A year Later

I finally got all our photographs from our Around the world trip into one Photo Book which should be arriving any day, if you want to see the book, here it is:

Tahiti Revisited

Well if you read my post on our 4x4 adventure in Tahiti, this picture is taken from google earth if you go into google earth and call up tahiti and then zoom in on the volcanic mountains, you will see the road or what should be a road that cuts through the middle of the Island, the road to hell ... it starts at Papenoo and comes out somewhere close to Papara.

Hotel Surveys

Have you ever filled in those hotel surveys?  I do every now and again, I noticed in my in box while I was travelling that there was one from the Radisson Hotel in Tahiti and I kept meaning to go online and fill it in but decided that I would do it once I got back as I would have more time.

So the other day I duly filled in the survey, now trust me I have complained on surveys before especially the one I got from the hotel in Nottinghill 5 years ago, where the room was practically falling apart, and never even got so much as an apology.   Anyway I filled it in thinking it will probably just be thrown on the pile with the rest of them, I filled it in honestly and then afterwards thought maybe I shouldn't have complained about the arogant pool boy.  As you know from my post on Tahiti, I also complained about the price of food in the hotel.  However for ratings of everything I give them a 4 or a 5, 5 of course being exceptional.

So to my surprise this morning I had an email from the manager at the hotel in Tahiti and here it is:

Dear Rose-Marie:

 Firstly we wish to thank you for taking the time to complete a survey regarding your recent stay with us.

We are sorry to hear that you were not offered our breakfast a la carte menu for your child while dining in our restaurant, which would have best catered for his or her needs. Therefore as a token of our apologies, we have refunded your credit card for the amount of 2,950XPF which is the value of a child's breakfast buffet for the two mornings of 9/7/09 & 10/7/09.

 

On behalf of our entire staff here at the Radisson Hotels & Resorts we thank you for your business and hope you have returned home with some beautiful memories of French Polynesia.

 

Sincerely,

Christopher Turner

Room Division Manager

Hotel Radisson Plaza Resort Tahiti

(689)488888

They even went to the trouble of checking to see which days we were charged for Emily's breakfast and have since refunded us, now that is 5 star service ...

South Africa, Final destination on the Round the world trip

Jozi

It’s apparently no longer referred to as Jo’burg by the youngsters, but now known as Jozi – well in actual fact I think I only went into Jozi once on this trip, but I will start at the beginning.

So we boarded the plane from Perth and I was not feeling well at all, I spent the whole 12 hour flight sniffing and sneezing and I couldn’t breathe, and of course with the swine flue epidemic going around people were looking at me as if I was a leper. We arrived in Johannesburg ahead of schedule and for once we did not have to wait to long for our bags, hence our chauffeur (Derrick’s dad) only arrived about half an hour after we landed. Now I could go into depth about the rudeness of the custom officials at passport control, but I don’t want to spoil my memories.

It was great to see D’s folks after more than a year and of course Emily was ecstatic, the ride back to their place did not take too long. Derrick’s brothers and family popped in to say hello to us which was nice but by Thursday morning, all three of us were down with some kind of virus, Em was so bad she could not get out of bed, so off to the doctor with us before we picked up the hired car.

No sign of swine flue, however we all had something different which seemed weird, but then he is the doctor and not me. Thursday and Friday we spent trying to nurse ourselves back to health.

Saturday my dear friend Gwen came round, she was up from Richards Bay, so we went shopping together, the great thing about a best friend is that it doesn’t matter how many thousands of miles are between you and how seldom you see one another, they are a part of you every day and it’s as if nothing has really happened since the last time you saw one another. After shopping we picked up some dinner, then fetched D and Em and went off to see Gwen’s beautiful new home.

Sunday was a family braai at D’s brother’s house and all the family turned out, aunties, cousins, nieces, nephews etc. We had promised Gwen that we would come and visit her down in Richards’s bay, so the previous week the plan was that D’s folks would come with and stay in a B&B while we stayed with Gwen, so after the braai we went home to pack for our journey down to Richards Bay the next day!

