Tahiti
Really we can’t really say we’re visiting Tahiti here in French Polynesia. Just three nights altogther and only really one day and we’re not leaving the capital Papeete. From Easter Island you can only go to Chile or Tahiti so this is a necessary stop between Easter Island and New Zealand for us. Really it’s a pain as it’s so expensive. I lost a lens cap on my camera. Guess how much a lens cap is in Tahiti? £18! A bagette is about £5. It’s very French which means great food, even in the supermarket and we stocked up on french bread and brie for our Tahiti rations.
Great market too.
The coins here in French Polynesia are huge. Like proper chocolate coins some of ‘em!
After 3 months of attempting to speak Spanish, or what could be more accurately described as Spanglish, converting to French was pretty difficult. My first attempt at asking for a drink came out in what can only be described as Spanfranglish or Franspanglish, one of those anyway. And getting out the habit if saying Hola to everyone, I might as well forget about it!
The place were staying though is amazing. Tiny little hotel/hostel (it’s got one dorm room as well as a couple of double rooms). Called Fare Suisse, run by a Swiss guy. Such good service, amazing breakfast (got to pay for it but you can’t have everything). Non-international flights to Aitutaki have a 16kg weight limit so we had to do some serious backpack kulling. Ever since our first huge backpack sort out in Mexico where we got rid of about 14kg our bags have been about 25kg each so we still had some work to do! We were so greatful when Fare Suisse could keep our bags for the 3 weeks we’d be in the Cook Islands. Needless to say though, although my backpack was exactly 16kg my hand baggage was not far off that too! Hope nobody notices.
