Days 4-6: Tahiti
The first segment of our out-of-country experiences commenced today! A scheduled flight from Los Angeles to Papeete, Tahiti on Air Tahiti Nui went off without a glitch this afternoon. Over a year of planning, budgeting, researching, waffling back and forth, and more has now kicked off. And WOW! We are excited about this journey and get the MostPerMile out of this adventure called Life!
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Day Four – Tour of Tahiti
We arrived very late the previous night, and as a group of nine, we had split into two hotels for three nights but found someone who would pick us up at both hotels as well as fit all nine of us. After researching the internet, I found Dave’s VIP Tours Tahiti, and liked what I read, so we booked a private tour with him today. Since we were staying at two separate hotels, Intercontinental Tahiti and Le Meridien, he picked us up at 9:00 and 9:15 respectively. We visited Vaihi double waterfall in Faaone, the blow hole, “Maraa grotto cave” and natural spring pool, Point Venus, and more. Dave was so patient with our kiddos, who would pick up things off the ground, point out questions, and maybe even get a little wet at our stops. We learned a lot of history, smelled different things, and simply had a fantastic all-around tour of Tahiti today for about 5-6 hours.
After the tour, we enjoyed our respective hotels, swam, and turned in early after watching the sunset at 6:04pm.
Day Five – Tour of Moorea
Today’s journey began with a scheduled taxi pickup at the hotel at 6:15am followed by a ferry from Papeete to Moorea at 8:10am. We were met by a local tour company for a 4×4 tour for the nine of us that included the following:
- The island’s flora and fauna
- The Pineapple plantations
- Vanilla beans
- The belvedere panoramic viewpoint overlooking the two bays
- The Marae – Ancient Polynesian temple
- The magic mountain
- Tales and legends of Mo’orea
- The distillery – juice and liquor sampling
- Black pearls
We had quite a few bumps and steep hills accompanied with a lot of laughter! The tour was supposed to conclude with a stop for lunch at Sofitel then back to ferry dock for the last ferry, but we chose to head on back and catch the 2:45pm ferry. I fell asleep literally after feeling the first wave, which was a good thing as when I woke up they all told me it was a rough crossing. My husband had even taking souvenirs out of the bag to have it ready for me (I am a weenie with seasickness). When he looked back and saw my eyes closed, he assumed I was just trying to avoid being sick, but learned later I was passed out asleep. Our evening concluded at our respective hotels with my girls getting some kayak and pool time.
Day Six – Overwater Bungalow Day
We took a cab from our original hotel, Le Meridien, over to our new hotel, Intercontinental Tahiti, for one night. This was a special treat for us as we chose to book an overwater bungalow. We figured that since we are in Tahiti, and just celebrated our 15th anniversary, it was a “must do”. Leaving at 9am, we knew we were running a risk that our room was not ready, which was fine, but we wanted to use the day as “our excursion” here on the property.
Wow. Just wow. I am now ruined for life. The bungalow was amazing, and made “beachfront” hotel rooms see so distant now. Our children enjoyed swimming, jumping off the lower decking, using their goggles, eating lunch on the decks, and totally living it up. We also enjoyed swimming not only in the infinity pool but also the lagoonarium, which had many fish in a natural lagoon (amazing!). The dads also enjoyed watching airplanes land, as both are in the aviation industry the past 20+ years, and our bungalow for our family of four had a great view of the landing pattern to PPT. After the kiddos went to bed, we enjoyed some time to ourselves outside, including swimming after dark, and loved seeing the Southern Cross for the very first time while alone in the Pacific Ocean… just the two of us. If I have not mentioned it recently, I have an amazing husband and am so very blessed to share our journey through life together. Not a day goes by that I don’t thank God for him.
Local Immersion
In Moorea, we tried some local juices, distillery, marmalade and sorbet. Our taxi drivers and tour guide in Moorea were also local residents, while Dave on Tahiti was a Hawaiian who had been living in Tahiti the past 28 years. Local workers at the hotel were all Tahitian, so that had been neat. The Le Meridien hotel catered to French guests, so we had a lot of French speakers around us at our hotel those three nights. We made sure to try the “fish in coconut milk” which was offered each morning at breakfast, a local staple! Just being there was immersion in itself!!
Challenges and Educational Aspects
A challenge we faced this leg was taking time out to do the packets I created in advance, but simply having some lag time we could do mental math, state capitals, trivia, local discussions of what we had learned, and more! Learning is always around us! But when there was some “dead time”, state capitals were practiced, math facts app on my iphone, tying in what we were seeing to other past events, and more. We can always find something to do!
More photos: https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/53nightssouthpacific/
Possible Curriculum Correlations in Texas:
(5) Geography. The student understands the concepts of location, distance, and direction on maps and globes.
(4) Geography. The student understands the factors that influence the locations and characteristics of locations of various contemporary societies on maps and globes and uses latitude and longitude to determine absolute locations. The student is expected to:
(A) locate various contemporary societies on maps and globes using latitude and longitude to determine absolute location;
(D) identify and locate major physical and human geographic features such as landforms, water bodies, and urban centers of various places and regions;
(E) draw sketch maps that illustrate various places and regions; and
(F) identify the location of major world countries such as Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Russia, South Africa, Nigeria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, Iran, India, Pakistan, the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of China (Taiwan), Japan, North and South Korea, Indonesia, and Australia.