Countdown to French Polynesia- Packing

We're leaving to return to French Polynesia tomorrow.

When travelling it's always a balance between not overpacking and having with you enough to make you comfortable while travelling. In the case of going to far flung locations like French Polynesia though, it is necessary to pack more than one would otherwise. For one thing, because French Polynesia is in the middle of the South Pacific, everything is imported, so it's very expensive to buy things like sunscreen. So, it's better to bring those items with you. Secondly, on the more outer islands (for instance the Tuamotus) there are few if any stores on some islands and they have little in the way of supplies or comforts. Thirdly, when you're pregnant it's even more necessary to have with you what you might need as only certain medications and supplements can be taken by pregnant women, so substitutions may not be possible.

Last time we went to French Polynesia we took enough of items like over the counter medications, sunscreen, and insect repellant, but too many clothes. This time we're wise to that and we'll be taking less clothes (though still enough to survive without any laundry facilities except for a sink to wash underwear for three and a half weeks), as we'll be spending pretty much every day in the ocean swimming, wearing a bathing suit anyways (but this time we'll take two towels each for the beach as pensions don't provide you with a beach towel and one towel each last time resulted in absolutely filthy, salt and sand encrusted towels by the end of our three weeks during which we couldn't wash the towels at all).

Who needs clothes here?

On our last trip to French Polynesia, the airplane agents were shocked that we only had one suitcase each. We thought this was pretty average until we looked around at all the Europeans and Americans who had travelled to French Polynesia, surrounded by two to three suitcases each. We're only going to be taking one medium sized suitcase each, as well as a couple of carryon bags between the two of us that we can use to carry our GoPro 5 Hero, laptop, a change of clothes, and all of our prescription medications.

We'll be using the strategy that we've used on the last several trips we've taken of using hotel toiletries like shampoo and conditioner and abandoning them along the way, thereby decreasing the weight and bulk of our luggage as we go, leaving room for souvenirs that we might find on the various islands that we visit.

Now let's just hope that we haven't forgotten anything . . .

Just a few last minute toiletries left to add.

Booking Interisland Flights with Air Tahiti in French Polynesia

A motu in Maupiti

When one wants to fly from the main island in French Polynesia, Tahiti, to any of the islands that have an airport, Air Tahiti (not to be confused with Air Tahiti Nui which flies from LAX to Papeete in Tahiti, but doesn't do interisland flights in French Polynesia) is the airline that you'll use (unless you're booking with private helicopter companies, etc.).  Air Tahiti flies to many, many, many different islands in French Polynesia (French Polynesia has about 118 different islands, but only around half of those are inhabited).

Fresh pineapple juice on Air Tahiti.

Air Tahiti has come a long way since I first flew it in 1991 (I flew from Moorea to Tahiti with my family on my first visit to French Polynesia). For instance, now there is an online booking system that customers and travel agents can use. But the online booking system leaves something to be desired. Or at least it did for me when I was trying to book our interisland flights using one of the flight pass deals that Air Tahiti offers.

On our honeymoon we took several Air Tahiti flights.

Normally when one books with Air Tahiti, there is a price per flight, however, Air Tahiti offer various flight passes that offer significant savings to people wanting to visit several islands in French Polynesia.

The last time we visited French Polynesia, we used Air Tahiti to fly from Tahiti to Huahine, to Raiatea (then we took a boat to visit Taha'a and back to Raiatea to catch our next flight), then to Maupiti, and finally back to Tahiti to fly home.

Sunrise in Tahiti.

This trip, we wanted to throw in some new islands, one new island in the Society Islands and then try some of the islands in the Tuamotu archipelago to the north of the Society Islands (French Polyneisa is made of many, many islands spread over several archipelagos including the Society Islands, Tuamotus, Gambier, Marquesas, and Austral). There are various flight passes to choose from that allow different combinations of islands and archipelagos. The one we settled on was called the Bora Bora- Tuamotu pass (this allows one to visit Moorea, Huahine, Raiatea, Maupiti, Bora Bora, Rangiroa, Tikehau, and Fakarava). This pass was perfect for us as it allowed us to visit the islands that we wanted to in the Society Islands (Huahine and Bora Bora), as well as a few of the main Tuamotu islands (Fakarava, Rangiroa, and Tikehau).

The trick to the flight pass is that islands have to be visited in a certain order and backtracking is not allowed to either Tahiti or any other island (with exceptions). That can get complicated in some of the outer islands that have less frequent flights and can only be visited by passing through another island. For our Bora Bora-Tuamotu flight pass, we had to visit all the Society Islands that we wanted to visit first before moving onto the Tuamotu islands. No backtracking through any island is allowed and if you land on an island and you're there for over 2 hours (even waiting to catch the flight to the next island) you can can't go back to that island for an actual visit.  Some of the smaller Tuamotu islands only have flights in and out on certain days, so it makes scheduling a real challenge.

The Air Tahiti online booking system was somewhat frustrating to use. Once I had worked out which order we had to visit the islands and on which days we had to take flights to various islands and then back to Tahit,i I tried to book online, but the system would not recognize the flight pass pricing (with a flight pass there is a set price you pay no matter how many islands in the pass you visit, as opposed to paying for each separate flight). Instead of charging me 517.90 Euros per person, the system was trying to charge me about four times that based on the number of flights I had scheduled for my husband and me (tough to say exactly how much more because while the flight pass is priced in Euros, the individual flights are priced in XFP or CFP or French Pacific Franc, the currency of French Polynesia, so I only did a rough conversion).

