Letters from the South Pacific • July 28, 2021
July 28, 2021 was a day mostly missed, at least by me. The overnight flight (just under eight hours) was mostly enjoyed by sleeping passengers…all except me. Try as I might, I could not get comfortable or sleepy. I dozed a little but not much, so when we arrived in Tahiti, I was largely a sleep deprived zombie operating on autopilot. Once off the plane, we were shepherded into an arrival area, complete with bright lights and a trio singing traditional Polynesian music. It was lovely, It was loud. Obviously these folks have been doing the tourism thing for a long time.…
Although the steps through immigration were a bit of a blur, they were complicated by, guess what? A COVID test! everyone had to take a COVID test prior to clearing customs. Fortunately, no one in our group failed the test, and so we were set free into the waiting arms of all the tour companies, travel agents and others welcoming friends, family and visitors to the islands. We received our leis, boarded the van to take us to the ferry (our first week is on Moorea, which is only accessible by boat, and found ourselves at the dock at a little before 6am. Everything was closed and no one was there to greet us.
Under normal circumstances, I would have just brushed off. But as a sleep deprived zombie, it was more than I could take. Our van driver tried to help. He said that because we were early, there would be no one to meet us at Moorea, and so we should wait for the next ferry…in two hours. So, we waited until someone arrived to open the ferry office, left our luggage there, and went upstairs in search of something to drink, and a bathroom.
Two hours later, we boarded the ferry, after double checking to make sure our luggage made it aboard, and headed off to Moorea. The sun was just coming up and it was breathtaking. Worth all the worry, and the stress.