Salut!
I’m very tired now, which is weird ‘cos it hasn’t really been a long day at all. But it feels like it!
Was out and about at 11:30, I went straight to the ‘best’ beach, which is 18km from Pape’ete – was talking to a guy last night who said that the nearest beach is a couple of k’s in the opposite direction so will venture that way sometime soon 😃 But went swimming and it was gorgeous! But the wind was unpleasant- it was great for the kite surfers which were amazing to watch, but it was cold when you were in the wind. So wasn’t there long, maybe half an hour – definitely will find a closer beach and try that again!
Then went to the water gardens, which were lovely – I have plant pics for you Mum which I’ve finally figured out how to get to you 😃 The gardens aren’t big, but they’re really nicely designed.
You’ll need to blow the pics to get the sign details – Sera, there’s a whole lot of signs on the death legends in here too – very much like the Maori, but fascinatingly different. I wish I’d been there at that split.
I tried for the Gauguin museum but it was definitely closed darn it, and then decided to do the full circuit, except the little sticky out bit at the bottom, will try and do that bit before I go 😏
I stopped every so often and took lots of pics and stopped to get a sprite ‘cos I forgot to bring my water with me and I was seriously dying of thirst!
And it was just amazing, the difference in seeing it in real life as opposed to the tourist shots which I am attaching to this missive is really astounding. I’m so buggered now though that I’m going to let the pictures speak for me! I’ve got one in there of the fish in stream below my balcony.
Traffic coming back into town was astoundingly bad – actually worse than Auckland traffic. Mostly ‘cos it was one lane. Though fortunately for me they were all going out of town as I was coming in – made the looking left at the roundabout really easy! But I noticed on the crater tour home, even the three lane traffic was at a stop – nobody who works in Pape’ete lives in Pape’ete (well who can afford to?!) so they all leave at close of business. Thousands of them. Probably low thousands, but still many more than is ideal. And presumably the opposite direction in the morning but I really tried not to be that observant at that time of day.
Moorea tomorrow I think, depending on how early I get to the ferry 😃
XXX
weirdly in this pic I look more like Uncle Dave than I’m comfortable with – never realised a resemblance before this 😁
BlueKahu 