As I told our friend Ashby, the honeymoon was “freaking awesome”. He really seemed to like that description.After finalizing a few things at home for about four days following the wedding, Jason and I once again packed up our belongings – set to fly to the southern hemisphere – where it’s the opposite season, the constellations are upside down and (we’re told) the toilet/bath/sink water swirls the other way, though we keep forgetting to try to verify this.
I apologize ahead of time for the length of this blog (and that it took me so long to write and finally post), but I really feel that there are quite a few details that I must share.
Headed to the airport we arrive way ahead of schedule (yes, Jason was still with me), check-in at Delta where they inform us that we can’t have our Air France boarding pass from LA to Papeete and we will need to obtain them at the Air France desk at LAX – no problem we say! We head up to the Delta Crown Room for a bit and then to the gate about 45 minutes before our flight only to discover that our flight is now delayed 2 hours which would cause us to miss the once a day flight to Tahiti. Running to the ticket desk and seeing the line we run back to the Crown Room ticket desk. The lady informs us that that because so many people from our flight have tried to do the same thing, she has only one seat available. We explain that we’re trying to make a once a day connection and we’re on our honeymoon and she says that she’ll see what she can do. While she’s making a phone call, I also try to see if I can produce some tears to help her know that we don’t really want to spend an extra night in Atlanta. She comes up with another seat, right next to the one seat that she originally told us was available. I mean REALLY, right?! We collect our new boarding passes, head to the gate, make a couple of phone calls and hop on the plane. When we arrive in LA, we think that we have 1 hour and 35 minutes to collect our Air France boarding passes and get to the gate! No problem – HA! We arrive at the Air France ticketing desk (because we must exit security to get to their terminal) to find a sign that says “FERME” – French for CLOSED! Believing this to be an impossible situation, we quiz anyone nearby (TSA baggage screeners, Air China employees, random people, etc) only to find out that the people working there had already left (at least 1 hr and 5 minutes before our flight). Someone suggests we try to find an Air France employee at their baggage services – so after about 10 minutes of trying to find that (no one even knew where it was!!!) we gave up hope and tried the folks at the TSA security at the terminal entrance. They wouldn’t let us past without a boarding pass (which we completely understand) and wouldn’t even escort us to the gate (which I also somewhat understand because if we bolted once we got past, they’d have to shut the entire airport). One girl was kind enough to call Air France and then they told her they’d meet us at the ticket desk. How nice! When we get there, we wait 3-5 minutes (seems like 3-5 hours!) and someone shows up explaining that the flight is closed and they have booked us on the next days flight. Now, for those of you who know Jason well, you may have never witnessed him getting mad. This was a site I only wish that I had videotaped to prove it’s possible! He was yelling (and possibly throwing out some offensive words) to explain that we were going to be on that flight that night. However, Air France guy wasn’t budging ONE BIT. Jason must have argued with him for 15-20 minutes and by then I realized it was now too late to get on the flight and asked that he go ahead and give us the new itinerary for the next day. He gave us some lousy printout and told us to have a nice time in LA!!!!! (The LA comment was like a slap in the face). We immediately headed to the Delta counter to complain, where they hooked us up with an evening’s stay at the Hacienda Hotel and meal vouchers for the next day (Billed to Air France, some satisfaction, I suppose). Not exactly the hotel we had paid for in Moorea, but ah, what can you do, right! So we spent the next 20 hours in LA – visited Venice and Santa Monica beaches and had dinner with Caryn, Warren and Minnu. I mean – it had been almost a week since we saw Warren and Caryn at the wedding, so thanks to Air France, we got to spend some extra time with them!
The next day, we board the flight to Tahiti and are on our way to catching up with our dream trip! We arrive in Papeete at 4:30 in the morning local time, head over to the Air Moorea ticket desk when they open at 5. They give us our boarding passes – laminated pieces of paper that it looks like they reuse daily for that particular flight. We board the plane, our pilot (who we can see through the open door to the cockpit) also doubles as the flight attendant by telling us about the flight and how it will be 7 minutes long. Jason video tapes the entire flight. We arrive in Moorea are presented with the second of 4 flower leis we will receive and head to the Moorea Sheraton.
Moorea was absolutely stunning – beautiful water, a gorgeous mountain and a wonderful hotel. We basically spent 2 days sitting on the beach, swimming and snorkeling, napping and reading. We even met a little rooster friend. We never left the resort, so that satisfied my honeymoon requirement of a stress-fee trip of not much more than hanging out on the beach. We did consider taking a 4X4 tour of the island but decided against it and instead continued to just sit on the beach. From Moorea, we took a quick 30 minute flight to Bora Bora. On the flight we met a hilarious couple from Miami – he was a lawyer and she was a former travel agent who now didn’t work and just spends all his money. Somehow we told him about our Air France whoas and he told us we should file a claim in small claims court. We’re going to look into doing this for sure.
