What time is it there?!

According to a couple of the guidebooks Tahiti and the surrounding islands are the ‘most expensive corner of the Pacific islands’. It certainly isn’t cheap here, with most prices for hotels, food and drink similar to the UK. The other tip we picked up from the guidebooks was not to stay on Tahiti, so we took the short ferry journey to the neighbouring island of Moorea.

‘Public Transport’ on Moorea consists of two buses that meet the ferries. These buses then head off in opposite directions around the island, meet up on the other side, and then head back to meet the next ferry. The entire road around the island is only 60km, so there isn’t too much chance of getting lost. Unfortunately we hadn’t quite figured out the transport system when we arrived, so we had to wait at the dock until the buses returned to meet the next ferry 90 minutes later. We could have got a taxi, but after the price we’d paid for the taxi from the airport we decided to wait in the shade and read a book for a while instead.

TIP: When getting off the ferry on Moorea follow the scrum of local people heading for the buses. Ignore the bright, shiny yellow tour company buses and seek out the two ropey old buses that have definitely seen better days. Tell the driver where you are staying and he will tell you which of the two buses to get on. The fare is 300 Francs (about £1.80) to anywhere on the bus route, rather than the 700+ Francs that the tour buses charge. Only one of the buses seems to have luggage storage below, but this does seem to be the one that heads in the direction of most of the hotels!

The tourist industry on Moorea seems to be suffering at the moment, there seem to be several hotels that are either closed down or being renovated (and may or may not re-open). We assume this must be related to people being worried about flying, as you can’t get here from ANYWHERE without a fair old flight.

Our hotel also seems to have recently changed hands, and although there is some work going on it isn’t really getting in the way (we’re talking about laid back Tahitians replacing a few wooden boards rather than the mass construction you might stumble across in Spain!). Most of the people who are on Moorea seem to be staying at the two big resorts (Intercontinental and Sheraton), which is a shame really because if they came here to ‘get away from it all’ they would have been better off in our hotel, rather than sharing the Sheraton with 150 other honeymooning couples!