Huahine, French Polynesia
Saturday, July 7, 2001
The island of Huahine was my last stop and my most enjoyable experience. Despite being a haven for surfers from around the world, Huahine is a lot less touristed than the likes of Tahiti, Bora Bora and Moorea and the pace of life there is accordingly much more authentic Polynesian. I like authentic and accordingl had a good time there. I only had about 28 hours on the island, but I managed to hire a mountain bike and cycle around the 60km circumference of the island. It was a good day - saying hi to the locals, take an inordinate number of photos, marvelling at the scenery and seeking out the perfect beach (believe it or not, actual beaches are pretty damn hard to find in the Society Islands). I did manage to find my beach, practically deserted on a remote corner of the island. Unfortunately, my back had been pretty badly burnt on the shark-feeding trip in Bora Bora a couple of days back which made swimming and lazing around in the sun somewhat uncomfortable, but I relaxed for a while and managed to cherish a few moments of idyllic tropical solitude. And that bike ride, plus a flight back to Tahiti, a few tense minutes at the Air New Zealand check-in counter in Tahiti, a few choice words to the manager of Air New Zealand Tahiti but a flight to New Zealand in the end was about the end of my year-long round-the-world vacation. As aforementioned, the next one is scheduled commence in a couple of weeks . . .
The web's original travel blog 
