When it came to planning out my annual birthday trip, what sounds better than a few days on the beach in Tahiti...especially since it's January? About 6 months ago, I received an e-mail that flights from San Francisco went down to $234 round trip, and for really good tickets too! I immediately booked and then messaged Brian's brother and sister-in-law about the deal. Last year, Brad asked me to keep an eye out for deals to Bora Bora because that was their dream vacation, so when I saw tickets to Tahiti, I knew that they could make something work. Their birthdays straddle mine, so I suggested that we all go for our birthdays and they agreed to join! Brian and I were going to spend 8 days and they were going to stay 5. We just had to buy tickets to San Francisco and then we were good to go...or so I thought.
I made the decision, pretty quickly, that Mo'orea was where we'd want to spend most of our time. I'd been exploring Google Earth for the best beaches and perusing travel blogs for places to stay when I stumbled upon a private island for rent off of the northwest tip of Mo'orea. We'd established a lodging budget with Brad and Nikki, and of course, this island was just a skosh over, but it's A PRIVATE ISLAND. We all agreed to splurge, and the island was ours for 4 nights. Then, for the rest of our trip, we rented a house on the side of a hill overlooking Cook's Bay with a private beach just a short walk away.
After months of waiting in anticipation, Brian got a call from Nikki saying that she'd have to get a new passport since her's expired within 6 months of our return date. I had no idea that was a thing. Silly me assumed that a valid, non-expired passport was perfectly acceptable to travel with. However, we were due to leave in 7 days and were in the midst of the longest government shutdown in American history. I found a company online that promised a 48 hour turnover for a new passport...for $480.00. Having already paid for our plane tickets, rental car, and accommodations, I felt like I really should just fork over the money if it meant that I still got to go. First thing Monday morning, I filled out the paperwork on their website, downloaded paper copies, got a new picture taken, and overnight FedEx-ed another $170 check to the State Department. My paperwork was received bright and early in Chicago Tuesday morning, but I got an email that the size of font on the downloaded copies wasn't correct and that I'd have to re-file. Apparently, the printer's default was at "fill-page", which is 96% and the correct scale is 100%. I spoke to one of their representatives and they assured me that, if I shipped overnight the new paperwork, I could still get my passport by the end of day on Friday...our flight was early Sunday morning. I went back, printed out 3 different sets in 3 different scales (just to be safe) and again, overnight FedEx-ed them to Washington DC this time (another $74 by the way). Again, they arrived first thing Thursday morning, but another call informed me that I'd missed the deadline for that week, and with it being a holiday weekend, they couldn't be processed until the next Tuesday with arrival on Wednesday, meaning that I'd miss my Sunday flight with Brian. I let work know that I'd be available to work my usual shifts and then called United to see if I could reschedule my flight to Thursday, since going for 3 days would be better than not going at all. They agreed to reschedule my flights, but I had to pay the difference in fare and a $300 reschedule fee. Sigh. I noticed a snowballing effect happening, where I'd just keep agreeing to more and more expenses because I'd already paid so much to get this far. I kept justifying another couple of hundred dollars because I'd already paid a couple of hundred dollars, and before I knew it, I was in $1200 for a new passport and plane ticket for a 3 day vacation.
In the meantime, Brian was basking on our private island, swimming with sharks and rays, getting sunburned (because I wasn't there to insist that he wear sunscreen), and managed to break his phone. At least he got some great pictures!
Wednesday, my passport arrived late in the afternoon, and I drove straight from work to Brian's parent's for the night so his mom could drop me off at the airport at 4:30 am. I awoke at 3:30 with a text from the guest in my camper saying that, at midnight, the breaker had popped and they didn't have any electricity. It had gotten down to 35 degrees that night, so I frantically called the guy that I had watching the house, cats, and my camper and learned that the entire garage and camper had been out all night and they couldn't figure out the problem. Once I got to the airport, I called Airbnb to let them know, and asked them to cancel the next 2 reservations until the guys could figure out how to get it fixed. They agreed to cancel and rebook my guests, but didn't close off the dates, so the camper immediately got booked again by other customers. I called Airbnb back and told them to cancel those guests and rebook them and then to block the nights so nobody else could book them. They agreed and I got on my plane to San Francisco. Upon arrival there, I was notified that the nights that had now been cancelled TWICE, were booked again. Another phone call and I was assured that it would be taken care of.
