn't refund us our money. So we got a taxi over there, and for all of the less than 5 minutes it took to get there, the far was about $25...a rip! They said it would be expensive in Tahiti...I guess we had to learn real fast. After getting in to our room, brushing our teeth and washing our faces (a.k.a using water), we try to get to sleep in order to salvage a couple of hours of decent sleep before we have to make it through the whole rest of the day, all while there are wild roosters doing their thing right outside our window (so annoying). We wake up in hopes of being able to take a shower before getting on the ferry, and wouldn't you know, the water doesn't work. I go to the front desk to see what's going on, give them another sad story that we just checked in a few hours ago, desperately wanting to take a shower, and the guy proceeds to tell me that the water in out is the whole city, and they are not sure when it would be turned on. No shower for us =(. This is starting out not good for us. The one benefit of that rip off of a hotel, was that they let us store our luggage for free, so we didn't have to lug it all over with us.

these precious Tahitian men were serenading us as we got off our plane at 4 in the morning...bless their souls!

waiting for the ferry to take us to Moorea

our ferry

finally about to get to Moorea

SO, we had finally gotten over to Moorea after a 45 minute ferry ride, and got into the van that would take us to our hotel, and realized we are in paradise! It was absolutely stunning. Everything was soooo green! We saw what you picture of Tahiti, the cute little bungalows over the water and crystal blue water. Then we get to our hotel, the Intercontinental. We could not believe how nice it was...we got an awesome deal! Our room looked out to the water, there was a dolphin center on the property, and it was fancy schmancy! We were so thankful they let us check in early, as we desperately needed to catch up on some sleep!

the Sheraton Hotel's bungalows

Sarah's ready for a sleep!

the view from our room

Sarah lounging

beauty!

sarah's photography skills

more pure beauty

Our time in Tahiti was very relaxing. We did some awesome snorkeling, I think the best snorkeling I have ever done. I would have to say it was better than Hawaii and the Great Barrier Reef. The water was just so clear, the fish were super bright, and there were tons of them! So, in Australia, sting rays are bad. I don't know if Steve Irwin dying has a huge thing to do with it, or if they are just a more dangerous species. But in Tahiti, you can be snorkeling, and they will come up to you so close that you can reach out and touch them. And then you can see them swim all over people as they are scuba diving. No one seemed worried about it, we even asked if this was normal. Apparently so. I don't get it, I just went along. So we also did some laying out, day trips to small islands called "motus", a safari trip, driving around the island and of course eating some good food and a dinner/tour at a traditional village.

The local people were very friendly. I was a bit worried, since Tahiti is part of French Polynesia and they speak primarily French, that it would be hard to communicate. But they also spoke English pretty well, so there didn't end up being too much of a language barrier. Which was nice. We happened to be there in low season, which was good in some ways, and bad in others. It was low season for a reason, because it was their rainy season. It did rain on us a few days, but we were still able to do what we had planned. Low season also meant that with not as many people around, the tours were hard to do, as they required a minimum number of people to be booked, or they would cancel. So we just had to adjust our schedule a bit. The good thing of low season was that it didn't feel super "touristy". It was kinda nice that there weren't long waits at restaurants, and the whole island in general was pretty quiet. So, the dolphin center at the hotel was pretty cool. There were these large "pools", where four dolphins lived. And you could pay (a ridiculous amount of money) to have a one hour session with the trainer and the dolphin, in which you could touch and feel, see him do tricks, and even hang on to his fin as he swims through the water. It looked so fun, but I decided that it would be hard to justify spending that much money. But, we could watch all we wanted, and even when the dolphins were not "working", they would swim right in front of us, and do jumps...they were very cute! There was also a sea turtle refuge at the hotel. This was really sad, I thought, but a good thing, I guess that the hotel had invested in. There was another large area where there were a few sea turtles that had been rescued and were being kept. I think the aim is that they are able to return them to the wild, but the ones they had at that time, were not able to go back because they just stayed floating in the water. They couldn't go underwater, and therefore could not get food on their own. "Tortilla" was really sad. She would try to swim and just go in circles. She had lived there for a few years.

the dolphin center

see him jumping?

"tortilla"

Well, after 6 days of living in paradise, it was time to go back home to America. We had to take another ferry back to the main island of Tahiti, then on a plane that left at midnight to LA. That was another drama. One of the receptionists at the hotel in Moorea had set us up with a cab that would pick us up from the ferry terminal, take us to get dinner, take us to get our bags that were in storage at the first hotel we stayed at, take us to the Intercontinental there, so we could use their transit room to take showers and shuffle stuff around in our bags, then take us to the airport. It was such a blessing to have him, because he ended up being this super nice guy, who actually lived for 20 years in the states, so he spoke English very well, and was patient with us when he ended up having to drive us all over to find a place to eat, and then to find an ATM, which we never found, so he spotted us some cash until we could get to the ATM at the airport. We got his business card, and it turns out he has 2 twin 20 month old daughters, so we thought it would be fun to send him a nice thank-you and something for his daughters. Have we yet though? No...but we will! After getting to the airport, we ended up standing in line for HOURS, as it took 3 hours to check everybody in...insane! We were so ready to get home at that point, looking forward to some sleep on the plane. On the way from Sydney to Tahiti, the plane was so empty, that everyone, if they wanted to, could have a whole row of 4 seats to themselves...it was heaven. This flight, not so much. I don't think there was one empty seat on the whole flight. Another flight was canceled, and so that had to fit everyone from that flight on to our flight...bummer! At least we got home though. Tahiti was absolutely amazing, I think everyone needs to go!