French Polynesia - Private Island

We took a half day tour to a private island owned by the Hilton resort. It’s just a short boat ride away, and there were only 10 people total on the trip, so you basically felt like you had the place to yourself. First we just relaxed on some beach chairs, and enjoyed the sun.

Then it was off to snorkel a bit, and just swim around in the water. Underwater camera still wasn’t working, so no pictures of under the water, sorry. However, good news is that you didn’t miss much; there weren’t really a lot of creatures around. In fact, the best creatures we saw were the crabs on the beach.

Then it was a picnic lunch with some Tahitian beer and some French wine.

After the tour was over, we went back to the hotel and just relaxed by the pool, and on our deck.

Dinner at the fancy restaurant again tonight. So, just so you understand, food prices are not bad here, considering what you get (all meals have been excellent), but the drink prices are ridiculous. There is no such think as ordering tap water. It’s all bottled. Sparkling or Pure, as they call it. They are tall 20oz. bottles and they will run you about $7.50. Soft drinks ranging from Coke Zero to ginger ale with cost you $6, and there are no free refills. So you can imagine how much alcoholic drinks will cost (pina colada = $20). The only things that comes with 1 free refill are coffee and tea, but sine neither of us drink coffee, that leaves us mostly with paid drinks. Lets just say that we were drinking a lot of the tap water out of our glasses while we were in the room.

After dinner it was back to the hotel to read books, and watch some tv shows in iTunes. The TV here is all in Tahitian or French. BBC news is also on one of the channels, but its 24 hours of news….depressing for vacation. So we downloaded all 3 seasons of the show The League before we left home, and have been watching an episode or two a night before bed.