Richards Bay

Monday morning (10th August) and we were off to the sea, it was actually weird having to drive 7 hours to the sea as for the past 5 and a half weeks every country and city we had been to was on the coast. We left at 9 and finally arrived in RB at about 6 or 7 so the 7 hour drive had taken about 10, Gwen had flown down to RB but because of the wind they had diverted the flight to Durban and she was now having to drive up from there. We had the key to Gwen’s apartment with us, so did not have a problem getting into the apartment. Gwen went straight to the office so we did not see her until 6 a.m. the next morning, when she showered and changed and went back to the office.

We decided after all the hours in the car yesterday, to which I must add that Emily was an absolute star, (she definitely has become accustomed to travelling and is the best travelled child in the world), we decided to treat her to a morning at the beach, the weather was good about 25 or so degrees and hardly any wind, so off we went to the local strand near the harbor. Emily had loads of fun playing in the waves and made a friend, by then we were all hungry and headed to the “Dros” at the waterfront for lunch. Later we did some shopping as I decided to make Gwen her favorite Macaroni and cheese for dinner and what was left over we froze for meals for her.

The next day was Wednesday and the hottest day since we arrived, the temperature today went up to 31 degrees (in August which is winter), we had decided to do Hluhluwe, we had a nice day however it would have been better had we stayed over in the reserve. We managed to see a few animals and birds and Em even started making a list of all the animals she saw. After getting back to Richards Bay, Gwen had to work that evening so we decided to go to the “Dros” for dinner again, it was a really good choice as they had a kid’s area with TV games and a pizza parlor where they could make their own pizzas. We had a really enjoyable meal and we never saw Em once for the whole two hours we were there, except of course when I went to check up on her.

On Thursday morning we headed down to the beach, however the temperature had dropped almost 10 degrees and the wind had come up, making it very uncomfortable on the beach, even the surfers were standing around contemplating rather to go home. So we headed back to the townhouse and then spend the day at the local mall having lunch and shopping. That evening Gwen treated us all to dinner at the local Portuguese Restaurant down by the waterfront, which was absolutely divine.

We had thought about staying for the week-end, but decided that as Gwen was going home for the week-end and the folks were going to we would head back to Jo’burg. Once again Em was an absolute star in the car; we left at about 9 a.m. and then stopped in Newcastle for lunch and did the final stretch back to Jozi through Memel, and arriving back just before it got dark.

Back in Jozi 15/08 to 26/08

We were back in time for Emily’s cousin Melissa’s 6th birthday party. The kids had loads of fun, then later that evening D & I met Gwen & J at Monte Casino for dinner at John Dory. The next week we spent doing regular things like seeing the optician and also being a tourist in our own country, we went to Lory Park Zoo in Midrand which was fascinating. Went to the theatre at Monte, to see the UN Comedy show with some brilliant comedians; the best of course being a South African call Trevor Noah. Emily spent the night at her cousin and managed to break their glass coffee table that they have had for over 20 years. We went to the flea market at Hartebeespoort dam, the Oriental plaza in Jo’burg, the Organic market at the Waldorf School in Bryanston and as luck would have it, I stopped writing notes on the Sunday the 23/08 and for the life of me can not remember what happened the next 3 days.

Old Friends

I do however remember that we organized to meet up with some old friends, new friends and some family members at “Cobblestones pub” at Monte Casino. When we arrived Mario and Paula had already been there for 2 hours, Paul and Denise were there, I had not booked anywhere but Denise managed to get hold of the manager who gave us an area upstairs, albeit a smoking area. Slowly the rest of the crew arrived, Trevor & Kirsten, Charlie, Shemila who is my old friend from Barclays bank, Len & Lisa who we had only met last December in Ireland. My niece Samantha and Michiel her husband and of course Paul and Elliot who I met about 3 years ago on Skype and it’s a long story so I am not going to tell you here. I was so ecstatic to hear that Paul & Elliot are getting married in October, and recently heard that my niece is now expecting her 2nd baby.