Here are the photos from Moorea: http://new.photos.yahoo.com/packersfaninatl/album/576460762395297423
Bora Bora proved to be just as great as the rumors suggest it would be. I don’t know how it could be possible but the water here proved to be even better than in Moorea. The Sofitel hotel picked us up at the airport via water taxi (with another flower lei) and took us to the Sofitel Motu hotel where we would be spending the next 4 nights in an overwater bungalow. We met a nice couple from France on the taxi and talked to them as best we could for a bit. The taxi dropped us off at the hotel. We spent the first day exploring the water just outside of the bungalow (Jason was like a fish in his natural habitat) and we swam quite a way almost to the end of our little island. Then we came back and napped on the lounge chairs on the porch attached to the bungalow. The following day we decided to do some scuba diving in the morning. This scuba diving trip took us to 2 sites and we were told that at both sites we would be diving with some sharks. Jason was very excited at this prospect and I was quite a bit more hesitant. Of the 5 of us that were going on this particular dive, I made sure that I was last one in the water. All ended up going very well - and the sharks were not interested in us (though I originally would have thought differently prior to entering the water by the way that they were circling the boat!). Then for the rest of the afternoon after the diving, I resumed my daily napping schedule! The next day we decided that we had so much fun diving the day before, we would repeat the adventure. So we met up with the same dive company, where this day we did a dive through the one pass into the Bora Bora lagoon. The pass was created by the US military bombing the coral reef during WWII (presumably to create an entrance for boats to use to gain entry into the Lagoon). There wasn’t much coral to see here, I guess the bombings killed it but here we did see 2 giant manta rays so it was a very successful dive. Then for the second dive we returned to the second site from the day before for more shark diving. Again – Jason excited about seeing sharks, Michelle not so much! After the diving we stopped at a little outdoor restaurant on the main island for lunch – where Jason had a hamburger and I had a pizza. Then we went back to our little island for the daily swimming off the side of the bungalow followed by a nap! Later that afternoon however I began feeling a bit queezy and turned up with a mild case of food poisoning. Jason was the only one to eat dinner and felt bad that I was feeling bad. However in the morning, he came down with a more mild case and we were both feeling pretty crummy the entire next day – but ironically this was the only day of the trip where it was overcast and sometimes raining during the day. So we wouldn’t have been doing a whole lot that day anyway! We spent one last day in Bora Bora and then packed up our belongings and headed back to the airport on the water taxi (where we again saw the nice French couple). At the airport, we boarded our next flight to the island of Rangiroa.
Here are the photos from Bora Bora: http://new.photos.yahoo.com/packersfaninatl/album/576460762395412023
Upon arrival at Rangiroa, we were greeted again with a flower lei and brought to the Kia Ora Hotel where we would spend one night before heading out on a catamaran cruise for 4 days and 3 nights. The Kia Ora was again fantastic – we had a beachside bungalow with a hot tub (I might like to rename the luke-warm tub, but fine with me since it was already hot outside), a hammock and a little kitty that came to visit us! The hotel had a great infinity pool right next to the water and we had a very tasty fish meal at the restaurant. The next morning we woke up, hung out on the porch/hammock until we checked out and one of the members of the crew from the sailboat came by to pick us up at the hotel dock. From the dock, we boarded the dinghy and were brought out to the catamaran and greeted by the rest of crew. The crew consisted of a couple from France and a native guy from Rangiroa. The couple from France (Stephanie and Paschal) were in charge of the boat and the guy from Rangiroa (Emaio) was helping them navigate the waters of Rangiroa. On the sailboat trip we spent days sailing, snorkeling, eating fresh fish (all of which I believe that Emaio caught himself) and generally lounging about. On the last day we were there, we went to the Tiputa Pass for the most awesome snorkeling I have ever done! The pass was through 2 huge walls of coral where it seemed that every species of fish was hanging out. It was absolutely amazing and hopefully we can get the underwater pictures that we took developed soon. After the snorkeling we returned to the boat to gather up our things and return to the airport. The taxi that met us at the shore took us for a short stop at the Relais Joséphine – a little hotel situated right on the Tiputa Pass. While we were sitting here relaxing, we again ran into the French couple, chatted with them for a bit, decided to have our pictures taken with them and then exchanged emails. Surprisingly, they weren’t on our next flight, so as they headed off to the beach we took the taxi back to the airport and headed back to the island of Tahiti to catch our 3am flight to Sydney.
Here are the photos from Rangiroa: http://new.photos.yahoo.com/packersfaninatl/album/576460762395427895
Once we arrived back at the Papeete airport, we thought that it might be nice to take a taxi into the city to have some dinner (since we have 9 hours before our flight). We arrived in the downtown to find that virtually all shops were closed and only a couple of restaurants were open. We stopped in at one of the few open restaurants and ordered a couple of Tahiti beers and cheeseburgers. Once dinner was finished, we couldn’t find anything left to do in Papeete, so we got back in a taxi and headed back to the airport to wait for 5 more hours. Fun……
We arrived in Sydney around 8 in the morning, went to our hotel where we had to wait a few hours to check into our room, so we headed next door view the photographers wedding photos. Then we checked into the hotel, freshened up and headed out to Find Nemo – I mean, see Sydney. In our few days in Sydney, we took a tour of the Opera House, walked around the Rocks area, climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge, saw a symphony at the Opera House, and went to Bondi Beach. Jason even did some surfing here, I basically just napped on the beach and did some people watching. Sydney was a very fun city to visit but I’ve decided that I think that I would prefer to live in Melbourne over Sydney. Melbourne just seems like a more livable city.
Here are the photos from Sydney: http://new.photos.yahoo.com/packersfaninatl/album/576460762395452063
Sorry for the long ramblings of the honeymoon, but we went to a lot of places, saw so many different things, met so many awesome people (and some not so awesome at the LA Airport….) and had an overall FANTASTIC time.
