Coast to Coast

After a night of heavy rains I woke up to find a wet environment around the hostel compound. With a bit of jet lag still hanging on my body was done sleeping by 5am. After sitting in bed wide awake for an hour I decided I would try out the communal sea kayak since the sun was now rising. I was on the wrong side of the island to see it clear the horizon but crystal clear water made up or it.

There is a large coral reef that surrounds most of the island. Its pretty vast and seems to go on forever. I was able to spot a number of things without the aid of a snorkel set. The views both towards and away from the island where competing against each other.

After making my way around the coast I came back onto shore and showered off. I had been out long enough for everyone else to wake up and it was now breakfast time. I was given a platter of Polynesian donuts and fruit.

This included passion fruit which I don't think I had ever seen in fruit form. As sad as it is I had to ask what it was. I consumed one and learned I really like passion fruit, who knew. After breakfast I set off to the beach once again, this time sans kayak. The clouds from the day before were now gone and the sun shined over all. 

My first stop was this resort beach that I was able to just walk onto without question because of my porcelain skin. It offered the advantage of free beach chairs and a relaxed uncrowded atmosphere. It was also at this time I casually looked up to my book to find naked people walking around. Apparently all the beaches here are clothing optional, those silly french.

After a few chapters I decided I would hit up the public beach and see what that had to offer. Until now I had just been sneaking onto resort beaches. The public beach although more crowded had a lot more to offer. The entrance is lined with a palm tree forest over rolling hills.

The beach wasn't half bad either.

It also had a lot of yachts in the area because it was public. The rich french came in on their small boats and enjoyed the beach next to me.

This is pretty much what I did all day. Nothing too exciting just relaxing. After my time was up I returned my car, caught the ferry back to Tahiti, got a cab to the airport, and I was off to NZ.

The in flight meal was pretty decent. Chicken Tikka with what appeared to be a quinoa salad.

I will be arriving again late at night so hopefully it does not take me too long to find peter.

Night Rider

The cuisine in Moorea has been a bit confusing for a for me, granted I have only been on the island for a day. All that I have found while exploring the island are either pizza parlors or burger stands. I know that the burger I consumed earlier had a kind of island spin on it but I was expecting more of a food culture. Especially for an island in a French territory. At least they have a strong showing of other international options...

By the time that dinner time rolled around the sun was long gone. I was not that hungry at the time but because of my jet lag schedule I was positive I would wake up in the middle of the night starving. I decided to grab some dinner as to avoid this awkward conversation with my stomach. Driving being my only real option to obtain nutrition I set off down the road. Lets just say that driving on a small island with no lights in the middle of the night is terrifying.

After some pitch black maneuvering I manged to find two places that were still open; A pizza place and a unidentifiable food truck glowing on the side of the road. Having experienced the horror of international pizza multiple times I opted for the cart.

The cook didn't speak English but they had a small menu written in French that allowed me to point at things which I always enjoy. I only had enough money with me for one item on the menu so that's where my finger crept. It turned out to be a rib eye steak over a large bed of french fries with a dixie cup full of melted roquefort cheese and a side of french bread. There was that french flair I was looking for!

It turned out to be pretty good but extraordinarily rich. So rich that I got tired of the sauce rather quickly and just went to town on the steak. I was in no means able to finish the thing but I got enough food in me to prevent a late night craving. I am hoping to find something other than island style fast food tomorrow. Moorea seems like the kind of place where only visitors eat out so I may be out of luck in my search of local fare unless I somehow get invited to a local home for dinner which with my shy demeanor and awkward stance will never happen. Oh well, I guess island pizza is in my future.   

Lets see some of the thoughtful reviews from the trip advisor community for Pizza Daniel, the second best rated restaurant on the island:

This french guy lives in his house and makes pizza all day long. He was very nice and made some mean pizza!

I only gave it a 4 star because of the flies and how it's all outside

I tried a lot because my wife doesn't eat seafood.

He may have thought we were American as he brought out some great hot sauce right away! :)

Our family of 4 ate 2 1/2 pizzas

Island Hopping

I arrived on the island of Tahiti at 5am which meant I missed out on the fantastic views the decent had to offer. By the time I made it through customs the sun started to peak its head out over the mountains and everything came into focus. Suddenly I was surrounded by lush green scenery. I don’t know why I would have expected anything else but it was overwhelming none the less.  

I caught the first taxi I could find and I was off to the port to catch the ferry to Moorea. This was my first introduction to 'nothing is cheap in French Polynesia'. Around 12$ just to get in the cab and then 1.90 each km. I negotiated a lower rate before we left but it was still up there. What I can say is my cabbie was quite polite, a good driver, and dropped my off right at the ticket office which was a bit out of her way. The first ferry out did not leave until 7:30am so I had some time to kill. I decided to explore the surrounding area a bit. Nothing was open but there was plenty to look at.  

The ferry was prompt and left right on time. The inside resembled a movie theater with the front windows acting as the screen.

We all watched as the island suddenly came into view and gradually grew before our eyes. Jurassic Park comes to mind.

My original plan after arriving was to rent a scooter and collect my barrings. My plans quickly changed as I saw that renting a car was not much more of a financial burden than a scooter. On top of that it had been raining off and on and I had two bags strapped to my back so the car was really the only sane choice. The rental lady even gave me a map resembling a Denny's place mat that had all of the local attractions highlighted in big fun drawings.