It was so nice catching up with old friends but all too soon it was time to leave, even though Charlie kept us talking near the garage till 2:30 in the morning.

Wednesday Morning 26/08 arrived and it was time to pack, take the car back and catch our flight back to Ireland. Derrick was ready to go home and had said so a week earlier when we had an altercation with a mini bus taxi in Fourways, I however could have stayed another month, but it was time to be heading home and get back to our normal lives, after an unforgettable wonderful holiday that I will remember forever!!!

Emily already talks about going to visit her friend in Australia and her cousins in Africa, so I guess the travel bug has already bitten her and she doesn’t mind travelling 12000 miles to visit friends and cousins in the Southern Hemisphere, however she did mention wanting to go back to Disneyland, to which her father has already agreed.

Well I guess this is the end of our Round the World trip, maybe one day when we win the lotto we may be able to do it all over again!!!

Bunbury & Perth, Western Australia

Date: 26th July to 4th August 2009
Accommodation: The Botha's Residence in Bunbury and The Stone cottage Fremantle W.A.
Weather: 20 degrees and above most days
Rain: Hardly
Season: Winter
Agenda: Visit friends and see the Bon Scott Statue in Fremantle for Derrick


The flight from Sydney to Perth seemed long, but eventually we were flying over Perth, looking out the window it just seemed so different from my first trip to Perth. I had visited Perth in the February / March of 1998 and as Perth have a winter rainfall, it was hot and dry reminded me of Bloemfontein in winter, flat and dry. So this time it was quite beautiful seeing it all green and lush.

It was overcast when we arrived and we had been told that there had been a week of rain the previous week, but we were there to visit friends and it did not really matter what the weather was going to be like.

Dave was at the airport to meet us; we had not seen Dave since September 2003 at Liesl and Jay’s wedding. It was good to take up where we had left off, and I really think you can only do that with real friends. Now for the 2 hour journey down to Bunbury, it was a long day what with the early rise, flight and then journey and also time difference, after flying back in time all the way to Tahiti, we were not having the opposite experience of flying forward in time.

We arrived down in Bunbury and Wendy & Dave’s new home, they had moved a couple of times after settling in Perth and decided that Bunbury was the place to live. I should back track a few years though, in 2001 Dave and Wendy came to visit us in Ireland and when they left had said that it was now our turn to visit them in Australia, and then every time that Wendy phoned she would ask me “so when are you coming to visit”, we initially promised 5 years but it took almost 8 years to get us there.

Anyway back to the story, we arrived in Bunbury to find Wendy, bump and Danielle who is the cutest little girl ever! Wendy had made us a welcome dinner, but little did I know that from then on I would be doing the cooking, not that I minded in the least, having not had to cook for over 3 weeks, it was a welcome change to get into the kitchen and enjoy some home made cooking.

After dinner we were soon all in bed, the plan was to spend Monday to Friday in Bunbury and then go up to Perth on Saturday and stay in a rental house in Fremantle. So Monday arrived and Wendy who was almost 8 months pregnant at that stage took us all over Bunbury, on the way back from town we stopped next to a field of kangeroo's, Em had not seen them in the wild before and neither had Derrick. 

Then the next day was a trip down Margaret River which is a bit like the Midlands Meander where you can stop at various places where they make things, wine farms, chocolate farms, ice cream, coffee, liqueurs etc. The rest of the week we just took things as they came, shopping, beach – we saw the most amazing sunset on our ride home. Dave & Derrick built a camp fire on the beach with Danielle and Em and they loved it. Friday, Wendy and I relaxed while D&D took the girls swimming, to the park and then fishing.

