Mo'orea: I've only got ten days left to live

...then it's back to work.

This is a long one; I missed posting yesterday.

Our flight didn't leave until 7:30pm, but we both took the day off to get the last packing done. I'm guessing that's why Rob didn't appreciate it when I woke him at 7AM and asked if we could go to the airport now. 

Rob: "Hmsnrflk"

Me: "Good morning sweetie!"

Rob: "Morning."

Me: "I'm excited!"

Rob: "I can tell."

Me; "We're going to Bora Bora!"

Rob: "Right."

Me: "Sorry. I waited 3 hours before waking you up."

Rob: "I know. You're not very quiet."

The night person/morning person mix usually works pretty well for us...

We managed to get everything packed, almost without incident. "Almost" means the cat didn't want to go in the carrier, even after bribing her with her favorite food. On my fourth attempt to put her in, she jumped away from me and I dove to catch her, but I missed. I turned to ask Rob for help, but all I heard was a camera click.

Once Rob put the camera down, we were able to get her into the carrier. She protested the whole way to the kennel, but was happy to have a bunch of new things to check out when she got there. Suzie, our dog, was completely cool about the whole thing. ("I'm the good pet! That cat sucks.")

We got to the airport around 3:30, because we couldn't check in online, likely due to the international connection. We had a nice dinner, then an uneventful flight to LA. Once in LA, we had to walk about one kilometer to another terminal, then finally got our Tahiti seats, which were in the middle, because we were so late checking in. The flight was completely full, but at least we could sit together.

Air Tahiti Nui has almost non-existent leg room, but that is my only complaint. I wondered if they only hired extremely pretty women as flight attendants, but I later found out that all Polynesian women are beautiful. Rob says he didn't notice the pretty flight attendants. Anyway, on each seat in economy, you're given a pillow, a blanket, a small packet containing socks, earphones, earplugs, and a sleep mask.

The in-seat TVs have a large selection of free movies and shows. They give everyone a small flower for their hair (very fragrant! Best-smelling plane I've been on). The flight left at around midnight, so they dimmed the lights for most of the flight so everybody could sleep. I can't usually sleep on a plane, so I had taken a sleeping pill. Rob says I got about 4 hours of solid sleep, although I felt like I got 6 hours total if you count dozing during the movie. Rob only got about 1/2 hour of sleep. Between very little leg room, me leaning on his shoulder, the woman on the other side doing the same, and the woman in front reclining her seat, Rob got claustrophobic and just couldn't doze.

When the sun started rising, they turned the lights on and served us breakfast. We had chocolate crepes! On a plane! They were amazing. I'm still thinking about them. Yum. Near the end of the flight, they also came around with salt-water taffy for everybody.

Customs had very few people on staff, so it took us about 2 hours to get through. Then a 3 hour wait for the flight to Moorea. For that flight, we were in the air for about 8 minutes. I think our altitude was about 200 feet the whole way.

Our host, Clement, met us at the airport, helped us get our rental, showed us a vista, then showed us around our house. It feels a lot like a cabin - very '70s, but everything is in working order. There's a fully functional kitchen, a small washing machine, and three bedrooms with mosquito netting. There are also two fans with built-in mosquito repellant. There is a patio out back that overlooks our beach, and we get two kayaks.

Clement tells us about the reef and where it is safe to swim, and promises to check into a whale/dolphin tour for us. After Clement left:

Rob: "He's very good-looking."
Me: "I hadn't noticed."
Rob: "Even with the French accent?"
Me: "Hm. Nope, didn't notice."

We decide to take the kayaks for a quick paddle. The guidebooks all say that French Polynesia isn't a beach destination, it's a lagoon destination; now we understand why. The Bahamas sand is very fine and very pink. Here, the sand, if there is any, is very coarse and hard on the feet. The water in the Bahamas is very clear. It's just as clear here. In the Bahamas, in the bays, the water is very calm; however, the water can be rough if you're not in a protected area. Here, there are lagoons - volcanic formations ring the islands to act as water breaks. You can see very rough waves in the distance, but they stop dead about a kilometer out. (I think everything is about a kilometer away.) Kayaking is incredible when there are no waves to fight.

It was low tide when we went out, so we had to be careful not to hit coral. But you could see all the fish. The reef is massive, and there are fish I haven't seen before. We also saw a spotted ray fly by at one point.

Now, we are going to try to watch the sunset. We are located on the exact opposite side of the island for this, but the ring road is only about 60km long. It's a great opportunity to do reconnaissance.

Looking across Cook's Bay at an old lava flow

Apparently, though, there are no public viewing areas on the sunset side. Just when we're about to miss it, we find the Tiki Village (like a Polynesian Heritage Park). We park in their lot and run to the beach just as the sun is halfway gone. While there, we decide to go into the Tiki Village. We were planning to, anyway, but later on. However, we were here now, so....

It's a little expensive, but you get a tour of the village, a tutorial on black pearls, a ceremonial opening of the beach oven, a huge buffet with a roasted suckling pig, and then a Polynesian dance extravaganza. It lasted 4 hours.

Rob usually gets dragged in from the audience to perform on stage, but for some reason, I ended up getting brought up on stage 3 times. "Come on, Mary from Canada!"

They did get Rob up as part of the men's dance:

The show had lots of dancing, plus a traditional Polynesian wedding and fire dancers. We didn't get out of there until about 10:30, so it was very dark when we were driving home. The home's entrance just looks like a section of fence, making it easy to miss. So we did. However, we noticed it within about 1 kilometer, and managed to get home safely.

The end.