Tahiti

Can't even maintain their jetties around here. Tsk

Okey doke, we're presently in New Zealand.  There's not been any updates recently as you and I are waiting for Chantelle to write about Easter Island.   So I'll jump ahead and write about all the staggering nothing we did in Tahiti afterwards.  She'll catch up in a couple of weeks or so.  I did replace the stock image at the top of the blog with an Easter Island picture of my own though, so that's nice.  Not that you lot noticed 

Just awful

We got off the plane at 2am to be greeted by these stalwart local representatives from the tourist board.  It was a bit odd to breeze in on an EU passport though.

Bonjour

It turns out I'm as adept at gesticulating my way through French as I am in Spanish.  It's a knack. 

I'd avoided getting a haircut through all of South America, with the intention of waiting until New Zealand, but it was an untenable situation - my mop was becoming sentient and raiding the minibar while I slept.  Anyway, 'twas resolved by a local barber with minimal misunderstanding and with both ears intact.

Godawful

Anyhow, we spent four nights in a resort doing next to bugger all aside from sitting by the pool and snorkeling.  We  did manage to test the waterproof capabilities of Chan's phone (Sony Xperia Z - advertised as IP67; adverts feature underwater photos being taken) to destruction, which thus far has been fine with being taken in the bath etc.  Apparently the sea does bad things to rubber seals and the phone dropped dead right as I was taking some awesome photos of some coral and trigger fish. Oops.

We gritted our teeth and bore it

Otherwise, it was no hardship here.  It was expensive as hell though, regardless of where you ate, drank or shopped.  The insistence on using products flown in from France (Carrefours abound) can't help.

We popped into town briefly to see what there is of Papeete, which doesn't take long.    Here's some more photos:

So that was a pleasant, if uneventful stop.  If we were on a specific trip here, rather than on the way to New Zealand, we'd see the other islands and pick up a jetski or something.  As it was, we caught our breath in preparation for the next big road trip.

Kurzfassung auf Deutsch:  Wir haben Tahiti besucht. Es war sehr schoen aber wir haben nur ein wenig gemacht. Das geht weil wir entspannen und bereiten für unsere nächste große Straße Reise in Neuseeland konnten.