A little layover in Tahiti

My friend, Florence and I, had been talking about traveling together for awhiles. She's taking a year off and I have my odd winter break so we started brain storming. A special flight deal to New Zealand came up with a 4 day layover in Tahiti at a resort so we went for it.

Turns out I kept forgetting that I was going to Tahiti, even as I was packing. I was so focused on New Zealand and Tahiti was never on my to-see list. I actually packed for this trip about 3 weeks ago (what?!) because I was in the bay area with the family for Christmas for a week then directly road tripped via Las Vegas to New Mexico for a week and a half. I was in snow on Tuesday in NM, rain in LA for 24 hours on Wednesday and then this on Thursday ...

Tahiti!
View of Moorea from our resort (yes, resort!)

This was the first time at a resort for both of us. New territory! We made a concerted effort to not do anything. It was hard at first, but I think we got the hang of it. Here was our "itinerary".

Day 1: Chill and two grocery store runs

Day 2: Chill. Did not leave resort

Day 3: 1 grocery store run. 1 SCUBA dive

Day 4: Chill. Did not leave resort.

We were thrilled when we found the local grocery store and even more excited to find out we had a kitchen.

French baguettes for 53 cents! 

Local dish, Poisson Cru, which is raw fish with coconut milk.
Sashimi was excellent and cheap.

We even found a rotisserie chicken ($16 for an extra-large one) but it was a miraculous chicken that fed us for 4 days and 4 nights. We made chicken with ramen noodles and bok choy, chicken sandwiches and jook. Too bad the cleaning lady threw out our coveted sauce in this magical bag. On the flip side, we learned that they wash your dishes.

The one and only activity we did in all of our time was one SCUBA dive with Eleuthera Plongee. Decent dive shop and definitely worth it.

Me at the shipwreck 25 meters down.
My first SCUBA pic and 6th dive

Plane wreck 13 meters down

Otherwise, we just chilled in the room or by the pool. I read my 3 National Geographics from 2012. Yes, that's how far behind I am apparently. With ok internet, I got some blotchy skype in. Unfortunately, I also got work to do so I was productive in that sense. But I can't complain because I also researched and booked my next vacation to Honduras while sitting in my Tahiti resort.

I'm starting to understand more the appeal of the resort vacation. Not too shabby. But this part is over and tomorrow we are off to New Zealand where we probably won't be able to maintain the chillness of Tahiti, but we'll try to not go crazy.