Tahiti - Snorkelling

We booked ourselves on an all day picnic and snorkelling tour on one of the days.
This involved getting picked up from the resort by boat, taken out to a fish feeding area, snorkelling and watching the fish and 5 foot long black fin tip sharks. The water is as clear as you see in the pictures, I have seen swimming pools murkier than this before!
We then got taken to feed some sting rays and finished up spending the afternoon on a quiet island, soaking in the sun, snorkelling some more and having a BBQ. It was a great day out.

Below are oddles of pictures showing you everything we got up too.....

This magnificant ship was moored in one of the bays. You stay on it and travel round all the islands.

Start of the fish as they began getting fed.

Steve being braver than me, and actually getting in the water, which was so warm, to watch the fish.

They secured a rope from the boat, and you stayed on one side of the rope and the fish and sharks were fed on the other side.

Just a small picture of one of the creatures we got to see up close and personal.

Yes, I finally got in the water to watch the amazing view. It is so many years since I had done any snorkelling, it took a while to get your breathing right and to actually enjoy it. But it was like looking through clear glass at them.

Had to put this shot in just to show you the pure colour of the water. You can see how far out from land we were and it was just awesome.

The boat driver and leader of the tour is in the water surrounded by sting ray. Unfortunately I was never brave enough to get in the water with the rays, but Steve said they were all slimey.

Tahiti - Crabs

Whilst walking along the road on Moorea we kept seeing things move just out of the corner of our eye.

There were loads of holes in the dirty along the road and Steve had commented as to where they came from.

So there we were one morning walking along and if you were quick enough you saw the crabs move!

And we are not talking one or two here, loads of them. Lots of different sizes too.

They all sat out in the sun and very quickly dissappeared down their holes when ever someone walked past. Sometimes they would hesitate at the top of the hole, as you can see in the pictures, just in case they were in no danger and didn't have to go down.

The side of the road had lots of bushes and in one place it was like the whole bush area was moving as you walked past because you just caught all the crabs moving down their holes as we walked past.

Tahiti

Tahiti, for those of you that don't know, is part of the French Polynesian.

It is probably the last place on the world to change to the next day, it is right next to the date line.
It is an old place, that struck me as dirty and in much need of some TLC.

Moorea is one of the islands and is well set up as a honeymoon destination. There is really nothing for families to do on the island unless your children are a lot bigger and are prepared to sit around the pool all day long or are capable of swimming and snorkelling in the sea.
Tahiti is very expensive, there are currently 50FPFrancs to $1NZ or 75FPF to $1US. So if you are ever going to go there then make sure you have a very good package deal set before you get there, will save you a lot of money. We luckily had breakfast and dinner included so only had to find lunch each day.
Our package included 1 night in Papetee, then transfers by ferry to the island. 5 nights on the island at the Moorea Pearl Resort & Spa and then the transfers back to Papetee with another night there before our early morning flight home.
Both hotels/resorts that we stayed in were lovely, although the one on Moorea was the better place.

This is our first hotel room, very simple yet so attractive.

The hotel looked out over the water to Moorea in the distance.

What amazed me, was the fact that the weather is so paradise pacific the whole time, then there are no walls on the restaurant or the reception areas in the hotel. The above picture shows you the restaurant looking out over the wonderful lagoon pool and there are no walls.

This shows you the garden area around our room in the resort on the island. Beautiful

Home

Yep that is right, we are now home from our honeymoon.

We didn't want to come home, but are so happy to be here with our 2 little munchkins.

I really enjoyed my week away from them, didn't actually miss them that much, but on the other hand I missed them loads.

It was lovely to have days to myself and not have someone constantly going "Mummy, I need, or Mummy I want?!"

I was fine with being away from them until the last night, when whilst sat in the hotel restaurant having dinner, I noticed a lady with a young boy, he must have been about 4 or 5 and all he wanted to do was go to sleep, it was about 7.30pm.

As I turned and looked over at this scene my heart went crazy.

All I could think about was how just only a week before I had been sat in that exact same position during our wedding reception trying to eat my dinner whilst Alex slept on my lap!

At that point I was so glad we were getting on the plane to come home the next morning.

The flights home were the longest ever when your heart hurts, especially the short 25 minute flight from Auckland to Hamilton that got delayed for a while and then seemed to take ages to take off.

When we finally landed I think I was running across the tarmac to get into the building to see the boys.

There they were stood with Grandma, waiting patiently.

Ben turned and saw me and ran and I just ran to him, picked him up in the biggest hug ever and cried.

Cried because I was so happy to hug them both, because I was tired from travelling and because I get emotional when I travel home from holidays etc.

It actually ended with me kneeling on the airport floor hugging both of them and I could see all the ladies standing around smiling and watching their hearts break with the knowing feeling of what I was going through hugging my boys after being away.

Tahiti was wonderful and we have loads of pictures and stories to share.

So I will get myself organised and over the next few days share with you our experience of honeymooning on Moorea, an island of Tahiti.

Glad to be back,

Tahiti Here We Come

Today we leave New Zealand and depart for our 7 day honeymoon in Tahiti.

Winging our way with Air Tahiti Nui we will ahve a lovely 6 hour flight.

White sands, nice temperatures oh and no boys for 7 nights.

Sheer bliss I say.

Wedding Countdown

2 weeks until our wedding and our honeymoon in Taihiti

Honeymoon

Yes Steve and I are going on a honeymoon in September when we get married.

The whole plan was that we would, as a family, go to Dubai where my parents currently are. This was organised last November by Steve and my father, part of that other story about my engagement that I still need to tell you!
So since we got engaged the wedding has been planned around us having our honeymoon in Dubai in September, thus the reason we chose a September wedding, get married the week before we go to Dubai, simple really.
Anyway, this last week there have been a few developments shall I say and sadly Dubai is now not a happening thing. Several different factors leading to situation that can not be changed and therefore not the wises thing to do.

So my parents solution to it is that my mum will now have the boys for a week here in our house and Steve and I will go away for a whole week by ourselves!
Yes you heard right...A WHOLE WEEK BY OURSELVES

I never dreamed I would get a proper honeymoon, well, not that I wouldn't have a honeymoon, but you know, with having the boys I always presumed that where ever we went they would come too, part of the joy of doing everything backwards!
I always imagined that we would be one of those couples that had a second honeymoon when the boys were older and we would say at the time that it was because they had come with us on our first one.

"So where are we going?" I can hear you all ask...

Well we thought of Australia, seeing as it is just a hop skip and a jump across the water, but then thought we ought to go somewhere a little more romantic and exotic so would you believe we are going to Tahiti, to one of the islands in the French Polynesian Region.
It is a dream honeymoon, golden white beaches, crystal blue clear water, hot sun, quaint little rooms amongst the gardens of the resort, I could go on and on....

So the boys will stay here, Ben will have started school by then, so he will be out all week, Alex will still be at Daycare 2 days during the week, so mum will have a quite an easy week actually, at least 2 full days to herself. So I think it will all go well.