It’s been a while since we’ve updated the blog largely due to the fact that you have to sign a form when you arrive in Tahiti saying you will spend a minimum of 8 hours a day relaxing and not doing anything remotely taxing. Or something like that.

Anyway, we arrived in Tahiti in the small hours of the morning and immediately got a taste of how expensive it was by having to pay £30 for a 10 minute taxi ride to our hotel. The hotel itself was a bit too resort-y for my liking but it did have a few perks like the largest infinity pool on the island and free shows in the evenings. We also managed to get a room with a kitchen so on our first full day there, we didn’t copy everyone else and laze on the beach, we went to Carrefour. It was here with huge counters of cheese, the fact that you could only buy garlic a dozen cloves at a time and boxes of wine were cheaper than water that it first became clear how French Tahiti was. But we took full advantage of the huge supermarket and stocked up on food to last us the next 2 weeks as eating out was sadly beyond our budget.

We stayed 3 nights at the resort hotel and enjoyed the fire shows and singing and dancing performances in the evening then we took a ferry to Moorea, an island off the coast. Unfortunately Claire managed to leave her handbag on the ferry which took the number of cameras we’ve got through on this trip to 3.

On Moorea we stayed in rustic log cabins, hand built by an American ex-pat carpenter. We were 5 minutes walk away from the shore and 30 minutes from the nearest beach. The scenery was spectacular with the land rising sharply out of the sea to jagged peaks covered in tropical vegetation. There were colourful flowers everywhere and banana and coconut trees dotted the coast. We stayed 4 nights there and then moved round the coast to a villa on the beach in Opunohu Bay where Captain Cook landed 300 years ago. A reef surrounds the island and we spent many a happy hour snorkelling and admiring the multi-coloured fish. Rays and dolphins apparently sometimes enter the bay but annoyingly they hid from us.

It was around this time that we started to get worried that we might not have enough food to last us but luckily for us, the people in the next villa were going home and offered us all their leftovers so for the last few days we dined like kings with fresh tuna, a whole chicken and prawns amongst other things. Although we’ve eaten these things at various points in restaurants over the past few months, it was the first time we’d cooked with them. And it was amazing.

Apart from enjoying the sun during the day and falling asleep to the sound waves lapping on the shore, we didn’t really do much. But the time flew by and although we considered not confirming our flights and just seeing what happened, Claire was too excited at the prospect of seeing Kate in New Zealand. And that is where we are now. More to come in due course…