We spent the next few weeks researching, talking and texting almost daily, deciding on where to go and then changing our minds, and finally making a plan. By the time the plan was made, we were so exhausted that we almost didn't want to travel anymore. But everything was booked, and we were going on a 10 day vacation to French Polynesia (specifically an island off of Tahiti called Moorea) and New Zealand!
The trip got off to a bit of a rocky start. My plane out of Austin was so delayed that we didn't think I was going to make my connecting flight in Los Angeles (stupid Southwest). I found a flight that made a stop in Dallas then headed to LA and prayed that the airplane in Dallas wouldn't be delayed and my luggage wouldn't get lost. I made it, John and I met up in LA, and with time to spare, we headed to the international terminal to catch our flight on Air Tahiti Nui. Phew!
Our airplane was huge, and we ended up getting a row of four seats to ourselves. We were stoked! We settled in for a long flight and after 8 and a half hours, we arrived in Tahiti at 5:00 in the morning.
It was already hot and humid, but we didn't care because we were planning on playing in the water the whole time we were there. We caught a ferry from Tahiti to Moorea and embarked on the adventure of a lifetime.
While we were on Moorea, I wrote to Chris several times. We had time in the evenings because unless you were a honeymooner there really wasn't a whole lot to do at night. Besides we were tired from our adventuring during the day. We also had time in the early mornings because we had jet lag and kept waking up before the crack of dawn. I still have the emails I sent to Chris, so I am going to change up the way I do this a bit and use them to describe most of the rest of our time on Moorea.
Moorea, Day 1
"Here I am wide awake at 5:30 am. Haha! It's good though, I
went to bed at 9, so I got a little over 8 hours sleep. Moorea is
beautiful. We arrived at our hotel around, 7 am smelling like a couple
days worth of sweat and stink (especially me). Check in wasn't until 2.
We knew this, but we didn't know what else to do since we were hauling
around our bags. They let us store our bags, change into our swim suits,
gave us some breakfast, and gave us cards that would allow us to get towels and
check out snorkeling gear. We also signed up for swimming with the
sharks in the afternoon.
After eating a French breakfast (lots of bread and fruit),
we walked right down to the beach and went snorkeling. There are two
fish that will bite you if you get too close. They both have teeth sharp
enough to break coral. I got chased by one of them! Mean little bugger. I
was telling one of the locals about it (trying to figure out exactly
which ones were the bitters) and he said the one that was after me was
the stupidest fish he'd ever encountered. Haha! All the locals are super
friendly. I think Moorea is a pretty happy place to live.
The shark tour was so much fun! Black tip reef sharks are
cute! I might bring one home. Also, I got kissed by a sting ray.
Tell everyone I love them. Today we're taking a boat tour
around the whole island which equals more shark swimming and maybe some dolphins!"
Moorea, Day 2
"Yesterday was our boat tour. It was awesome! We spotted
tons of dolphins, and I finally got to swim with dolphins in the wild!
It wasn't even part of the tour, but our guide could tell how badly I
wanted to jump in with them. So, he let me! He said he'd make an
exception and had me hang on to a rope while he towed me along side the boat. The reason for the towing was to stay as quiet as possible. I wasn't close enough to
touch them, but I could hear them talking to each other while they swam
in front of me. So awesome."
"After our tour we took some stand up paddle boards out into our lagoon and saw some cool fish and coral that were further out, closer to the reef."
Moorea, Day 3
"Unfortunately I woke up this morning with a bad case of
Montezuma's Revenge. I haven't had much to eat today because I don't
feel hungry at all. My tummy is pretty yucky right now. Fortunately John
had some anti-diarrhea pills which got me through the day. We went
paddle boarding again this morning and then drove ATV's through the
interior of the island in the afternoon. Very pretty. The tour took us
through a pineapple plantation and up to some cool lookouts. I thought I
was going to freak out driving up to the lookouts but it was actually a
lot of fun. We were dripping wet by the time we got back because it
poured down rain the last bit of the trip. It was actually pretty
awesome driving up to the last lookout in a deluge of rain."
There were chickens and roosters all over the island. One of the locals was telling us that it's totally legal to catch them for dinner.
"This evening has been interesting. John slipped on a slick surface that goes down to the water in front of our bungalow. I actually slipped on it our first day after walking into the wrong bungalow and locking myself out of our room while John was in the shower. I landed on my butt, he landed on his back and blacked out for a couple seconds which means he got a mild concussion. Then while I was showering I heard him yell really loudly and hit the floor. I called to him, and he didn't answer so I grabbed a towel and ran out to find him flat on his back on the tile. He had electrocuted himself pretty badly. He said it happened as he was pulling the plug for my tablet out of the adapter. It was one of those electrocutions where he couldn't let go of the plug and then it finally threw him backwards. Thankfully he's feeling okay tonight.
Tomorrow we head to New Zealand! Hopefully my tummy troubles will be cleared up by then. I love and miss you! I hope you and the kiddos are doing well. I'll talk to you soon."
Money from French Polynesia!
This one is worth about 10 American dollars.
We were sad to say goodbye to Moorea but happy to embark on the next adventurous leg of our journey. We were also looking forward to a little less heat and humidity.
No comments:
Post a Comment