Tahiti
My plan (because Rod doesn't plan) for Tahiti was to land at about 8pm, check-in, then take a taxi into Papeete, the capital of Tahiti. Papeete is like the Patong of Phuket, more nightlife and more of a town than the rest of the islands. Figured that if we do that, we'd have about 3 hours to spend for dinner and wandering around Papeete before coming back to the airport for our next flight - which leaves at 12.50am. And I knew from checking out the maps that Papeete town is close to the airport, and doesn't take a half-hour boat ride to get to!
First thing that went wrong with the plan - our flight was delayed by at least half an hour.
Second thing - check-in counters weren't open until 10.50pm. That left us with our bags on hand. PLUS, Rod is absolutely insistent about being the first to check-in for the flight. For reasons that still remain unclear to me, as being first in line doesn't get you any upgrades or any more special seats!
Sorted that out by finding storage for bags - we walked over to the small shed-like structure for bag storage. Prices seemed okay - about US$7 to US$10 to store our bags, and prices are for 24 hours, so doesn't matter how long we keep them there.
Fortunately for us, we decided to ask how much it'd cost to take a taxi into Papeete. The lady behind the counter told us - XPF2000 to XPF2500. That translates to about US$20 to US$25 for a taxi into town. ONE WAY!!! When I asked how far it is, she said "Oh, about 10 - 15 minutes" Our jaws just dropped when we heard that. It's worse than high-way robbery! What that makes it, I'm not sure...but it's ridiculous to be spending nearly US$50 to go to town and back! I asked if there was any other way we could get into town and she said that we could take the bus. And how much is that? US$2...only 10% of what it would cost to take a taxi! I look hopefully at Rod and I could tell from his expression that there was no way in hell he's going to take a bus - and he said as much.
So my plans for Tahiti is kaput. We have to spend 4 hours in the Tahiti airport - really exciting times...
We found the airport 'restaurant' - it's more a canteen. We get a high class ham and cheese baguette for dinner and thought that we'd play cards to while away the time. But throughout 'dinner', we were totally distracted by the HUGE crowd of people nearby. It looked like a whole village had come out to send someone off - or are waiting for someone to land. And having a PARTY at the airport. There was singing, there was dancing, there was music (coming from ukuleles and guitars - yes, more than one ukulele and more than one guitar!), there was drinking, there was laughing...it was totally bizarre! We kept asking each other if that's what Tahitians do for entertainment on a week night...
Eventually, the wait is over and we can go to the check-in counter. So yes, we were first in line - but it made no difference to our seating on the plane in the end. No upgrade (despite my practising "Excuze me, eeezeet pozzibel? We get an upgrade on zees flight?" while waiting, I didn't dare say it in the end). Not even front of cabin seats. Just any old seat...
Anyway, we figured that there was no need to spend any more time hanging about outside, so we decided to go into the departure hall to wait. By then, the village had moved to the departure hall too. And there was kissing, there was hugging, there was crying, there was waving, there were shell-chains like you wouldn't believe! Almost all of them had about 100 shell-chains round their necks. You'd think that they were sending about half the village off! And strangely enough, those people they were sending off all had an American accent (there's a flight ahead of us going to LA)...so, why would there be a bunch of Tahitians with American accents living in Tahiti and flying off to LA??!! In the end, I figured that they must have been exchange students who were going back to US. From the farewells that they got, they must have been in Tahiti for a number of weeks at least.
We finally got through to the departure hall and it literally is ONE hall with three gates. With ONE duty-free shop. And ONE pub/bar. Well, nothing much else to do. And nothing much else to tell really. Our flight leaving Tahiti was late, as you can expect...so we got in to Auckland about half an hour later than scheduled, and totaly exhausted from what looks like a simple 5-hour flight from Tahiti.
It was a breeze getting to Tahiti, but definitely a killer coming back. Still...worth the time and effort and money, I think. Wouldn't have missed it for the world.