Saturday eventually arrived and we had to say goodbye to our lovely home in Bunbury, I forgot to mention that their house was in the sticks, so the stars in the sky were so beautiful. Off we started on our journey to Perth, stopping in Mandurah for coffee and cake on the way. You know I don’t know what it is with pregnant ladies but if they feel like cake, then everyone has to have cake … spread the guilt is it?

We got up to Fremantle at about 12:00 and could only check into the accommodation at 14:00 so last minute, we parked in Fremantle near the market, Dave took the girls to the park and Wendy, Derrick and I went to the market. We then met up with Peta for lunch on the wharf, it was so cool as I had not seen Peta since she left Ireland in December 2002, long story but when I heard Peta was moving to Perth I put her in touch with Wendy and they have been friends ever since, I worked with Peta at the Building Society for a few months and we all went to Brussels for an amazing week-end back in ’02, after catching a quick bite, we headed over to our accommodation which was just up the road.

We had plans to go to Zelda and Rawden for Dinner who I had also not seen for years, her son is already 9 and I have never met him. So after a quick drop off of the suitcases we made our way over to Z. When we go there Rawden was busy preparing the brain and we all sat around and chatted. A wonderful evening and food was had and we promised we would see Zelda and Rawden on Tuesday before we left.

Sunday morning we had planned to meet some of our other friends at Zephyr in East Fremantle, Carol who also worked with me at the Building Society but in 2005 or 2006 can’t remember now, Carol was originally from S.A. as well. Peta also joined us and so did Graham & Colleen whom we last saw in SA when Emily was a baby. It was so good catching up, however the time was just too short as Dave wanted to take Derrick to the wildlife park and he also had to drive back to Bunbury for work the next day.

So hasty goodbyes were said, however Wendy and I had decided we were going shopping instead of the Wildlife Park and Carol and Peta decided to join us. We had lots of fun going in and out the shops and then went and had a coffee, we soon said goodbye to Peta and Carol and headed back to the house in Fremantle.  We had said to Graham and Colleen that we would go up to their place on the train in the evening, but by the time D and Emily got home, Emily was exhausted.

Before I go any further I must tell you about the house in Fremantle which was originally built in 1880 as the police station quarters and is call “The Stone Cottage”, it was a lovely house which I wish we had more time to enjoy, with 3 large bedrooms and wooden floors that were probably the original floors. They creaked every time you tried to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. It had a lovely back garden, which we never got to enjoy.

The only complaint was the kitchen was minute and the bathroom was the old bath tub with the feet that had an overhanging shower, which trickled out water very slowly. Also the toilet was separate, however it was attached to the bathroom so if someone was showering there was no way you could use the toilet, but we managed somehow. It really was lovely though.

Sunday night and Wendy offered to have the girls while her and Peta caught up on some girl time and Peta dropped Derrick and I down by the wharf, so we ended up going on a date, in the first time in who knows how many years, we originally started dinner at one restaurant and ended up walking out and then went to a fancy restaurant called the Mussel Bar, it really was very nice. I taxi “Peta” then picked us up later.

Monday arrived and we had decided to take the ferry into Perth, I had done the Ferry ride before but it is always good, it takes about an hour from Fremantle into Perth along the Swan River and you pass all the affluent houses owned by millionaires. After arriving in Perth we split up and Wendy went to meet a friend, and we met Graham for lunch and then just did some shopping – we all met up then and took the train back to Freemantle which took no time at all. The train passes through Subiaco where the Rugby stadium is.

We were then invited to Peta for supper which turned out to be a wonderful evening with lots of yummy food again.

Tuesday and our last day in Perth, Wendy had to make her way back to Bunbury and so Zelda so kindly offered to fetch us and take us back to her place as our flight was only at 23:00 that night. We first went down to the wharf again, we had coffee and Derrick took his photos of Bon Scott, and we said our good-byes to Wendy and Danielle, who knows when we will see them again.

