You may have guessed by now that we are not revealing the name of the island we stayed on for a reason.  Although the locals here are very welcoming if you are a single dude visiting with your family, they frown upon a group of foreigners invading their surf spots.  Videotaping or photographing at the breaks is also not allowed.  With this in mind, it was difficult to get good footage.  On a few days,  I kayaked out to the surf break with Willie and was able to sneak in a little photographing before anyone else showed up.  Hiding my camera in a shopping bag and pulling it in and out between motorboats that passed, allowed me to get a few good shots. Unfortunately, I did not get any footage of Wylie despite the fact that her rode some killer waves.  It is not easy to hide your camera, keep the kayak heading in the right direction and avoid drifting into the line up.

The world class surf break.  A ten minute paddle from our house. This photo was taken from our bedroom window.

Willie and Wylie waiting for a good one.

Watching reef surfing is spectacular.  The water can be so flat one moment and then all of a sudden a wave appears, rolls in, and grows to a height of 8 -10 feet within seconds.  I was only about 200 feet away, but completely out of the break.  The reef is like a magic wave machine.  Watching it appear literally out of the blue, never gets old.

Close up of the wave from the kayak.

The wave breaking.

Over and over again…

Willie paddling in after a great surf session.

http://youtu.be/3DlfABcrsoA

 Boarding our Air Tahiti plane for what turned out to be an amazing week on our favorite island in French Polynesia.

On March 10th we departed from Papeete Tahiti, boarded a small plane and 45 minutes later we touched down on a small Island – 10 miles by 9 miles.  The airport was the size of a small post office and in fact looked more like one than an airport. Tsing Tsing, the owner of our rental home, was there to greet us (unlike Joey).  He had a truck for all of our luggage and boards, a rental car, and a key to the gait to enter our driveway (unlike Joey).  Within minutes we were at our new house.

It was situated on a beautiful white sand beach with amazing snorkeling just a few steps from our back door.   Crystal clear water, a few large catamarans moored in front, and one of the best surf breaks in French Polynesia a paddle away awaited us.

The view from our bedroom window.

Wylie swimming with the fishies.

Hanging out on our beach.

The house was immaculate and relatively bug free with the exception of the cockroach that crawled into bed with me – for the second time!  This time I took action.  My nightly routine was to cover myself in bug spray and then “secure the perimeter”  by spraying a line of roach killer on the floor around my bed.  The exposure to toxic bug spray far outweighed having another roach to sleep with me.

“Say hello to my little friend.”

The “big” city center was a 3-minute walk along the waterfront.  There was a super market, bank, and a couple of stores that carried odds and ends and a few food trucks.  Locals  set up street side tables to sell bananas, cucumbers, root vegetables and fish.   The kids gathered at the pier to swim and wait for the occasional big ship to dock with deliveries.  After a few days on the island, we found ourselves getting excited as we spotted a big ship heading into shore.

Our days on the island consisted of snorkeling in front of our house with the colorful fish, eels, sea urchins and sea anemones, hanging out at the beach, walking into town for groceries or a fish burger at our favorite local food truck, sitting on the lanai watching the motor boats zip by and viewing outriggers being paddled by crews of locals.

The walkway to town.

The “big” city center.

Shopping day – Haricots verts long and baguettes. In the evenings we would paddle along the shore in our kayaks as the sun set over the horizon.

The sunsets provided great light for family photos.

We drove around the entire island in about 2 hours.  Along the way, we stopped and enjoyed fruit from the local stands,

viewed the steep mountainsides,

met up with some locals,

and were mesmerized by the endless blue lagoons.

One day Willie and Wylie hired a boat to take them out to the local surf break.  The boat driver stopped at this spot after surfing to capture the intense color of the water.  By the look on their faces, you can tell they had a great session.

At the end of the day, we all met up for a last jump in the warm, turquoise waters of Moorea,

and headed back to Tahiti.

Keeping the bugs out of our food and beds, proved to one of the many challenging things about our stay in this house.  We never did get a key to the gate, leaving us at the mercy of catching someone on their way in or out with a key.  After stocking up with food for the week, the propane ran out and we couldn’t get any to replace it.  After dealing with the large flying cockroaches and the one that crawled into bed with me, we decided to take a little break and take the ferry over to Moorea for a 2-day respite.  We found a last minute half-price deal at a nice hotel.  It wasn’t long before we were swimming in an infinity pool, enjoying an all you can eat breakfast buffet (included in the cost), kayaking in crystal blue waters, and snorkeling along the coral reefs.  All bug free!

Driving onto the Ferry to Moorea.

Arriving in Moorea.

Beautiful flowers greeting us in our hotel room.

Infinity Pool.

Overwater Bungalows.

Fish viewing from the walkway.

The following is an excerpt from my journal:

3/2/13

Just when I thought there would not be much adventure in this journey, it gifted itself to me.  We had a 2:40 pm flight out of Lihue, Kauai (LIH), with a connecting flight in Honolulu, Ohau to Papeete, Tahiti.  They put us on the early flight out of LIH so they could fill the plane. We were supposed to find a tall “surfer looking dude” with blonde hair whose name was Joey. Joey was basically our life -line to Tahiti.  Everything we did after debarking in Papeete depended on Joey.  He was going to show us how to get to the house, give us a key to the gate that accessed the private road to the house, show us the ins and out of the property and let us into the house.  It was a vague plan, but I was getting used to the laid back approach by most islanders.  Just the other day, I was leaving a check for a rental cottage under a coconut by the front door.

