Reluctantly packed the cases this morning – we could easily have stayed here for another month with no problems (except for the bank balance). They have a great system (because French Polynesia is in the middle of nowhere, literally, and planes arrive at all times of the day and night) where you can use a ‘transit room’ once you’ve vacated your room and until you’re ready to leave the hotel. We then just lazed around the lagoon and spent some more time dolphin watching. I spent about an hour sorting out bank accounts on the internet – we switch money to the Nationwide each month, because they are the only bank (in the world, we’re told by US and other travellers) that doesn’t make any charge for ATMs abroad, credit card payments abroad or anything else, so we keep that account topped up. We had booked the last ferry of the day from Moorea to Papeete (Tahiti,where the airport is) and so had a chance to shower and feel fresh before the long trip to LA. The taxi ride back to the ferry (where the taxi driver dropped some fresh laundry off for her son’s Friday night out) and across on the boat was really lovely,
as the sun was just setting as we reached Tahiti. An absolutely wonderful stay that we would love to repeat someday – happy friendly people, singing sway-ey type South Pacific songs as they work, always smiling and nothing was too much trouble for them. An amusing footnote to Polynesia. All week I had been admiring the Black Pearls which are a speciality here – they farm them on some of the islands and sell them everywhere. We knew good ones were VERY expensive, but that you could choose some lower quality pearls that still look very nice at a reasonable price. I was browsing the Pearl Boutique within the hotel and was surprised at how reasonably priced they were. I tried on a couple of strings of pearls that I particularly liked, they really were very beautiful and when I worked out the price (Sid always trusts me to work out currencies!) I thought we might go for it. Yes, it would be big treat , but manageable. Fortunately, before I made the final choice, I re-did the calculation to be sure what we would be putting on the credit card. Lucky I did. I’d miscalculated to a factor of ten. They would have cost us around £1400. We declined much to the amusement of Madame, who laughed and said (in French) ‘how could you possibly think they would be so cheap.’
The didgeridoo (I know I probably spell it differently each time I write it!) saga continues. This time, there was no question of it going on the plane. It was unceremoniously confiscated and put through with the check-on luggage. After some pleading it was returned to be graced with a ‘fragile’ sticker and then disappeared once more along the check-in-luggage conveyor belt. The challenge now is to get the didge back to England. Will it make it? The ride to LA was quite a bumpy one but despite the turbulence, Sid managed to let his concentration on flying the plane lapse long enough now and again to catch some sleep. I managed to sleep without a problem as the flight wasn’t full and I’d ‘bagseed’ a four seat row run, to stretch out.
No comments:
Post a Comment