Travels

10/17/01 - In the morning we ate $18 eggs benedict, and they were worth every penny. It's a french hotel after all. After the gorging, we headed to Universal Studios, and this time we didn't forget the gwavy... err... camera. Not the most exciting part of the trip, but a fun time nonetheless. The biggest attractions here (next to the famous lot tour) were wet, splashy, 90-degree-flume-type rides, like Jurassic Park. Sadly, but wisely, we decided to stay dry for the 8.5 hour flight to Tahiti later that night. Returned the rental car only to find out that someone -- either the valet at the hotel or someone at Universal -- had put a scratch in it. A slight damper, but we promptly forgot about it.

We took the Enterprise shuttle to the airport for our 8:45pm Air New Zealand flight to Papeete, Tahiti. We arrived with the newly recommended 3 hours to spare (for an international flight), were checked in and through security in less than 20 minutes, and we proceeded to the departure lounge, where we waited, and waited, and waited. Slowly the gate filled with all sorts of people -- other tourists headed for Tahiti, wearing their aloha shirts and sandals, folks going the distance to Auckland, New Zealand, Tahitian nationals in bright native dress. There was a baseball game on TV, the Yankees in the playoffs, and all (male) eyes were glued to the set. Finally, at 8:30 or so, we were allowed to board.

Interesting flight. They served steaks, in coach class! It was still awful airplane food, but hey.... And afterwards they passed around hot towels, just like they do in first class. Although theirs are probably woven of finer thread. Didn't get much sleep on this flight, owing to the excitement factor, and also the weird guy that shared the 3-seat aisle row with us, who tossed and turned and groaned and stood and sat and tossed and turned some more, all the way to Papeete. Bloody New Zealanders! During the long flight, between bad movies (Moulin Rouge was one), they displayed a map on the screen, showing the plane's progress (shown is a map "borrowed" from Air Tahiti Nui's website). This was neat, but I think it made the time drag on more slowly. "There's LA, there's Hawaii, and there's Tahiti -- way down there..." But it was interesting to know that after landing in Papeete (Tahiti's capital city), our plane would continue on first to Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands, beyond Tahiti to the Southwest, and finally to Auckland, New Zealand -- a place I hope to see one day.

Such a deep awnser! GD&RVVF