Our vacation started early Saturday morning, May 1. The shuttle picked us up at 8:30 a.m.. Here we are at home excited to start our 8.5-hour flight.

Air Tahiti Nui — on top of being cute, it also started our vacation early. They fed us two full hot meals going to Tahiti, AND alcohol was FREE.

Each seat had a monitor on which we could watch TV, movies, or play games. Since the flight wasn’t anywhere near booked, I had the 2 window seats to myself. I had one playing movies and the other on our flight stats. (Mr. W took the center aisle of 4 seats and laid across them, where he slept through the flight after indulging in a hot lunch and two Courvoisiers.)

I was a bit miffed that this was supposed to be our delayed honeymoon trip and he refused to sit near me the entire flight, but I soon became glad as I lounged sideways and took both pillows and both blankets.
We arrived in Papeete, Tahiti at approximately 6:30 p.m., where it was already dark. The humidity hit us hard when we got off the plane, but the temperature was a nice mid-80s all week. I was once again glad that my hair does not react to humidity. I saw some people’s ‘dos shorten and curl up practically before my eyes. I twisted my hair into a bun and stuck a pen through the knot to keep it off my neck, where things were starting to feel a bit damp. We were greeted with flower leis by our transportation at the airport, and they drove us to port where we efficiently checked into our rooms on the M/s Paul Gauguin. I had booked the cheapest cabin (figuring we weren’t gonna spend much time in there anyway, altho Mr. W lamented not having a balcony), and this spacious room is what greeted us.

Mr. W relaxed on the large bed.

Even the restroom was huge (for a ship cabin). It had a shower AND a tub.

At the sitting room end of the cabin, a bottle of champagne was icing in a bucket with a plate of fruit and a card.

Mr. W opened the card.

Awww, how sweet!

We soon changed for dinner. Dress code after 6pm every night on the ship is “smart country club.” It required that women be in dresses or skirts or slacks, and no one could be in shorts. Here’s our glorious meal, the first of many many to come.

“Can I eat yet?”

At a gallery of Paul Gauguin paintings, old Tahitian navigation maps and information from Captain Cook’s days, traditional Tahitian bone tools, etc.