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Day 2 – Auckland to Tahiti (Papeete) |
Auckland, New Zealand
Still raining as we wake at 8.30am with a view over the car park, but hang on its only 5.30 at home.
Walked over to the airport terminal to buy something light for breakfast as we didn’t want the AUD $30 buffet breakfast at the hotel. Also checked out the shops and where to check-in, and noticed our flight to Tahiti was on the departure board (getting excited)!
Late checkout at 2.00pm with no extra charge. Thoroughly enjoyed our stay here. Checked our baggage and passed through customs using our e-pass then headed to duty free. We were allowed a massive 4 litres of spirits each however we only purchased about half of that with assorted spirits, wine and champagne, just enough to last our 7 days in Tahiti.
Next we purchased an Asian mixed savory plate and some beer as we waited to board, we expect that these would be the last cheap refreshments we buy for a while. The announcement to board came one hour before departure and we soon found out why (we were boarding an Air Tahiti Nui Airbus A340). Once on board we noticed the emerald blue colour scheme as Deb was given a flower to put behind her ear and we stowed our heavy bags full of grog.
Take off was 10 min late and I don’t know why but for some reason the guy in the seat in front of us was really starting to **** us off, he lifted his headrest up and down about 100 times and was shifting in his seat like a maggot on a hot chop and when he wasn’t squirming he was changing the channel on his video display constantly, perhaps he had ADD.
Despite the antics of the guy in front, the flight had a very pleasant South Pacific ambience and we finished our meal with one of the best Bloody Mary’s we have ever had, perhaps a sign of things to come.
We touched down at Papeete’s Faaa International Airport at 10.20pm to a very balmy evening and were greeted at the entrance to customs by a token guy on a guitar playing polynesian music and a girl in a long red dress swaying her hips. On picking up our bags we were greeted outside the terminal by Tahiti Tours , given a frangipani lei each, a bottle of cold water and presented with our tickets for Bora Bora. We were then transferred to the La Meridian Hotel some 20 minutes out of town. On checking in we were given a fresh mango juice and a lovely cold face towel, the only problem was that our room was half a kilometre walk but at least when we arrived the air con was on and it was cool. Wide awake we decided to have a glass of wine each and finally hit the sack at 1.30am.
Hints – buy your grog at Auckland as the duty free shop in Tahiti is tiny. Deb also recommends you stay at the Intercontinental as the porters were shirtless and buffed when we called in there for a drop-off on the way to our hotel.