Tahiti

We recently returned from a relaxing 2 week vacation in French Polynesia -- 3 days in Tahiti, 5 days in Moorea, and 5 days in Bora Bora. French Polynesia is literally a speck (ok.. many specks!) on a map, but impressively, its 130 islands span an area as large as Europe!



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The flight from Sydney to Papeete (Tahiti) was about 8-hrs in total, which included a brief layover in Auckland, NZ. The time zone difference messes with your head a bit because French Polynesia is just past the international dateline, making it 20-hrs behind Sydney/Canberra. Because of this, you effectively gain an entire day on your way there.

While in Tahiti, we stayed at the InterContinental Resort. The resort was quite nice, offering several pools, nice grounds, swim-up bars, and great views overlooking Moorea.

Pool with beach and swim-up bar! Moorea in the distance.

Sunset view over Moorea

The resort also had a private snorkeling lagoon which was home to lots of marine life. The hotel uses the lagoon for coral restoration projects and allows the guests to snorkel in it so they can enjoy the coral and fish!

Main Pool and Coral Lagoon

During our stay, we booked a morning of diving with Top Dive. The first dive was pretty low-key, with lots of tropical fish and some nice coral. However, mid way through the dive we started to hear several whales singing to each other! Unfortunately, we couldn't see them.. so we don't have pictures... but it was still a really cool experience. Our second dive was a wreck dive - in the lagoon between Tahiti and Moorea - which took us to 3 boat wrecks as well as a plane wreck.

Lots of nice coral and tropical fish!

Colourful Clams - these were everywhere!

Plane wreck

Much of the rest of our time in Tahiti was spent relaxing by the pool, sipping a few cocktails, and generally just adjusting to island time. We did, however, take a few hours to visit the city of Papeete in order to do some black pearl shopping for Stace.

Adjusting to "Island Time"

More to come..