French Polynesia

The journey to Tahiti in French Polynesia and then on to another island was very long and tiring. We left our hostel in Rarotonga in the middle of the night to catch our flight to Tahiti. After the 4 hour fight we arrived at about 2 in the morning. Tahiti is so expensive full of honeymooners, so we choose to go to an island called Moorea, also expensive but with one random camping ground. None of the public buses were in action until at least 7:30 so we kind of camped in the airport, Elliott sleeping on our blow up bed for the 5 hours we had to kill. We waited for the bus – in the rain – caught it to the ferry, which we only just made. The ferry journey was only 45mins and then on to a local bus which seemed to take forever as we hadn’t actually slept until the previous night. We were so tired we slept most of the day. It was when we got on the bus that we realised the extent of the language barrier here. It’s not something we’re not used to, but it came as a bit of a surprise that I could speak more French than many could speak English. There was also a lot of that annoying French arrogance around, but once we’d come to terms with the fact that we were surrounded by French people we actually had an awesome time. The weather, almost the entire time was beautiful – blue skies every day.

That afternoon we went to the biggest shopping area of the island, which was just down the road. It consisted of one tiny shop – Tesco express size, a restaurant, a few tourist shops and that was it. French Polynesia is not expensive for hotels, but just about everything, food included. Our diet consisted mainly of porridge, baguette, sandwiches and noodles. The kitchen was very basic, but funny because it was always open so the hens and chicks were always wandering in and scaring the cat. The days were so hot – very similar to Thai heat, so much so you seriously couldn’t go out between 11-3. The sunsets here were amazing, and as our room looked out on the beach we could see it every afternoon.

The first few days we rested up and went for walks on the beach, and then finally we went snorkelling. It was cool – not the best visibility, but still loads of fish and cool coral. The reef was quite shallow, even at high tide so we had to be careful when we went out. The bit beach in front of our room had a sand bar and trapped shallow water. As it was so hot it was cool just sit in the water, with the fish swimming up to you, just chilling out.

The next day we decided to rent out a scooter. As it’s so hot and everything is spread across the island, you’re quite limited to what you can do. The scooter rental was just a few sticks with a palm tree roof. It took most of the day riding around the island and seeing the sights. Most of the time the road was next to the sea, which was really nice. We went up a mountain to see the views, and see the pineapple plantations (I can’t believe they grow on the ground like a pumpkin!); around the bays that Captian Cook sailed in to and checked out the crystal clear water over the reefs. We went to the one supermarket and stocked up on olives, French cheese, steak and taro – its far cheaper cooking a nice meal for you than going to a restaurant. On the way back the heavens opened and it pelted down none stop until we reached the campground. We were totally soaked.

The next day was another hot blue day, and we decided to try another snorkelling spot. We walked up the beach opposite a small island, but the visibility was awful. We were then advised another spot next to a derelict hotel where others had spotted sharks. The water there was crystal clear the best by far than anywhere. I am totally gutted that we had just broken our underwater camera because it was absolutely unbelievable. There were so many fish – so many we hadn’t seen before – you could see for such a long way. We spent a long time chilling there. Although wherever we’d been on the island there had only been a couple of people sharing the beach – here there was no one for the entire time.

The next day was our last day, so we packed up our stuff, and quickly headed to the snorkelling spot again. This time was incredible. Before long we saw a flock of about 40 eagle rays which were about 1.5m long, and a massive stingray about 2m. The stingrays just went back and forth circling underneath us – they were stunning! We were really sorry to leave French Polynesia, the weather, the island and the snorkelling was amazing, and we really enjoyed ourselves even though we were surrounded by rude French people x