Zelda took us to Kings Park to see the view of Perth and then to Hillary’s beach where se treated us to lunch at the Dome, from there we went back to their house and just chilled out, it was so nice to catch up with Zelda and Rawden and we promised we would stay with them the next time we came to Perth. Zelda then went and got dinner, a stop and Nando’s and the Pizza parlor and after dinner took us to the airport. By the time I got to the airport I was feeling very bunged up and sneezy, I think I was getting sick.

This is a photo of the sunset taken at the beach in Bunbury! There are just so many beautiful photos I want to add to this post, but it just takes too long, so if you want to see them they are all on facebook.

I don't think I will forget Sticky Date pudding for a long time, it seems to be an Australian tradition!

Sydney, N.S.W. Australia

Date:  22/07/09 to 26/07/09
Accommodation:  The Menzies Hotel, Sydney
Weather:  25 degrees,
Rain:  Cool wind every now and then and a bit of rain
Season:  Winter
Agenda:  See the sights that Sydney has to offer in 3 days

After experiencing the cooler weather of New Zealand it was a welcome change to arrive in Sydney and it was 25 degrees.  Our experience leaving Auckland was not one I care to remember, maybe it was because we were up at 6:30 a.m., we dropped the hired car off and Emily was inside playing with the toys, when I rushed her out to the van which was going to drop us at the airport she left all her new stickers behind.  Then the lady at McDonalds at the airport was so rude to her, I still threatened to report her to someone I knew personally at their head office, which I haven't yet. 

Thank goodness the flight from Auckland to Sydney was only 3.5 hours as the plan was maybe one grade up from an old Dakota (exageratting of course).

We arrived in Sydney and I am not sure what it is about Sydney, the fact that I love it and hate it.  My father lived in Sydney back in the 20's and it has some kind of familiarity about it that I love, but the taxi drive ripped us off from the airport to the hotel, charged us $66, this happened to me once before in Sydney in 1998, so I was really pissed off, but we were so tired that I did not feel like an argument with a foreign taxi driver.

The hotel was brilliant, right in the centre of town, once we had unpacked and settled in we went on the hunt for somewhere to have dinner.

The next morning we started our sightseeing, after breakfast at the hotel we wound our way down to circular quay to take the ferry over to Manly, as I had been to Sydney D was leaving me to be the guide however I was hoping to see things I had not seen before.  So we took the ferry over to Manly, walked down to the beach, had lunch and got the ferry back.  We then walked over to the rocks, and back to the hotel where Emily and D went for a swim while I caught up on some emails.  We were all tired so room service was the order of the day and it worked so well that we ended up having room service every night after that.  Our friend Melina phone and we made a plan to meet up on the Saturday.

The next day was Friday and we decided that as time was limited we would do the hop on hop off bus round Sydney which included a trip to Bondi beach as well.  This is definitly the best thing to do as it gives you an overview of what the city has to offer.  I realised that Sydney had changed quite a bit since the last time I was there, in 1998 they were gearing up for the 2000 olympics and by now the monorail was in place and the whole Darling harbour area had changed. 

As time was limited we did not get off the bus at any stage except of course to change buses and go to Bondi, I had not done this on my previous trip so was really looking forward to it and I was not dissapointed.  After Bondi I really thought I could live here!  We walked along the sea front passed all the shops and then headed down to the beach, when Em saw the sea, the shoes, jacket and everything came off and she sprinted down to the sea, well needless to say by the end of it all we had one little girl who was soaked from Head to toe.  We took her dress off and put her jacket back on and D tried to dry it in the wind on the bus on the way back.

By the time we got to the stop close to our hotel, both Em and I needed the toilet.  There was a place we had been eyeing out round the corner from the hotel, called "Max Brenners Chocolate Bar", I thought they would probably have coffee if not a hot chocolate would go down fine, so we rushed in found the toilet and then met D back in the Chocolate Bar.  Well yes Ma, Willie Wonka is real!!!  The place was packed but we managed to find a table, the menu was CHOCOLATE in any shape form or size.  I wanted Em to have some healthy food, but the strawberries were $1.00 each, then there was a frutti tutti waffel which came with Bananas, Strawberries and ice cream.  I knew that Em would not eat the waffel but at least she could have the health stuff, so I ordered 1 Tutti Frutti Waffel, 2 small bowls of dipping chocolate and 2 cuppaccinos, well talk about chocolate heaven, it was a bit of an overdose - even the cuppacinos needed no sugar for D as they had put chocolate on top.