After arriving in Honolulu, we headed over to our gate to board the plane for Tahiti.  Sitting outside the gait was a solo dude with bleached blond hair, headphones, and board shorts, looking like he just came out of the “green room”  and straight to the airport.  We walked past him, but he was busy texting and listening to music on his Iphone.  We decided to go find some seats to hang out for the 30 minutes until our flight departed.  We continued to look around for any one else who might fit the description, but the few who were close where not flying alone.

After boarding the plane, I sent Willie on a little walk about in an effort to find the elusive Joey.  He tracked down the “dude” we saw earlier, but no luck.  At this point, my laid back attitude was beginning to change.  I tried to reassure Willie that maybe we just didn’t see him on the flight and that surely he will meet us at baggage claim.   Willie wasn’t convinced.  Knowing that we would not have cell phone service or internet when we arrived in Tahiti, he sent off a quick email to Charlie to let him know that Joey was not on the plane and that we needed directions to the house.  Within minutes the captain announced that we were preparing for take off and that all electronic devices needed to be shut down.  For the next 6 hours I tried not to think too much about how the course of events would unravel.  There was nothing further we could do until we touched down 2700 miles from Hawaii on a small island in the South Pacific.

We touched down in Papeete approximately 10:30 that evening.   We descended the stairs of the plane and were greeted by the trade winds and serenaded by a traditional Tahitian string band. After being herded through customs, claiming our baggage, and proceeding to the Hertz rental car desk, we were convinced that Joey had missed the plane.  At that point, I ditched the laid back attitude and sprung into action.  As Willie dealt with the rental car, Wylie and I pulled out the computer and within minutes we bought a temporary airport WiFi pass for 4,000 xpf and went to work.  Yes, highlighted in my inbox was an email from Charlie.  I opened it up and preceded to read how Joey must be on the plane and that he would most likely show up, but just incase, he gave some directions.  The only problem being that we had no way to get through the gate at the end of the road, that lead to the house, without a key.  Charlie suggested we wait at the gate for another car to drive through and go in with it.  Really, who is going to be driving around at 3am!

By now it was 2:30 am Oregon time and Charlie was fast asleep.  That is when I remembered I had a phone number of a neighbor of Charlie’s in an old email.  Yes, Ryan would help us out.  Willie borrowed the phone from the Hertz rental car women, who luckily spoke English very well, and was extremely patient with us as we explained our situation.

Despite the fact it was now 11:30 at night, Ryan answered his cell, let us know how late it was (as if we didn’t know already).  He said he left a key in the door of the house and a light on for us, but didn’t have a key to the gate.  We asked for clarification on the directions, luckily, because the one’s Charlie gave us, it turns out, were not so great.  He said he would see what he could do, but he had a new 6 month old, and it was late (yes, we know that already!).  What he didn’t tell us is that he was going to turn his phone off so he could get some sleep.

Well, by the time we stopped at a late night convenience store to get some coffee and milk for the morning and drove to the end of the road to the farthest point south on the west side of Tahiti Iti it was about 3:30 in the morning.  The road dead-ended at a river mouth that lead into the Pacific Ocean and a dirt road with an electric gait that could only be activated with a special key.  We parked the car, were greeted by some sketchy dude with no front teeth, wondering around the parking lot.  He didn’t speak or understand any English.  After trying to find a way to open the gate without the key, we gave up. Determined to sleep in a bed after traveling all day, we packed up what we could carry, including one surfboard bag and left the rest of our stuff in the car.  Guided by my kindle reading light and a dying headlamp, we headed up the flooded muddy road into the jungle in search of the house. Thank god Ryan had given us more detailed instructions, like turning left after going up the small rocky incline or we never would have found the house.

We saw the light from about 200ft away.  Breathing a sigh of relief, we walked up the driveway, ascended the stairs and entered the house.  I didn’t even have time to fully exhale when I saw them.  Millipedes, cobwebs, and ants, oh my!  It didn’t help that the house was constructed around an open courtyard with a 5×5 square opening in the floor that was filled with dirt and a tree that grew up through the 5×5 opening in the roof, leaving an easy entry for anything that could crawl up from the earth or fly down from the sky.  Why one needs a tree growing in the center of their home when you live in a jungle is beyond me.

We timidly opened the doors to each of the bedrooms.  At least the beds were made and the netting was hung.  I found a broom and swept away most of the dead and live bugs on the floor.  Too tired to care at this point, we all crawled into our beds, tucking our netting in tight around us hopping that we would wake up in the morning and this would all be a bad dream.

We woke the next morning to torrential rains, but as the clouds parted they unveiled the beauty of the Tahitian Mountains covered in the growth of the lush jungle.  Wow, what a spectacular view.  I remembered why we liked being at the end of the road.  After making another attempt to clear away the cobwebs and sweep up the millipedes, Willie made another attempt at getting the car through the gate.  Within the hour, the car was approaching the house and we were eating fruit from the trees. The trees surrounding the house provided a cornucopia of fresh fruits including bananas, star fruit, grapefruit, papaya, lemons, limes and rombatons.  We started weighing the pros and cons of living in the tropics -bugs vs. endless fresh fruit at our fingertips.  The verdict is still out.

*I did not use the owner’s real name.  There were many more problems with the house and he was super understanding of our situation and refunded most of our money without us asking.  I believe he is taking it off the VRBO listing until he gets things in order with the house.

The house at the end of the road, Teahupoo, Tahiti.

This was a stray cat that we named Pompadour.  I am not sure if she adopted us or we adopted her, but she definitely filled a void for the kids who were missing their kitties at home.

Star Fruit

The Courtyard entry for all the creepy crawlies.