Tahiti - Day Five

I woke up thinking that there was a big storm outside. Turns out it was just the windows making a crazy noise. Outside on the deck, the sun was shining and the breeze was lightly blowing. It was a beautiful day in the Lagoon. 

Chris had scheduled a snorkeling tour, but due do maintenance it was postponed. 

Ia Ora na (pronounced Yor-a-na) - Hello in Tahitian

Breakfast Buffet

So, we had no choice but to relax, snorkel, relax, go for breakfast, eat a quick lunch, and relax some more. 

We drove around the island a bit to explore, found a small grocery store for more snacks and then hit repeat on our morning routine of relax, sit on the deck and take pictures, and just enjoy being together. 

For dinner, we walked off-site to a small restaurant, Fare Maheata, about five minutes from the hotel. All of their cooked fished entrees were gone, so I opted instead for a fish burger with veggies. The restaurant was set back a bit from the main road, so we weren’t sure if it was an actual place to eat. It turned out to be good. 

We did our best to pace ourselves with sun exposure and using sun screen. I was a little pink tonight.

The sunset was spectacular.

We Are Not The Same

 We texted Kristen this pictures of our time in Tahiti.

She texted back: "We are NOT the same."

Tahiti - Day Four

We enjoyed our last breakfast buffet at the Hilton Tahiti before checking out for our 12:45 pm ferry to Moorea. We sat in the open air of the dining area and watched the ferries pass by, listened to the lapping of the waves on the shore and watched the fish swimming bellows us. 

Chris' bruise from the safari trip.

We took advantage of a final swim and lounging by the pool. 

Chris booked a 90-minute massage for the both of us before we had to board the ferry. While it would have been nice to have some kneading on our shoulders and backs, it was more of a “gentle” massage. That island safari really did some jarring to our backs! I was smart enough to decline the oil massage to my hair. Chris enjoyed his and his hair looked it. We drove to the ferry terminal where Chris drove the rental car onto the ferry and I got out to check in and then walk on to the ferry. 

I claimed a spot in the cafeteria and Chris brought our cooler pack up to join me. We enjoyed leftover pizza, crepes filled with cheese and ham, and an apple. It was plenty to tide us over for awhile. 

We were joined by a family with two young boys at our table for six. They made a huge mess. After Chris and I finished eating, we went top side to enjoy the view. I had to carefully climb over the seats to avoid stepping in the huge mess of rice on the floor and the two seats next to me. 

The ferry from Papeete to Moorea took about 45 minutes. With google maps set, we drove off the ferry, turned right from the parking lot and continued on to the Hilton Moorea Lagoon Resort and Spa. We stopped along the way for this amazing shot of another resort with overwater bungalows.

Our arrival at the Hilton was a little before the 2:00 pm checkin time. We got in line and were happy to beat most of the crowd AND to be upgraded to 3 nights in an overwater bungalow instead of one night in a garden bungalow and 2 nights in an overwater bungalow. 

While I had hoped to get pics of the garden bungalow, we weren’t arguing the upgrade. 

We would SOOOOO visit here again. The bungalow was awesome with our own deck overlooking the lagoon. We faced west so our deck caught the morning sun and then had nice shade for the afternoon. Our bungalow was the second along the boardwalk so we didn’t have too far to walk to get from the pool and dining areas to our bungalow. We were driven to our bungalow with our luggage in a golf cart. Nice. 

It didn’t take us long to change into swim suits and go snorkeling in the lagoon. Lots of colorful little fish and one “Picasso” fish with some attitude. It would swim away from my face and then come directly at me and then veer off at the last second. It would also purposefully ram into Chris. We learned later in the week that it might have been trying to divert us from its young.

As one who always gets bitten by mosquitos, I took to heart the advice to use bug spray and kept it on regularly. Chris didn’t seem to be bothered, as usual.

We had dinner overlooking the ocean at The Rotui restaurant at the hotel. 

We were so tired, though Chris had booked a Tiki Polynesian Show for us that didn’t start until 9 pm. We didn't realize that the drive to get to the Tiki Village was 20 minutes.

It was enjoyable with lots of hula dancing, singing, and fire dancers. We could have done the whole dinner and show package, but reviews suggested that it was really long and slow.