Saturday we wer up early and after breakfast headed down to the camera shop, D wanted to get a new camera before Lawrence came to pick us up, so needless to say we were there for about an hour while the sales man did his stuff, but at the end of it he walked out with a brand new Nikon D300 for a lot less money than what it would have cost him in Ireland, I was almost the proud owner of a new Cannon digital camera / camcorder, oh why oh why did I say no!!!  No sooner had D taken his purchases back to the hotel and Melina, Lawrence and Alex arrived.  It was so good to see familiar faces that had not changed in over 13 years. 

Melina had pre booked ticket at the Wildlife park at Darling harbour, so we headed there first.As with all the tourist attractions, they took our picture and then we headed inside, first stop was all the spiders and reptiles and then onto cute and cuddley's, after our walk through the park, we were treated to a wonderful lunch at Wagga Mamma and then off to the Lindt Chocolate shop for coffee.  Lawrence then drove us out to a Nature reserve where you can see the view over the bay of the heads, (I did not write down exactly where we went so will have to investigate it) actually you can read it up here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Heads.

After that they took us to their beautiful house and Lawrence went out to get dinner.  We sat and chatted over a glass of wine, Em took a liking to Alex and spent time playing computer games with him, and all too soon it was time to head back to the hotel as we were leaving for Perth the next day.  The generosity and kindness that our fellow Premier friends had shown us was so overwhelming.

So back to the hotel for a good nights sleep and then a 5 hour plane trip to Perth.

By the way please excuse any spelling mistakes in this post, but the new blogger won't allow me to do a spell check or for that matter backdate this post!

Auckland, New Zealand Photos

Auckland, New Zealand

Date: 17th July to 22nd July
Accommodation: Quest on Nelson, Serviced Apartments
Weather: 16 Degrees
Season: Winter
Rain: Yes and wind
Agenda: Meet up with Friends and sigh see

The flight from Tahiti to Auckland was 6 hours, so how come then did we leave on the 16th at 7 a.m. and arrive on the 17th at 11:00, simple Auckland is 22 hours ahead of Tahiti and we crossed the date line, had we done it the other way we would have arrived before we left, well you know what I mean.

I decided I would put the photographs separate for this post as it just takes so long to upload photos here on blogger.

So as it goes we arrived, got our hired car, found our way to the hotel apartment and were really disappointed coming from the Radisson, but it is understandable. From the air New Zealand reminded us of Ireland, and it with the rain it looked like we were back in Ireland.

Once we had got settled, Daryl came through and took us for dinner at the waterfront.

The next day we relaxed and did some washing, Daryl came through to the apartment and we all went off to Devonport to see the view of Auckland, we then had to go and meet another friend Callum who I had not seen probably since my wedding in 1995. We arrived there and the first thing Em saw was a bungy swing, so whilst we all drank coffee and had lunch, Em had fun on the bungy swing.

Sunday we headed for the Sky tower to see the sights, the weather was miserable so it was good to be doing something in doors. They also had some scientists from a TV channel entertaining the kids which kept Em happy for a while, she also wanted to do a free fall from the tower and do the skywalk outside with a bungy rope - she is going to grow up to be an adrenalin junkie.

Later we headed off to an Irish pub for dinner where I had the most awesome Mussells!

Monday, Daryl took the day off work and met up with us at 10:00 a.m. to go sight seeing, the weather wasn't too bad which helped. Our first stop was Kelly Tarlton's penguin experience, which is an old sewer which has been turned into an aquarium. We then had lunch at St. Heliers Bay and ice-cream at mission bay.

