greetings from Moorea EDITED (with spaces added)

Sorry folks, it's been too long....
I managed to get a sunburn today, snorkling off the beach here at our hotel. This is our fourth spot since we got to French Polynesia--and let me tell you, it is VERY French here! I'm really enjoying saying 'bonjour'. Farang again!
Our first night was just a stopover in poor ugly Papaeete, Tahiti's only real city. We were handed flowers, coming off the airplane, by two beautiful Polynesian women, while being serenaded by 3 more Polynesian men playing guitar and ukelele. Our best welcome. And the guesthouse had a taxi driver there waiting to pick us up!
We had a nasty shock the next morning when we went to open our new big suitcase and discovered we'd grabbed the wrong one! We had Marie Antoinette's big bag and our's was at the airport. Somehow we managed to set it straight and still catch the ferry over to Moorea, thanks to the taxi driver--the airport was all closed down and she had to speak rapid fire French through a little speaker to get us in.
Next was a quick ferry ride over to Moorea. We stayed at the Residence Linareva for two nights in a lovely bungalow right on the 'beach'. We were greeted with coconuts to drink and eat which staved off starvation till I could bicycle over to the little store for provisions. On the way to the store I think I must have stopped 12 times to take photos of the gorgeous mountains, all jagged and powerful.
The Linareva was pretty nice. The only real drawback was the 'beach' which did in fact have sand--probably shipped in, but only to the water's edge. After that it was rocks or coral, so no swimming from the beach. Sand castles only. Instead it has a resturaunt in an old ship on the end of a pier (which was too expensive to take the kids to!) and we could go snorkling off the pier which was cool. Too cool actually. I didn't realize that Tahiti has seasons! Yes it was Winter there and for some reason the weather has been much much cooler than usual. It never got hot. It never got cold either, but was barely warm enough to go in the water except midday. The water is much cooler than I expected. Rather disappointing actually. Oh well.
We enjoyed watching the fish from the pier and did a wee bit of snorkling, but were actually happy to be moving on.
TheVillage Faimano is a family run 'pension' with little bungalows, and much more of a polynesian experience than any hotel--which was mostly good. There was a big Polynesian family right next door and they played all day on the beach and were a joy to watch. Except that they had a truck on the other side of the fench, about 5 feet from our bungalow and played the radio in it all day. Just that first day. But it freaked us out and it took quite a while for the magic of the place to reach us. Also, it was a really funky little bungalow, very small with no way to close out the mosquitoes, of which there were many at dusk and dawn. We hadn't been there 5 minutes when I had two big bites on my leg.
Actually, the place had no real windows at all, with glass I mean, just plywood 'windows' we'd prop up with notched sticks. There were holes in the plank floor and all the cooking pots were cast aluminum. There were 3 framed photos of handsome Polynesian women, but the glass was covered with fly shit. And the beds were somehow just a bit too small.
It was thatched, as is our fancy bungalow we're in now, and I love thatched roofs. But the thatch came down so low you could only see out when sitting down, which lent the place a claustrophobic quality!
The beach was really nice, just a bit of reef and coral but mostly shallow sandy tourquoise water, so crystal clear you can see all the fish, and there were many. It also had a huge old tree leaning out over the beach and dropping dew and beautiful yellow blossoms all day. That was what finally won me over--the blossoms floating on the still water at sunset.
Of course there were dogs all over, usually flopped on their sides looking dead (just like Bali and Thailand!) and chickens (actually all three places have chickens) and little kids who (sadly for shy little Eden) only spoke French. The Polynesian families next door spent all day in the water. The big mama would sit out there, up to her waist, in a plastic arm chair. Cleaning fish, or hanging out. I'll never forget seeing her friend float out two tall wine glasses, filled with dark red French wine on a little boogie board. Very elegant. We'll have very fond memories of that place, but it was also funky and we decided to bail out after two nights and we landed at a really swanky resort with supposedly the best beach on the island. Strangely enough, it's not that much more expensive, but much much nicer (although the one english keyboard has a broken spacebar which is why this is so hard to read. sorry).
This is the sort of place with two resturaunts and lots of activities on offer, free snorkling equipment, etc...the classical idea of a south seas holiday. And the snorkling today was sublime. I felt I was in a happy and beautiful dream! so many lovely fish, right there at arm's reach. India was my buddy for most of the afternoon and it may be the most fun we've had together for years. maybe ever. They also lay on an incredible breakfast buffet, with French pastiries and an omlette chef right there to take your order. Included in the price! This basically kept us alive, since the resturaunts were SO expensive there was no way in hell I'd take the kids, and no way in hell they'd let us go without them. Bring on the bagettes.
We're existing on what I call the 'bagette diet'. they have excellant French bagettes, delivered to the stores twice a day, and good Fench or NZ butter and French cheese here, yum. And that and chocolate are about all we're eating. Oh, and good NZ apples. It''s like two picnics a day! Lunch and dinner.
Anyway, speaking of NZ, I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to write after Christchurch. We really enjoyed having Kaytea part of our crew. She was so positive and so great with the kids, who we are ready to murder about half the time. We dropped Kaytea off at the rental car place we'd got our car from and she was loading her duffle into a cute little red honda, about to tackle the Northland, and justifiably scared shitless by the horrible Auckland traffic. The rental car fellow, a nice guy from India, assured her she could by-pass it and reach her planned destination in about 45 minutes. Brave Kaytea. The traffic wasn't that bad except that there are no damned road signs and they planned the roads by getting a herd of goats drunk and then building a road wherever the goats went. And of course drivng on the left didn't help. I hope she's okay. Actually she flies home about the same time we do. Maybe we'll see her up there and can wave. On the way, over Krista told the kids maybe we'd see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang out the window. We didn't.
We had some good adventures that last bit in NZ. We stayed in a 'Hobbit Unit', built into the side of a hill with round door and windows. The kids loved it! We got there at night and the round windows were lit up. It was pretty cool. We had the choice of staying in a train car unit or in a big old airplane unit. The fellow who built all this also does some sort of show with trained animals. There were several big black pigs wandering about. one was very very friendly. And a huge 12 year old cow. All set in beautiful countryside near the Waitomo Caves.
I should mention that the 'hobbit' hole looked out over a man made 'lake' lined with tires and laid out in the shape of a figure 8. Apparently folks who come for the 'show' can also rent a jetboat to do laps around the lake. jeezus. That's NZ.
The glowworm caves were indeed awesome as billed. But our hobbit host had sent us out in the dark and rain the night before to a glowworm grove or grotto along the banks of a river. We felt like total fools driving there through pounding rain (which mercifully stopped) and pitch dark. Then stumbling with our dim flashlights he'd provided along a muddy path. But when we finally caught sight of them! I can't explain why, but seeing them was so magical. It was like suddenly seeing into the Faery realm. One of many real high points on this long strange trip. Of which I'll write more when we finally get home. And so sorry not to have pictures in so long. Tahiti may be paradise, but not a cyber-paradise. Sorry.
love to you all
rob