Iain Plank

A Feeling of Dejá Vu
Monday 27th March 2000 will go down as a very special day in my life. Why ? Because it’s the only day, so far, that I’ve lived twice !! I left Fiji at 7am on Monday 27th March and eventually landed in Tahiti at 11:30pm on Sunday 26th March – a good 7.5 hours before I’d left ! What’s more, is that I’d had a full day exploring Auckland. So the 27th wasn’t simply theoretical – I did actually have it.

My second Monday 27th March started at Faaa International Airport on the French Polynesian Island of Tahiti with myself and countless other backpackers sleeping on the floor of the main concourse of the airport. For some reason all international flights to and from Tahiti, tend to arrive and depart in the middle of the night, but services, such as: banks, public transport, tourist info etc. only run during the day ! So, unless you happen to be a ‘proper’ tourist and get collected by your resort, then the airport floor has to make do as your bed for the night. That said, no-one seemed to care and it seems to be the standard backpacker introduction to Polynesia.

French Polynesia
French Polynesia is separated into 5 groups of islands: the Societies, the Tuamotus, the Marquesas, the Gambiers and the Australs.
Most of these groups are rather remote from Tahiti (in the Society Islands) and as I only had 18 days I decided to do a mini tour of the Society Islands. For a long time I’d heard about an island paradise called Bora Bora and decided to make it my birthday island. If you have to have your birthday somewhere then why not on one of the most beautiful islands in the world !! Life’s a real bitch sometimes !!

Several things strike you almost as soon as you arrive in Polynesia:

• Firstly, that the women are absolutely stunning !! (I’m sure that the men are too….)
• Secondly, that almost nobody speaks English. Please don’t misunderstand me; I don’t mean that from a perspective that everyone should speak English (that view couldn’t be further from the truth) but simply from the observation that in tourist areas they generally do and it was noticeable that in Polynesia they generally don’t. Just an observation.
• Thirdly are the prices. The expression: “How Much ??!!” is heard countless times in the first few days here. Although there is no real direct tax, indirect tax and import tax are very high in order, in part, to support the overpaid French civil-servants that there are. That, and the fact that many goods, instead of being imported from other countries in the area, are shipped all the way from France (?!) means that prices are some of the highest I’ve encountered
  traveling so far.
• Lastly, French Baguettes !! It seemed strange being so far from Europe but with fantastic French bread!

Monday 27th March – Take Two
After finally being able to get some money from the bank (it’s the only place in the world so far where my Cirrus card hasn’t worked !! God, what a whinger !!) it was time to work out how to get around the Society Islands.
Apparently, there used to be 2 ferries: a slow one and a fast one. The fast one put the slow one out of business and then subsequently broke down and has never been fixed. I discovered this when I found the ferry office and asked when it would next be leaving and they nonchalantly said “Not sure, maybe May !” – Ask a silly question….
Thank God for the Lonely Planet – at least it makes good toilet paper !! That said, I wasn’t sure that I really wanted to travel on a ferry called the “Ono Ono” anyway….sounds a bit too much like: “Oh no! Oh no!”

Apart from flying, which was a tad expensive, there was another alternative….cargo ship !!
I was by now traveling with a German girl called Mattea (Hi Mattea) and when we arrived at 5 o’clock for the ferry we found the “Deck Passenger” room to be light, airy and complete with mattresses on the floor. Better than we’d expected !! We’d just made ourselves comfortable (it was going to be a 16hr trip) when we were then told that the mattresses were already reserved and that we’d have to go to the “other” passenger area…. Now I don’t know if you’ve ever slept in the cargo hold of a ship, probably not, but I can tell you that it’s one of those experiences that will stay with you for a long time. The floor was simply covered with plastic sheeting and the feeling when the heavy metal cargo doors close above you with an almighty “BANG”, cutting out all natural light, is a tad off-putting to say the least – A few shackles here and there and it could have been a slave ship. That said, it could have been worse: the sea was calm and we were able to sit up on deck in the evening and only went down into the hold to sleep.

Bora Bora
The next morning we awoke after a surprisingly good nights sleep – so good in fact that someone had managed to steal Mattea’s camera without either of us noticing !!
Bora Bora has a reputation of being one of the most beautiful islands in the world and to be honest it’s well deserved (see the photo gallery). A quick geology lesson…
Bora Bora is what is known as a “High Island” with a central, once volcanic, island around which has formed a barrier reef enclosing a shallow lagoon. Over time, this barrier reef has broken the surface forming smaller islands or Motus’. As the process continues, the central island is eroded and finally disappears leaving just the surrounding motus’. It is then known as an Atoll.

Bora Bora is, without question, simply stunning with many exclusive resorts and visiting cruise ships. It’s hard to explain, and of course there are always exceptions, but the ‘feel’ of the island is very touristy, and the locals although polite enough, aren’t warm. The tourist dollar does seem to take precedence.