We then headed out to Butterfly creek and back to the apartment for pizza.

Tuesday we were on our own so we headed to Chancery lane for a walk around the shops and then to the Auckland Museum which was very very interesting. All the tour guide books recommend that you start your holiday in Auckland with a trip to the museum and I would definitely agree with them - although Daryl still hasn't been and his been living there for 2 years now!

Later we met up with Daryl and had dinner at the Seafood Grill and bar down by the harbour. It was so good catching up and sharing a bit of how our friend lives in New Zealand. The next day was off to the airport and then to Sydney.

Tahiti, French Polynesia

Date: 9th July to 16th July
Accommodation: The Radisson Plaza Resort, Arue, Tahiti
Weather: 25 Degrees +
Season: Austral Winter
Rain: Some tropical downpours over the mountains very few on the beach
One word: Awesome
Agenda: Rest, Relax, Explore
Tahiti is one of those countries that everyone dreams of going to, but not many people do, so when I saw it on the itinerary it really made up my mind to do it. However once I had booked, I realised the reason why not many people make the journey, Tahiti is very expensive - however there is a way of doing things cheaply, but for our trip we decided that this would be where we spoilt ourselves.

The journey from LA to Faaa airport in Tahiti was 8 and a half hours, we flew Air Tahiti which was awesome, the food was wonderful, the air hostesses looked like they were on holiday it was really magic. We left LA at 23:00 and with time difference arrived in Tahiti at 4:30 in the morning, however it was already about 20 degrees at that time of the morning.

We made our way to the car hire place, as I said everything in Tahiti is very expensive, so we ended up hiring a very small car for the week, not like in the States where a little money gets you a very big car. After a few wrong turns we finally ended up at the hotel, I had booked us in from the previous night so that we did not have to wait until 2 in the afternoon before we got into our room - very wise!

The porter took us to our room which turned out to be and upstairs downstairs, two balconies, the biggest shower I have ever seen and totally awesome.
This photo is the view from our room, looking over the pool and Matavai Bay.

This photo was taken from the upstairs balcony looking down onto the downstairs balcony. Once we arrived we decided to first go down for Breakfast, which was a buffet with loads of tropical fruits and all kinds of stuff, we then headed off to the pool where we spent most of the day, and then went off to sleep as it had been a long day.

The next day after Breakfast we headed out to find a supermarket, which was interesting, what was most interesting was the fact that a lot of their tinned fruits and sweet corn came from South Africa. We stopped at One tree hill on the way back and marvelled at the scenery. After a bit of shopping we headed into Papeete to the Market.Then back to the hotel to spend the rest of the day by the pool and on the beach.

The sand on majority of the beaches in Tahiti is black as it is volcanic sand.

The next day was Saturday, we decided that the hotel was becoming a wee bit too expensive to have breakfast there every morning so we headed to a village close by called Mahina and had brunch, after brunch we drove to the Cascade waterfalls where we stopped to walk to the falls.They were awesome, I also took a picture of our hired car which you will see why further down in my story. We decided from there to drive around the Island, according to the map, there was one road around the Island which takes about 2 hours and then a road through the middle of the Island which intrigued Derrick.

Half way round the Island we decided to stop at a beach on the west coast called Papara so that Em could have a swim, well this was obviously surfers paradise as the waves were rough and their were hundreds of surfers, Em ended up losing the bottom half of her new Bikini. After a swim we headed back to our hotel where D took this amazing photograph of the sunset.

The next day Monday 13th we headed to the supermarket to get Em some strawberries for Breakfast and found a snack bar where we stopped for breakfast, well the difference in cost was just phenomenal, where they had charged us about 7000 xpf (french Polynesian francs) for a buffet breakfast at the hotel, we could get and omelet and coffee at the snack bar and an ice cream for Em for 900 xpf, so we had found our new breakfast bar.

