RADISSON PLAZA RESORT TAHITI
 |
| |
 |
MARCH 23TH - 25th 2006 - Auckland - Tahiti - New York
I arrived at the airport at 10am My Daughter had to be in a meeting at work at 11am so she dropped me early. What a laugh. My
flight was delayed 5 hours. Instead of flying out at 1.30pm as expected, ended up finally getting into the air at 6pm. It is a 5 hour
flight to Papeete (Tahiti) and was on an airbus. The flight crew was lovely. Very friendly. I had an aisle seat in a row of 4 and had
3 Swedish people beside me and 2 older German men on my left. They were all very nice to me and by the end of the journey we
had struck up a couple of nice conversations. The 2 German men had on going flights to South America which of course they
missed. I have no idea what happened to them as the last I saw of them they had no place to sleep. Poor guys, but they took it all
in good humor and said it was just the adventure of travel. They actually live in NZ but I knew they were foreign the moment
they spoke.
I was last through immigration and customs which was to become a regular thing in this leg of my travel. From the airport I was
collected by the Tahiti Travel agent and taken to the RADISSON. Wow what a beautiful place. Right on the Beach. By the time I
got settled into my room and I was last again at the registration, but they lovely young man carried my bags right up to my room
and set up the air con and made sure I was comfortable so worth the wait. Anyway I finally got to sleep at 3am just laying there
listening to the waves crash onto the beach, what a wonderful sound. Of course I overslept and when I woke I had no idea what
time check out was because everything was written in French. So I thought to bad I will just go lay on this beautiful beach. I lay
there and paddled in the water for the next 3 hours. Then back to my room to pack up, my shuttle was coming for me at 5.30pm
for my 9pm flight. But getting back to my room I found I was locked out. I was supposed to check out at 11am, but the French guy
at reception after growling at me in such a lovely way in his sexy accent told me he wouldn't’t check me out until 5pm and also
wouldn't’t charge me extra. So I packed my bags and went off down to check out the couple of shops in the hotel. Then my shuttle
arrived 30 minutes early so of course I was early to the airport and ended up sitting on my case waiting to be checked in. It was
such a laid back place, so very casual. Anyway to cut a long wait short I bought myself a black pearl necklace.
Then it was finally time to go through security and wait for boarding. My bags were scanned and it all seemed OK, but the young
security guy wanted to see inside my bag, I knew it had the all clear through the scanner he just wanted to tease me and chat to
me, I growled at him for being so naughty and inquisitive. He just laughed.
Once through immigration and customs I had to get a customs stamp as it was duty free. What a laugh - let me just say that there
were on 36 passengers on the Flight from Tahiti to New York, half of us were waiting for a customs officer to come and stamp our
paperwork, the crew all boarded the plane and we told them as they past us that they would have no passengers as we were all
waiting on our little stamp to claim our duty free.
Finally we set out on our flight. Most people had a whole row of seats to themselves so a very comfy flight. I settled for a window
seat with 2 seats on it, but did not really sleep, had a couple of little naps, and watched 2 videos.
"STORY CONTINUES ON NEW YORK PAGE"
I arrived at the airport at 10am My Daughter had to be in a meeting at work at 11am so she dropped me early. What a laugh. My
flight was delayed 5 hours. Instead of flying out at 1.30pm as expected, ended up finally getting into the air at 6pm. It is a 5 hour
flight to Papeete (Tahiti) and was on an airbus. The flight crew was lovely. Very friendly. I had an aisle seat in a row of 4 and had
3 Swedish people beside me and 2 older German men on my left. They were all very nice to me and by the end of the journey we
had struck up a couple of nice conversations. The 2 German men had on going flights to South America which of course they
missed. I have no idea what happened to them as the last I saw of them they had no place to sleep. Poor guys, but they took it all
in good humor and said it was just the adventure of travel. They actually live in NZ but I knew they were foreign the moment
they spoke.
I was last through immigration and customs which was to become a regular thing in this leg of my travel. From the airport I was
collected by the Tahiti Travel agent and taken to the RADISSON. Wow what a beautiful place. Right on the Beach. By the time I
got settled into my room and I was last again at the registration, but they lovely young man carried my bags right up to my room
and set up the air con and made sure I was comfortable so worth the wait. Anyway I finally got to sleep at 3am just laying there
listening to the waves crash onto the beach, what a wonderful sound. Of course I overslept and when I woke I had no idea what
time check out was because everything was written in French. So I thought to bad I will just go lay on this beautiful beach. I lay
there and paddled in the water for the next 3 hours. Then back to my room to pack up, my shuttle was coming for me at 5.30pm
for my 9pm flight. But getting back to my room I found I was locked out. I was supposed to check out at 11am, but the French guy
at reception after growling at me in such a lovely way in his sexy accent told me he wouldn't’t check me out until 5pm and also
wouldn't’t charge me extra. So I packed my bags and went off down to check out the couple of shops in the hotel. Then my shuttle
arrived 30 minutes early so of course I was early to the airport and ended up sitting on my case waiting to be checked in. It was
such a laid back place, so very casual. Anyway to cut a long wait short I bought myself a black pearl necklace.
Then it was finally time to go through security and wait for boarding. My bags were scanned and it all seemed OK, but the young
security guy wanted to see inside my bag, I knew it had the all clear through the scanner he just wanted to tease me and chat to
me, I growled at him for being so naughty and inquisitive. He just laughed.
Once through immigration and customs I had to get a customs stamp as it was duty free. What a laugh - let me just say that there
were on 36 passengers on the Flight from Tahiti to New York, half of us were waiting for a customs officer to come and stamp our
paperwork, the crew all boarded the plane and we told them as they past us that they would have no passengers as we were all
waiting on our little stamp to claim our duty free.
Finally we set out on our flight. Most people had a whole row of seats to themselves so a very comfy flight. I settled for a window
seat with 2 seats on it, but did not really sleep, had a couple of little naps, and watched 2 videos.
"STORY CONTINUES ON NEW YORK PAGE"