Papeete

Tahiti. It’s a faff to get to. We set off from Wellington to Auckland, leaving plenty of time before our flight to Tahiti, in case of delay or cancellation. No problem, we got to Auckland on time. Our flight to Papeete was scheduled for 6:40pm, which would have landed us at around 1:00am. Not brilliant, but doable. Unfortunately, the flight was delayed twice before we even boarded, so it was 7:15pm by the time we were boarded. And then we waited. And waited. No announcements were forthcoming, and the cabin crew distributed some snacks to us. Then we saw two police officers come past us and head determinedly into the back of the plane. Presumably someone was being obstreperous and had to be deplaned, which took a little while longer. We eventually took off at 8:05, nearly an hour and a half late. This, of course, had a knock-on effect, and we didn’t land until 2:45am. We cleared customs and baggage reclaim, and eventually made it to the Kon Tiki hotel by about 4:00am. Didn’t bother unpacking, straight to sleep for 4 hours, but we needed to be up as the breakfast buffet ended at 9:30, and we didn’t want to miss out.

The next day was sunny and bright, and after breakfast we headed into town. It was a warm day, and we walked rather further than was advisable – especially as I’d only put on jandals for the walk, thinking we wouldn’t be out long. We explored most of the town centre. Our hotel is directly opposite the main passenger dock, and we crossed over to take a look as uncle Google had indicated that there was a tourist information office there. This turned out to be just a kiosk with only one leaflet, but we found the main office and booked some excursions over the coming days in Papeete. We then proceeded through the gardens along the waterfront, eventually reaching the Cultural Centre, which turned out to be a series of auditoria and stadia, and not quite what we were expecting. As there was no actual events going on, we decided to head back. This all took us some time. We headed back to the hotel to avail ourselves of the lunchtime menu there, only to be told that the restaurant was closed on Sundays and Mondays. The receptionist recommended a bar down the road, 3 Brasseurs, and we went there for beer, salad and a burger instead.

In the evening we went out again in search of L’O A La Bouche, but we’d forgotten the map and found ourselves wandering around in the backstreets of Papeete. We eventually found our way back to the waterfront and decided to cut our losses and stopped at the first place we found, a bar/restaurant called Bora Bora, and had some drinks and nibbles there.