After breakfast or brunch we went to Papeete again and then once again spent the day at the pool and on the beach.

The following day was a public holiday in Tahiti a very important French holiday Bastille Day, we started off with breakfast at our new found snack bar but first a stop at the supermarket for Emily's strawberries. D wanted to find the road that went through the middle of the Island, which he assumed was a short cut and here the story starts:

Indiana Rowe and the tunnel of Doom

We picked up the road at Papenoo which winds along the river bed, there are loads of camping spots and because today was a public holiday there were loads of locals camping, swimming and generally just enjoying their day off. The road was mainly dirt and had some scary bridges but the scenery was beautiful. We stopped in a few places where there were 4x4 tours, and then we got to the sign that said something in French and 4x4, D said that he is sure the trail would be the same as what we had just come through, well ...

We first had to go through a tunnel, with dongas and ditches and water running down, now remember we were in a small 1100 little KIA, I was sitting in front with D and Em at the back, this is the very last picture I took before our adventure as I held on for dear life.As we came through the tunnel there was no road so to speak of but just a trail with big and small boulders winding down and down, with lots of hairpin bends. With almost every movement the car made we could hear the boulders hitting the car underneath, as we kept going down we thought it couldn't get any worse but it did, however there was no turning back as there is no way the car would be able to go up the path it had just come down. Emily was having great fun, and she even said so, in the words "this is so cool, just like a movie". Little did we know but we were actually driving through the crater of the Volcano, we had obviously come up the 4,800ft on the other side of the tunnel and we were now going down.

I kept thinking that if anything happened to us, nobody would know we were missing and would not look for us, and we could be swallowed up by the mountain and be trapped in the rain forest forever, yes I am a bit of sensationalist ;).

After bashing the car underneath about 50 to 100 times over dongas and boulders we finally saw the road (trail) coming to a straight bath at the end of the mountains, and it was now just a matter of heading towards the main road near Mataiea.

The Highway Man

As we headed towards the end of the trail, we noticed a guy on an off road scrambler come past us and then stop, he told us to stop and asked us where we were going, when D told him he told D that the road was closed, my first thought then and there was I was going to get out and walk. We felt sick, but then the guy said not to worry as he can open the road if we paid him 200 xpf which is equivalent to about 2 Euro, so we said no problem.

Then as we passed the first house we had seen in forever, a deranged looking woman wearing a T-shirt with Vietnam on it came running in front of the car telling us to stop shouting at us in French, the guy on the bike then spoke to her and they let us continue.

We then got to the gate that the guy had to unlock and of course he came to collect his money first which had now gone up to 2000 xpf, which is probably because he now had to give some money to the deranged old woman. It felt like we had been hijacked and could not wait to just get out of there.

Once we eventually got to the main road, we thought that by now the exhaust had come loose and who know what other damage had been done to the car, but thank goodness only the front fender was dragging on the ground all the way back to the hotel. Once there Em and I headed for the pool while D proceeded to do a cosmetic job on the car, get rid of the scratches and fix the fender.

I think D and I had about 3 tequilas each that evening just to stable our nerves, we decided that dinner in the restaurant at the hotel was the order of the day, which we all enjoyed.

Our last day

29 Degrees Celsius

It was Wednesday and our last day at the hotel, our flight was leaving for Auckland the next morning at 7 a.m. which meant we had to leave the hotel by 4:30. So today we went into Papeete for the last time, there were two Cruise ships docked, one huge one from London called the "Princess Dawn" and the other smaller one called "The Regus", some of the passengers had come back to the Radisson and while I was watching Em swim I got talking to some of the passengers. I met Claudette and Jim from San Fransisco, what a lovely couple. After sunset we went back to the room and had a wonderful Room service meal.

I would do it all over again, I can see why Marlon Brando fell in love with Tahiti after filming Mutiny on the Bounty, but just a word of advice, go in the Austral winter there are no mozzies or flies and no humidity either.