My plan (because Rod doesn't plan) for Tahiti was to land at about 8pm, check-in, then take a taxi into Papeete, the capital of Tahiti. Papeete is like the Patong of Phuket, more nightlife and more of a town than the rest of the islands. Figured that if we do that, we'd have about 3 hours to spend for dinner and wandering around Papeete before coming back to the airport for our next flight - which leaves at 12.50am. And I knew from checking out the maps that Papeete town is close to the airport, and doesn't take a half-hour boat ride to get to!
First thing that went wrong with the plan - our flight was delayed by at least half an hour.
Second thing - check-in counters weren't open until 10.50pm. That left us with our bags on hand. PLUS, Rod is absolutely insistent about being the first to check-in for the flight. For reasons that still remain unclear to me, as being first in line doesn't get you any upgrades or any more special seats!
Sorted that out by finding storage for bags - we walked over to the small shed-like structure for bag storage. Prices seemed okay - about US$7 to US$10 to store our bags, and prices are for 24 hours, so doesn't matter how long we keep them there.
Fortunately for us, we decided to ask how much it'd cost to take a taxi into Papeete. The lady behind the counter told us - XPF2000 to XPF2500. That translates to about US$20 to US$25 for a taxi into town. ONE WAY!!! When I asked how far it is, she said "Oh, about 10 - 15 minutes" Our jaws just dropped when we heard that. It's worse than high-way robbery! What that makes it, I'm not sure...but it's ridiculous to be spending nearly US$50 to go to town and back! I asked if there was any other way we could get into town and she said that we could take the bus. And how much is that? US$2...only 10% of what it would cost to take a taxi! I look hopefully at Rod and I could tell from his expression that there was no way in hell he's going to take a bus - and he said as much.
So my plans for Tahiti is kaput. We have to spend 4 hours in the Tahiti airport - really exciting times...
We found the airport 'restaurant' - it's more a canteen. We get a high class ham and cheese baguette for dinner and thought that we'd play cards to while away the time. But throughout 'dinner', we were totally distracted by the HUGE crowd of people nearby. It looked like a whole village had come out to send someone off - or are waiting for someone to land. And having a PARTY at the airport. There was singing, there was dancing, there was music (coming from ukuleles and guitars - yes, more than one ukulele and more than one guitar!), there was drinking, there was laughing...it was totally bizarre! We kept asking each other if that's what Tahitians do for entertainment on a week night...
Eventually, the wait is over and we can go to the check-in counter. So yes, we were first in line - but it made no difference to our seating on the plane in the end. No upgrade (despite my practising "Excuze me, eeezeet pozzibel? We get an upgrade on zees flight?" while waiting, I didn't dare say it in the end). Not even front of cabin seats. Just any old seat...
Anyway, we figured that there was no need to spend any more time hanging about outside, so we decided to go into the departure hall to wait. By then, the village had moved to the departure hall too. And there was kissing, there was hugging, there was crying, there was waving, there were shell-chains like you wouldn't believe! Almost all of them had about 100 shell-chains round their necks. You'd think that they were sending about half the village off! And strangely enough, those people they were sending off all had an American accent (there's a flight ahead of us going to LA)...so, why would there be a bunch of Tahitians with American accents living in Tahiti and flying off to LA??!! In the end, I figured that they must have been exchange students who were going back to US. From the farewells that they got, they must have been in Tahiti for a number of weeks at least.
We finally got through to the departure hall and it literally is ONE hall with three gates. With ONE duty-free shop. And ONE pub/bar. Well, nothing much else to do. And nothing much else to tell really. Our flight leaving Tahiti was late, as you can expect...so we got in to Auckland about half an hour later than scheduled, and totaly exhausted from what looks like a simple 5-hour flight from Tahiti.
It was a breeze getting to Tahiti, but definitely a killer coming back. Still...worth the time and effort and money, I think. Wouldn't have missed it for the world.
posted by feddupfish @ 5:45 pm
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