A lookout in Huahine.

Unfortunately, Air Tahiti has no phone number on their website to contact them. There is only a contact form to fill in online and then wait for up to several days for them to contact you back. However, luckily on online travel forums I found their phone number and an email address. I initially tried to email them to ask if someone could help me schedule the flights and correctly charge me for the flight pass. As I was nervous that some of the flights would sell out (and my carefully ordered vacation would be destroyed), I called Air Tahiti the next morning, having not heard back. For anyone looking for their phone number, it is (689) 40-86-42-42. Their email is reservation@airtahiti.pf.

I was prepared to speak French if needed, but it made me nervous in case my rusty French betrayed me and ruined my careful flight schedule (plus I wanted someone to look over this flight schedule to make sure it both worked and fit within the very technical perameters of the Bora Bora- Tuamotu pass). My fear was for nothing though. The recording allows you to choose French or English. The Air Tahiti agent I was connected to spoke English, so I didn't have to exhaust myself trying to schedule seven different flights in French. She was able to book all seven flights for my husband and me. Then she was able to send me an email with a secure payment link, so that I could pay for the two flight passes by credit card online (they don't take credit cards over the phone she told me). After I received this email I was able to pay easily. I had a booking reference number that she gave me, so I could look up my flights in their online system and they were all there.

The airport in Huahine.

Here is a list of our flights in the order they occur (it takes two flights to get to Fakarava from Bora Bora, ie. we have to pass through Rangiroa, but since we aren't there for over two hours, we can return there after Fakarava for an actual stay on Rangiroa):

DATE  FLIGHT   DEPARTURE AIRPORT       TIME  ARRIVAL AIRPORT         CLASS  BAG
DATE  VOL      AEROPORT DE DEPART      HEURE AEROPORT D ARRIVEE      CLASSE BAG
13MAR VT 272   PPT-PAPEETE, SOC. IS.   0930  HUH-HUAHINE, SOC. IS.   Y -OK  23K
               TERMINAL D1                                   ARRIVAL:1035    

20MAR VT 272   HUH-HUAHINE, SOC. IS.   1050  BOB-BORA BORA           Y -OK  23K
                                                             ARRIVAL:1115    

22MAR VT 543   BOB-BORA BORA, SOC. IS  1220  RGI-RANGIROA, FR. POLY  Y -OK  23K
                                                             ARRIVAL:1335    

22MAR VT 557   RGI-RANGIROA, FR. POLY  1505  FAV-FAKARAVA, FRENCH P  Y -OK  23K
                                                             ARRIVAL:1550    

25MAR VT 568   FAV-FAKARAVA, FRENCH P  0850  RGI-RANGIROA, FR. POLY  Y -OK  23K
                                                             ARRIVAL:1005    

27MAR VT 552   RGI-RANGIROA, FR. POLY  0930  TIH-TIKEHAU, FR. POLYN  Y -OK  23K
                                                             ARRIVAL:0950    

01APR VT 556   TIH-TIKEHAU, FR. POLYN  0900  PPT-PAPEETE, SOC. IS.   Y -OK  23K
                                             TERMINAL D1     ARRIVAL:1050    


So, from Tahiti (we stay one night), we go to Huahine (7 nights), then we go to Bora Bora (2 nights), Fakarava (3 nights), Rangiroa (2 nights), and then Tikeuhau (5 nights), before returning to Tahiti to spend one last night before returning to Canada (via LAX).

Now that our complicated interisland flight schedule is sorted out, it's time to book the accommodations. . . .

Sunrise over Maupiti.

French Polynesia: A Sequel

Start the countdown, because on March 11, 2017 we're flying to Papeete on the island of Tahiti in French Polynesia for a three week South Pacific vacation.

I originally visited Tahiti and Moorea when I was a child with my family. We did a five week house exchange in Tahiti and enjoyed every single day. I always wanted to return to French Polynesia, having fond memories of swimming every day, the beautiful climate, tropical fruit, natural beauty, and lovely people.

For our honeymoon nine years ago, we ended up going to French Polynesia. We started in Tahiti, went to Huahine, then onto Raiatea, Taha'a, and then Maupiti (all in the Society Island chain). We returned to Tahiti from our last island, Maupiti, to fly back home and have wanted to return ever since. Having ventured into some of the more remote and unspoiled French Polynesian islands we witnessed a level of natural beauty that we have not found anywhere in the world since then.

When trying to figure out where to go for one last hurrah before we have our first child (apparently some people call this a "babymoon"), we tossed around many different ideas, but just couldn't come up with something that we found satisfying until we toyed with the idea of returning to French Polynesia. Since we've wanted to return there pretty much every day since leaving, it was an appealing idea. We couldn't shake the idea and we've now taken the plunge.

We just booked our L.A. (LAX) to Papeete (PPT) flights tonight and we're in the process of arranging Victoria, BC, Canada (YYJ) to L.A. (LAX) flights and the flight pass with Air Tahiti that will allow us to visit a variety of the Society Islands (we're planning on Huahine, our favourite from last time, and Bora Bora, which we have never visited) and then some of the Tuamotu islands (we're debating which ones to visit right now).

Stay tuned for further details of our return to paradise in the South Pacific. We probably won't have internet access for some of this trip, but we will share pictures and updates when we can, because this destination really has to be seen to be believed.

Sunrise on Maupiti.

One of the many beaches on the motu in Maupiti where we stayed.

A sandbar in Maupiti.