IA ORANA
Or hello in Tahitian!
Let's start by a small bonus of Moorea with the emblematic Tipaniers beaches.
DRONE REPORT!
And yes I have a drone, but I haven't reported a flight with it yet!
Renting a boat was a bit complicated, the lagoon is sometimes shallow and I was often afraid of getting too close to corals, even when respecting the channel markers.
It feels like a pirate movie, but the sharks and rays here circle us more out of habit - it's a known spot where a few snacks often fall for them - than out of interest in human flesh!
We stayed at the Ibiscus Hotel, which had an OK exterior but the interior was very 90s, and all in al little value for money. We had booked "only" in January, and as we will see in Fakarava, we had to make do with what "is left".
An American family comes to sit next to us, and there I hear the rather crazy exchange between the waitress and them.
"well no I'm not going to serve you 4 cheeseburgers, you choose something else from the menu"
"I'm not going to come to your place and order raw fish with coconut milk"
another notable thing: the waitress was transgender (Rae Rae), which is usual in Polynesian society
One of the tourist attractions of Moorea is the Tiki Village, which puts on performances twice a week to showcase the oral and local culture…
Like the buried oven, some songs and dances.
A quick word, Polynesians like to eat well and in quantity, so we can only get along well!
Flight routing
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No miles or status points accumulated with this flight, Air Tahiti is not part of one of the 3 known alliances.
The journey will be made in a latest generation ATR72-600 with 68 seats, a little more generous than the usual 72 seats on this type of aircraft.
You will notice that the last three left rows have a more generous pitch.
AT MOOREA - TEMAE AIRPORT
Like many airports in Polynesia, the airport is open, the outside temperature is stable all year round.
The check-in is particularly long, this time the ground staff is quite annoying compared to the other people we have seen so far. She charges for each additional kilogram and makes sure that all hand luggage does not weigh more than 5Kg.
Our boarding pass
The airport even has a small garden that is free to walk around.
The only boarding gate, hard to be lost!
As usual, boarding begins without any priority, so there is always a good third of pax who rush to the door to hope to choose their seat to be on the right side, even though many have not had the idea o check on FR24 on which side of the runway the plane landed.
In the distance it is not a mountain but Tahiti, the two islands are close.
ONBOARD THE ATR72
Aircraft : ATR72-600
Tail Number: F-ORVS
Engines: 2x PWV WP127
Age:10 years old
Lay out: Y68
Named: Heireva
No pushback in ATR72, the captain starts the engines and off we go.
Take off!
Rotui Mountain (which gave its name to the fruit juice brand) and Cook Bay in the background.
Last look on the island of Moorea
The service is very quickly offered, with only fruit juice of the same brand, I can't find a photo.
The clouds start to arrive without too much turbulence… The flight is not full which allows us to quickly go to the other side of the cabin and see Huahine.
We are approaching Raiatea and Tahaa on the left of the aircraft.
My usual inflight magazine review - quite rare since covid to be able to collect magazines!
We don't really realize it, but Polynesia is as large as Europe, which explains the 3 hours+ to reach the Marquesas, as if we had gone to the Baltic Sea from Paris!
An article on traditional dances seen at the Tiki village
And my favorite avgeek page
On final approach
Even under the gray skies, the lagoon is superb!
Proof that Tahaa and Raiatea were indeed one and the same island.
AT RAIATEA - UTUROA AIRPORT
The airport is still very small but it seems to have been renovated recently.
An ATR chartered by Amélia on wet lease for Air Tahiti to meet strong demand, Air Tahiti's 9 ATRs are sometimes insufficient. The aircraft had come all the way from mainland France through Asia a few weeks before.
The arrivals hall is shared with the departures/check-in hall where the stands of the main hotels are positioned.
Ours is no exception and we are greeted with smiles and flower necklaces.
While waiting for the shuttle to take us to our hotel, I do a bit of spotting.
L'aéroport est bien entretenu, et bien fleuri on le voit bien.
There is even a small garden and an ornamental pond.
The really nice thing is that you can of course reach the airport by road but especially by boat, from where we will leave for our hotel which has its own private island - a motu.
Air Tahiti's Atr is already taking off again
And we leave on board our shuttle, for a little 30-minute trip on the lagoon.
HOTEL BONUS
We stayed at the Taa'a, a pearl & resorts hotel of the relais et château group. We can say that we had a great time and one of the signs that don't lie here is that by default the hotel staff speaks English first before French or Tahitian and the French speakers were in the minority on board the boat.
The arrival is breathtaking.
I'll show you a little more in the next episode!
OMG it looks so amazing! And the sharks look so graceful and beautiful, but I wouldn't want to go swimming with them, personally. I didn't know there were over-water bungalows anywhere else besides Bora Bora. Good to know!
Thanks for sharing!
Hey mate thanks for the comment!
Yes it is scary at first but it is so funny they behave a bit like stray cats... good luck to pet one ahha
are you planning something now? ehhe