Farther Into the South Pacific

So that's it for Hawaii, for now.  I'll be visiting two more of the Hawaiian Islands on my return home, but for now I am off to Tahiti, 6 more hours of flying time south and a bit east.

If you want to island-hop in the Pacific like this, the scarcity of flights becomes a major handicap.  Newer aircraft have made it feasible to fly nonstop between any two of North/South America, Asia or Australia/New Zealand.  Result: the days when all flights had to island hop just to get from one side of the Pacific to another are over and done.  There's just one airline serving Hawaii-Tahiti, and that's Hawaiian Airlines.  The flight only operates once a week, on Saturdays.

Since I bought my flight tickets at different times, I've had to make use of another handy traveller's trick.  If you have 2 different tickets but both are issued by the same airline (as I have), simply explain that to a check-in agent and you can probably get your bags checked through to your final destination, as I did.  This won't normally work if two different airlines are involved, unless they both belong to the same global alliance (such as Star Alliance or OneWorld) or have some other form of cross-ticketing agreement.  The result is that I was able to "merge" the two tickets and check my bags through from Kauai to Tahiti without having to reclaim and recheck them in Honolulu.

In passing, though, I want to put in a good word for Hawaiian Airlines.  Their service is exemplary.  All their staff that I have met have got in full measure the genuinely warm and welcoming manner so typical of all the Polynesians I have met.  Even on their little 20-minute inter-island shuttle flights they have a drink for everyone, which is a major feat of coordination that their flight attendants simply perform day in and day out as a matter of course.  I love travelling with Hawaiian!

This became especially important yesterday.  There was a serious mass of turbulent, stormy weather right smack along the flight path, and we had to take a long roundabout detour.  In fact, for most of the flight we were following a direct flight path from Hawaii towards Samoa, which is three hours flying time west of Tahiti!  Only when we got right down to the proper latitude did we finally turn east to head for our destination.  The flight took about 90 minutes longer than usual, but the crew did a very good job of explaining why and of looking after us throughout the journey.

Flying to Tahiti takes you deep into the tropics, and south of the Equator.  Here the traditional four seasons of the temperate zone (spring, summer, fall and winter) are meaningless.  In tropical climates you usually get just two seasons:  Wet and Dry.  Tahiti is no exception.  Sadly, the wet season coincides with our North American winter.  The weather is hot, humid, and rain can be expected at almost any time on almost any day.  You pays your money and you takes your chances!

I've already spoken with several people who had no idea of this in advance.  The Tahitian official tourist website stresses the sunniness of Tahiti, and makes much of the well over 300 days a year when the sun shines.  Well, it's now 4:15 pm Tahiti time, and for about 10 minutes this morning the sun was "sort of" visible, half veiled by the clouds.  I suspect they will count that as a "sunny day".  The moral of the story is: plan any trip to the tropical Pacific islands for somewhere from March or April to September or October.  I put it that way because I encountered the same phenomenon in Fiji in January of 1994.  At least it dried up this afternoon for a couple of hours, long enough for me to have a nice long swim in the Lotus pool, which is a sand-floored infinity pool and is pleasantly cool and refreshing.

I decided to "shoot the works" and reserve an over-water bungalow.  The one thing this definitely gives is plenty of peace and quiet.  Fortunately it's both a good size and comfortable, as I expect to be spending a fair bit of time in it!

At any rate, to satisfy your curiosity, I'm going to put in a couple of pictures.  You'll have no trouble telling which ones are mine and which are borrowed from the hotel website.  First, an interior shot of the bungalow:

The view over the outside balcony and swimming platform, towards Moorea (which was completely hidden in cloud this morning):

The other view, along the resort's shoreline:

And, later in the day, the moment when a sizable chunk of the island of Moorea finally became visible for a few moments:

Now, here's what all of that is "officially" supposed to look like:

And, for good measure, an aerial view of the whole resort, considered by most travel sites to be the best luxury property in Tahiti:

My bungalow is at the very end of the projecting string of bungalows in the distance.  It's about a seven minute walk to the main building with its restaurant by the large pool in the foreground, so once again I am getting my exercise!  The large green water next to the pool is the Lagoonarium, an enclosed lagoon connected to the sea and stocked with a fabulous assortment of tropical fish, minus the predatory and dangerous species.  It's popular for snorkeling, since the main lagoon of Tahiti (the surrounding ocean water, inside the reefs) isn't as vividly colourful in its sea life as those on some of the other Polynesian islands.

The beautiful stretch of ocean between Tahiti and Moorea is evocatively called "The Sea of the Moon", and I'd love to see it with the moonlight sparkling on the waters.  It definitely isn't happening today, though!

The biggest single thing you need to know if planning a trip to French Polynesia is: bring lots of money and have a huge credit limit on your card!  If you study the map, you'll soon see why.  Tahiti is about as far as it is possible to get from any continental landmass, and the vast majority of products you will use and consume during your stay have to be shipped over those immense distances, whether by sea or in some cases by air.  Just as an example: the hotel restaurant puts those little mini jars of Dickinson's ketchup on the table.  It's produced in California.  Consider that the ketchup has travelled about 4000 miles/6400 kilometres to get added to your lunch, and you can begin to see why it's pricey to eat here.

But let's be fair and compare apples to apples.  Look at the prices in any Intercontinental hotel restaurant anywhere in the world,  This is an upscale premium chain, and the prices will always reflect that fact.  In any case, this is a beautiful property and would be a fine place to spend some time if only the damn sun would come out and keep shining for a while!