After some light paperwork I was off. My first stop was the main viewpoint in town. The roads around the island are not too horrible, but once you start venturing up the mountains they tend to be narrower, run down, and full of curves and hair pin turns. Resembled Morocco a bit.

I did not have the pleasure of attacking this challenge with the aid of a Dacia Logan but I was armed with a fierce little Fiat that handled things like a champ.

The views did not disappoint. At the top of the road was a dead end with a viewing platform where you could see both of the main bays on the island separated by massive cliffs. The peaks were unfortunately covered by clouds that plagued most of my morning.

I found a small somewhat hidden hiking trail at the back of the road that I decided to follow. There were some pretty dinosauric looking plants on the hike that kind of sparked my excitement but also terrified me.

There were multiple splits in the path but I stuck to the ones that maintained an uphill direction. My persistence paid off as I was presented with an unobstructed view of the islands bays.

Feeling satisfied I made my way back to the parking lot and hopped in the Fiat. On the way down I stopped at a set of ruins that the rental lady had circled on my cartoon map. Being a lover of ruins I was pretty pumped. I headed out on the trail to find some pretty disappointing kindergarten Lego projects.

It was hard for me to accept this was one of the attractions the tourism department wanted to highlight. There had to be more. On the other side of one of the formations I saw another path. I walked around and spiraled down the rabbit hole which is the Moorea (rain?) forest. I spent a couple of hours hiking around searching for something significant but found only mentions of various plants. The forest was neat and all but I wanted ruins.

After trying multiple paths I was about to turn around when I noticed some light in the clearing. I followed it and in turn stumbled into a pineapple plantation.

  

The photos don’t look like much but they really don’t do it justice. It was the best surrounding view I had the entire time I was in Moorea. It was pretty fantastic. Not knowing if this was private property or not I decided to snap my few photos, take everything in, and then head back to the car. This proved to be a little more difficult than I had anticipated. Everything started to look the same and although it took my nonexistent boy scout experience to guide me north I finally made it back to my vehicle. Very hungry I made my way to a snack shack I noticed when I exited the boat. They only had cheese burgers and chicken nuggets so I went with the burger. Fully expecting a mustard filled mayo packed beef bomb I was pleasantly surprised.

The burger featured a fancy pants bun, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, swiss, and some sort of sweet island sauce that strangely worked. It was surprisingly delicious and I was elated with my decision. Having burned enough time in the day it was now time to check in to the b&b I had booked. Driving around this island is quite impressive as each turn offers another amazing view that renders the last photo you took irrelevant.

I found the property and checked in. Sensing nothing was going on at the place I headed to the beach where I spent the rest of my day. It was good timing too as the sun decided to finally make an appearance. Suck it America.

Sweat

I departed from Atlanta with no major issues but Los Angles was another story. After landing we were stuck on the tarmac for 20 minutes because all gates were full. This did not help my tight transfer window of an hour and 40 minutes. On top of that I was no longer flying with Delta. My flight was now with Air Tahiti so I had to leave the terminal, get my ticket, and go back though security.

As I exited the plane the gate agent told me all I had to do to get to my next flight was leave the building and go left. Alright... Sounds vague but maybe it will be clear once I am actually there. I made my way out of the terminal and as I turned left there was an escalator with a sign that said 'departures'. Maybe it was as simple as that. Nope. No one apparently knows much about Air Tahiti. Delta representatives sent to almost every terminal looking for my flight. If you know LAX this is a lot of panic walking.

To top it off they were doing construction on the sidewalk so I had to keep cutting into the parking garage and fight my way out to the street. After my fourth terminal I finally found someone who knew what the hell was going on and sent me in the right direction. My flight was to leave in 55 minutes so I had zero time. I started running and decided to ignore the closed walkway signs and I darted through the construction zone. One worker tried to stop me but he didn't do so well.

It was at this time I learned that if I run with my backpack all of the zippers get loose and my shit starts to fall out. Yippee. Almost all of my electronics were scattered across the construction site. I manged to find my phone, camera, and charger but the rest is lost to LAX. I had to get to the gate.

I finally got to the counter and they simply said you are late. I told them I was a good runner and they phoned the pilot to see if there was a chance I would make the flight. He said if I hurried he would wait. So they printed my ticket and then escorted me to the front of the security line. Fun Fact: if you are really sweaty it sets off the full body scanners and it looks like you have a bomb strapped to your chest. After the guy frisked me and said 'Eeew' I was off running again. I managed to catch the door before it closed and made the flight.

I think the guy next to me thought I was a meth addict because I was shaking and really really sweaty. Dehydration does not even start to explain how I was feeling. I suffered the entire flight to Tahiti. The airline thought it would be a cool idea to have drink cups half the size of most other carriers so I was never able to accurately hydrate. On top of that we had turbulence the whole flight so every time I did manage to fall asleep I either dreamt about being in a plan crash or was simply woke up by the shaking. If you know how much I like flying this is just icing on the cake.

If it wasn't blatantly obvious I don’t really have any photos to go with this horrible affair other than this gem from ATL

Its probably for the best, the internet here (when I can get it) is not very usable for things of this nature. They did have a decent welcoming crew for me in Tahiti at least.

Now I just need to hydrate.

South Pacific Bound

Its another round of new jobs and new places to see. This time I am off to the south pacific. My first stop will be a small island near Tahiti called Moorea. From the looks of it, its pretty fantastic.

See you on the other side.