Bora Bora was the inspiration for the 50’s musical “South Pacific” as American GI’s were posted here during WWII and used the island as a supply base. I have a father and sister who are very ‘into’ musicals and played them continuously throughout my formative years. This has led to me having the extremely dubious distinction of being able to recite almost any song of any musical at the drop of a hat ! One day, as I was cycling around the island feeling extremely lucky to be alive (my appreciation of life has increased dramatically over the past year), all I could think about was a song from South Pacific called “Happy Talk”. It goes like this:

It may sound a bit sentimental but I realised that here I was, on a beautiful day, cycling around one of the most beautiful islands in the world because I’d followed a dream – it had come true. Dreams don’t have to be big but you do have to have them, otherwise they’ll never come true !! Just a thought.

Maupiti
Whilst in Bora Bora I took the opportunity to visit the high island of Maupiti which is a 2 hour boat ride from Bora Bora. It is absolutely stunning, the people were lovely and there isn’t a single tourist resort. You can walk around the island in a couple of hours and even climb the hill above the village for some amazing views of the reef and lagoon. Apparently it’s how Bora Bora was 50 years ago or so….food for thought.

“Happy Birthday to me” and Huahine
At 12:20am on the 2nd of April 1969 I made my appearance on the stage of life. (I will always be eternally grateful to my mother for holding on those extra 20 minutes!!). Now, exactly 31 years later, it was time to celebrate again. So for my birthday I bought myself a plane ticket to the Huahine so that I could see the islands from the air. The 15 minutes of the flight were stunning !!
My birthday was actually very quiet as I didn’t know anyone on Huahine. I hardly spoke to anyone the whole day and with no telephone or email available it was probably the quietest birthday that I have ever had. That said, I had a good meal (a nice change from 2-minute noodles) and spent the afternoon on a beautiful white sandy beach, sitting under a tree, reading a good book, so it wasn’t all bad !!

I really enjoyed Huahine I think mainly because you got the feeling that it was a
Polynesian island for Polynesians. It was much more relaxed and the people were very friendly and helpful.
We saw some traditional dancing at one of the hotels on the island and believe me, what the women can do with their hips is one of the most erotic things you’ll ever see. No wonder the early missionaries banned the traditional dancing when they arrived !!
I stayed there 6 days in the end, relaxing, writing, cycling, diving etc – it was great.

Moorea
My next island was Moorea. To get there though I had to get another cargo ship back to Tahiti and then a ferry to Moorea.
This cargo ship was a bit different from the first. It was actually nicer, as a ship, and the passenger area was an outside area, covered by tarpaulin and with a wooden slatted floor, high up at the back of the ship. The journey, though, was unbelievable. The wind blew a gale and the ship pitched and rolled for most of the night. Unfortunately, the wooden floor was painted with gloss paint and that, linked to the polyester of my sleeping bag, meant that with every heavy roll of the ship you found yourself hurtling at full speed across the floor towards the other side of the deck and then back again !! The only solution was to ‘sleep’ with one arm within reach of the surrounding rail and then to hold on for dear life every time the ship rolled. It was a long 13 hours !!

Moorea was beautiful !! If you’ve ever seen the film: “Mutiny on the Bounty” with Mel Gibson, then it’s the island that was used for that. Again, a lot of time was spent relaxing, writing, snorkeling and scootering around the island.

Actually, I was suffering a bit of a downer on Moorea. It happens every once in a while and is to be expected I guess. I think that it was a mixture of being gone almost a year; my birthday (another year older); uncertainty about South America; and Manoj calling it a day and going back to the UK – for those that don’t know Manoj is the guy that I originally started traveling with and, although we hadn’t travelled together for over 10 months, there was a kind of security in knowing that someone else was doing the same thing. It was the usual: What am I doing ? What about the future ? How much longer do I travel ?
What will happen in South America ? Missing friends and family etc

One thing that I did decide was not to fly to Buenos Aires. I was supposed to fly to Santiago and then the next day to continue to BA. For some reason, though, my gut feeling said to stay in Santiago and to forget the flight to BA – my round the world ticket expired 2 days later anyway so it didn’t make much difference. Don’t ask me why, it just felt right.
Actually, after deciding that and meeting others going to South America my mood and indecision lifted completely and my passion for traveling returned in a way that I haven’t felt for a while. I just couldn’t wait to get there !!

The time came soon enough and soon I sitting on the airport floor in Tahiti for 7 hours waiting for my plane. It was as if I’d never left !

Easter Island
I’ve always wanted to go to Easter Island, it’s just one of those fascinating places. Unfortunately my round the ticket wouldn’t let me. Ironically, we had to have a refueling stop there on our way from Tahiti to Santiago, we just wasn’t allowed to leave the airport !! So yes, I’ve been there, seen it but haven’t done anything !!

A New Continent
After the long flight from Tahiti we arrived in Santiago, Chile. What a shock !!! I’ve spent the last year in hot, sunny climates and as we approached Santiago it was dark, cold, wet and foggy, a dark, dank autumnal evening…….but that’s for next time.

Take Care,
Iain