Polynesia ... Bingo!

Paulette Brooks

Our trip to Tahiti started out with high anticipation of great times

-- all of us confident that four very different personalities would

mesh.

MOOREA, POLYNESIA

We started our trip by flying straight from LAX to Papeete, the

capital of Tahiti (about a nine-hour flight), and from there, we

cruised to Moorea. What a sight for our first stop -- mountains that

soared into the clouds and water so crystal clear that we could see

30 to 40 feet straight down.

We took a boat cruise of Cook’s and Opunohu bays and then

proceeded to a private motu for a day of swimming, snorkeling

(Shaunna Brown saw a 5-foot green eel that let her know that she was

invading his space), and had a positively enlightening experience

playing with stingrays. The opportunity to be able to touch, play

with and feed the stingrays is indeed a gift from nature at its best.

AT SEA

Our next two days were at sea, and I was concerned about what we

would do with all of this time. I utterly misjudged the beauty of

being totally relaxed and savoring each and every moment of

absolutely having to be nowhere at a designated time with the

exception of bingo. We became bingo junkies, learned all of the slang

and proper sayings and responses to the numbers when called. Two of

us were lucky enough to win and, of course, we laughed at the two

losers.

We stepped up the social activity by the pool by suggesting they

have their 2 p.m. horse races using humans, then got people to

line-dance and group-sing in the pool. We became known as the

“assistant cruise directors.”

Among the most memorable times at sea were the opportunities to

see the Tuamotu Atolls, which are ring-like coral reefs that surround

the lagoons on the islands. The Tahitian islands provide the best

example of the world’s most extensive atolls. The turquoise waters of

these atolls provided us with beautiful sightings of the abundant

underwater wildlife that thrives in this area. There were whale,

dolphin and manta-ray sightings almost every day.

NUKU HIVA,

MARQUESAS ISLANDS

This is the main and largest in the northern group of these

islands. This particular island was made famous by Herman Melville,

and it was the site for the filming of the first “Survivor” show.

Our visit to Nuku Hiva was very special thanks to the children on

the island, who entertained us by doing their traditional native

dances and proudly fed us their locally grown food. Tracy Brooks was

selected by the children to learn to do their dances with them, and

they crowned her “Official Island Princess.”

HIVA OA,

MARQUESAS ISLANDS

The southernmost island in this group is the resting place of

French artist Paul Gauguin. We were able to view his memorabilia and

art along with a visit to a replica of his home, “The House of

Bliss,” where he painted and lived toward the end of his life.

RANGIROA, POLYNESIA

Rangiroa means “huge sky” and is the largest atoll of Tahiti and

the second-largest in the world.

Warm water and an abundance of tropical fish welcomed snorkelers

in our group, who swam with white-tip reef sharks, and others walked

the island with its beautiful pink-sand beaches. Calm, serene water

was on one side of the island while the other provided spectacular

views of large, curling waves.

RAIATEA AND TAHAA, POLYNESIA

These two islands are considered to be the most sacred of all the

Polynesian Islands. These are the islands where our group of four

actually went in different directions. The Browns snorkeled again

(they couldn’t get enough of it) and then shopped and enjoyed walking

around the town and mixing with the locals.

The Brooks’ went to visit the island of Tahaa known as the

“vanilla island.” We visited a working vanilla plantation and found

out that vanilla flavoring is so expensive because it only blooms

three months a year, from 3 a.m. to noon, and must be

hand-pollinated. If this procedure is successful, it still takes

about three years to harvest after that.

We also visited a black pearl farm. This tour was extremely

interesting, especially to find out that to harvest a crop of oysters

to produce pearls, which could take up to seven years per oyster,

only 2% produce black pearls perfect enough to be sold in stores and

markets. Now we certainly understand why they are such a luxury to

own.

BORA BORA, POLYNESIA

Here we boarded a catamaran and sailed in the lagoon riding the

nets and feeling quite sporty. The catamaran anchored and we were

able to disembark and play in the shallow, pristine waters of Bora

Bora.

In Bora Bora, we scuba-dived and again enjoyed many varieties of

marine life, such as huge puffer fish, clown fish and blue lip clams.

Then we went to the most famous bar-restaurant in Polynesia called

Bloody Mary’s. This establishment was one of the most modern we had

seen since leaving Los Angeles, a must-see that has been frequented

by Marlon Brando, Cameron Diaz, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, to name

a few.

PAPEETE, POLYNESIA

This was our last stop, and what a way to finish. Since we were

scheduled on a red-eye back to LAX and knew we had a full day, we

rented a room at a Papeete resort, and much to our delight, it took

our breath away with its spectacular views, a sand-bottom pool,

swim-up bar and glorious waterfalls.

We passed our day swimming in the pool and throwing bread off the

end of the pool directly into the ocean that attracted our own

beautiful tropical aquarium.

Off we went to the airport for our flight home, very tired but

extremely satisfied and somewhat overwhelmed with everything we had

seen and experienced. We weren’t even bothered that we had rain on

three of our travel days. Little did we know that we would have yet

another first-time experience.

We were airborne and about 90 minutes out of Papeete, on our way

back to LAX, when the pilot announced that we would be turning back

to Papeete because we had blown engine No. 1. He also informed us

that he would be releasing fuel, and that upon landing, we would be

greeted by fire engines and ambulances. Needless to say, that is the

type of experience you always think happens to someone else.

We arrived back in Papeete safely at around midnight and became

overnight airport vagabonds. It seemed like a lot of the passengers

complained about the inconvenience, but the four of us were happy to

have landed safely and took it in stride. We even had a little fun

with it. Tracy and Shaunna slept all night, but Curt and I had fun,

walking around, helping out some people and probably even aggravating

some other passengers with our cheerfulness.

The end result of this trip -- it was outstanding, even when you

consider the rainy days and the emergency landing. At the end of the

trip, we were still four very different people with very different

personalities who all agreed with the same things: the Tahitian

people are a truly remarkable people, kind, smiling all the time and

helpful. They would never accept tips -- it would be an insult to

them -- and are just happy and proud to show people their traditions

and their beautiful country.

We are in awe of what we experienced and feel blessed that we saw

these things and returned home with so many stories that at times

seem to be amusing only to us (isn’t that a surprise?). We are

anxious to book our next trip -- we think to the Greek Isles next

time would be great.

* PAULETTE BROOKS is a resident of Newport Beach. She traveled

with daughter Tracy Brooks and neighbors Curt and Shaunna Brown.

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