As it was, the show started around 9:20 and went until 10:45 pm. We were so ready to drop into bed when we arrived back at the bungalow.

Tahiti - Day Three

Another one of the recommended things to do in Papeete was to visit the market. 

We decided to walk the mile or so to the market and wander around. Again, it was okay. Apparently, Sunday is the best day to visit as that is when the most vendors are set up around the area. Chris found a nice button up shirt to wear, and though I looked for something to buy, I didn’t find anything. 

Black pearls are the big ticket item on the island and you could buy them anywhere ranging in price from under $20 to well over $20,000. We opted not to buy any. 

We found the Town Hall, the Papeete Notre Dame Cathedral, and PK O. If someone says to you PK 15 in Tahiti, this is a unit of measure that means Kilometer Point. Point 0 is in front of the Cathedral then fans outs east or west from there.

Town Hall

PK 0

Papeete Cathedral

We stopped to get a few more snacks from the Carrefour market across from the hotel and then spent the rest of the afternoon lounging on our sun deck and swimming in the pool.The pool was delightfully warm. 

If you ever go to Tahiti, the prices for many things are fairly high. Meals are typically $20-$40 per person. We enjoyed dinner at an air-conditioned restaurant, L’Annexe, across from the hotel. The mahi mahi was delicious.

Tahiti - Day Two

We had a delicious breakfast at the hotel, sitting on the outdoor deck overlooking the water. The temperature and humidity were high, but we were happy to watch the beautiful scenery, check out the fish swimming under the deck, and enjoy time together.

The deck of our room.

The hotel was simply beautiful with a large pool area and all rooms facing the ocean.

Breakfast buffet

There was a medium-sized mall with a grocery store across the street from the hotel. It was easy to access via the sky bridge from the hotel to the mall. We made a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up some bread, cheese, meat and bottled water.

We had a 4x4 tour of the island planned and our scheduled pick up was a little before 9 am. We were the only ones on the tour and enjoyed having the back of the truck to ourselves. The truck was fitted with two bench seats with a padded back and seat belts. Above, a canopy covered the top of the truck so that we were covered from the sun.

After a quick stop at a boulangerie to pick up lunch and more water, we were on our way with Vaitea of Safari Islanders. Our tour took us across the island and through the inner crater of the volcano Tahiti-Nui.

Once we were out of the city and off the main road, Vaitea rolled the canopy up on the back half of the truck so that we could stand up to see more of the view.

As we drove, Vaitea shared information through a speaker in the back of the truck. He stopped every so often to share info about local plants and flowers; he stopped as well at picturesque spots so we could take pics.

The roads were not paved and often filled with potholes, so our ride was quite bumpy and holding on with both hands was necessary. Every so often we got caught by an unanticipated bump and jarred against the metal frame of the canopy. Ouch!

We stopped for lunch at a swimming hole; we ate and then enjoyed a dip in the cool water. The schedule allowed for us to hang out here for awhile, so we were able to dry for a bit.

Every so often we passed a lady driving a scooter. She stopped for pics and then motored on.

We reached the tunnel about 2/3rds of the way along the tour. From there, the path made a steep descent with a 20% grade. Chris and I were hanging on tight. Vaitea reached a point where he noted it would be “more bumpy”. We have the bruises to prove it.

The lady on the scooter got stuck trying to get up one of the hills and Vaitea said she really should have just turned back at the tunnel. We hope that she made it safely back to the main roads.

Once we finally left the “more bumpy” section and reached the main road, it was another hour drive back to the hotel. We were fairly ready to be done with the “safari”.

We chatted with Kristen who had just had to shovel snow and take out the garbages and make her own dinner. Adulting.

Everyone recommended that we try the “roul0ttes” or food trucks close to downtown. We drove to find them and ended up feeling kind of “meh” about the food and the experience.

Chinese food is a big thing in Tahiti, so each truck had some sort of Chinese food offering. We ordered chicken with vegetables to share and Chris ordered french fries.

Part way through our meal, we were amazed to see rats in the bushes next to us! RATS!

We were happy to leave the rats behind and flop in bed from a long day of our "bumpy" and "more bumpy" ride through the jungle.