I had a 6-hour layover in San Francisco and then caught my flight to Tahiti. We had some tasty food, a smooth flight, good movies, and I didn't even have a panic attack, so that's always a good thing.
For the first night, I'd booked a super cheap Airbnb just a couple of blocks from the airport, so once out of the airport at 9 pm, I hoofed it across the highway and through town. Reading directions translated from French, in the dark, overdressed in 85 degree humidity and while eaten by bugs was a little nerve wracking. I was perfectly aware of the spectacle that I was with my backpack on and a fanny pack full of cash from the ATM for my taxi to the ferry port in the morning. I was roaming through dark alleyways with people all staring at me and various young men on scooters offering me a ride. I finally just bit the $.20/min phone call bullet and called my host, begging for her to just come pick me up because I couldn't find my way and was starting to get a little nervous. She agreed and within 5 minutes, I was cozy in my bed. Then came another email that my camper had been booked AGAIN. Another, very frustrated, $.20/min phone call to Airbnb finally got the dates closed. I didn't manage to get any sleep before waking up at 4:30 so I could catch the 6:05 ferry. By 6:40, I was on land in Mo'orea and hugging Brian, who had picked me up and would take me to the private island for the day before we had to drop off Brad and Nikki to catch their ferry back to Tahiti. We pulled up to a nice resort with a gorgeous beach where a kayak was waiting. We paddled across the short waterway looking down on purple coral, stunning tropical fish, and even a sting ray, to paradise, and I immediately got into my bathing suit. It was such a cool spot, surrounded by reef and so much variety of sea creatures, but the water was warm and still and perfectly clear.
Brian and I decided to take a walk around the entire island and then I spent the day playing in the water before relaxing in the house while everybody packed up.
We dropped them off for the ferry and then had lunch at a little spot before driving around Mo'orea and taking in some of the scenic spots.
We grabbed some groceries and then met the host of our next place to get settled in. Brian got some coconuts off of a tree in the yard and cracked them open and then we spent all evening on the deck overlooking the bay and watching geckos catch bugs.
The next morning, we made breakfast, enjoyed coffee on the deck and then made our way down to the private beach that came with the vacation rental. Just down the driveway was a little wooden gate that we unlocked and then another 20 yards to beautiful soft sand and palm trees. It just happened to be located between the admin buildings for the police station and a hotel and there wasn't a soul around. I was super happy that it's perfectly acceptable to be topless there, so even when people were out on the patio of the police station, nobody even cared that I was working on the perfect, line-less tan. Eventually, a giant cruise ship pulled into the bay and we just sat in the sand and watched the tender boats take people back and forth. Even though it was right there, it was far enough that we couldn't see or hear anything. There weren't jet skis or party boats or kids screaming and swimming, it was just so quiet and peaceful. We eventually walked up to a pizza spot where we ordered a pizza to go (for dinner later) and sat at the bar for a pineapple, chocolate, and whipped cream pizza. Then, it was back to the beach for me and Brian took the pizza up to the house and took a nap. Again, the evening was spent on the deck watching the sun set and geckos.
Our final day on Mo'orea, we awoke to a beautiful rainstorm...the clouds are just absolutely perfect along with the sharp green mountains. We made breakfast and ate on the deck and enjoyed the cool breeze. Another massive sailboat pulled into the bay, so we Googled it and found out that it's $15,000 per person for a 5-night cruise on that particular vessel. I was happy to have my little private cottage with it's little private beach.
Once it cleared out a bit, it was back to the beach for me while Brian stayed behind and packed up the house. We returned the rental car (btw, gas on Mo'orea is $14/liter if that's any indication of the costs we were dealing with while there) caught the ferry back to Tahiti, grabbed pizza and chicken wings and cheesecake and then checked in to a hotel across from the airport for the night before catching one of the best flights I've ever been on.
I'm so glad that I got to go, even if it was just for couple of days.