Tahiti our final night

Tahiti for one last night.

OK so I have just booked the hire car. The flight was all of 20 minutes from boarding call to getting our bags. The hire care is booked for pick up on the hour and we still have 40 minutes.

We go and see if we can pick it up early. The guy says no, no cars at all. We cannot have a car today. Go see another car rental agency. I say we have a booking and he says internet is wrong. No cars.

We try at other rental desks and they are also either sold out or for the one night it will be over $1000 (AUD). Which is way too much.

A little bit of panic and frustration set in. What better way to deal with that than sit and wait. We sit. Staring longingly at the car rental agencies. We really do need one as we are in an airbnb tonight in a very weird spot and we planned to explore Tahiti.

As we watch, someone returns a car. They are a little late. It is now 5 past the hour. We wait for the transaction to finish and then run in and show our confirmation again. He says the car is not clean but we can take it. We say we will take it without the clean so we do not have to wait any longer.

Can we take that hire car

It was a huge ordeal at the time. Possibly because we knew too little French. We tried to ask if we should wait until our pick up time but he said no car today, book somewhere else. If we knew at the start to just wait it would have been more relaxing. We have a car now and we did eat while we were waiting but it was a very stressful period in our holiday.

Our airbnb is only a few minutes away but it is tucked into a very difficult to find street. It takes us about 5 goes to find the street and then two to find the house. We do find it though, get the key, put our luggage bags in our room and then head out for a drive around the island.

Triston was super excited about the tunnel so asked me to take a few photos.

It was about 3:45pm by the time we set off and our flight is nice and early in the morning so we don’t want to be out too late.

The drive around Tahiti isn’t too long but we won’t have time to go to both Tautira and Teahupo’o. Triston decides it is worth going to Teahupo’o so Taurtira is dropped and we make our way down.

The island is a lush tropical island so the drive is enjoyable. We have passed some small towns and villages and larger ones as well. It seems to be more developed than Fiji but still retains rural and rustic charm.

Driving is slow, not just because the speed limit is low but also because of the roads and traffic.

We made it down to Teahupo’o in the daylight. Although it is fading, Triston can see the famous reef break.

Teahupo’o

It is likely we will be here just this one time so we find a spot that meets the rules and set off on a drone flight.

There are kids playing soccer in the car park and TW has some fun on the surfboard statue.

With the drone packed up, though Triston dropped it after is landed, we are ready to head back to Pape’ete and have dinner then go to sleep.

I feel like we are fighting the clock. I don’t know why. Half in a rush to get back and half not interested at all. Our airbnb room is, well, it is super weird. I wish our original place was available for this night. The room has a great view but there is no door. People are sleeping on the ground at the bottom of the stairs. Well the airbnb is it’s own story really.

The road home is pretty. We drove down the eastern side so we are driving up the western side to get back. The water is so very calm as we drive by.

When the sun starts to set properly, we stop and watch it go down.

The sky is so pretty. It is really peaceful just watching the world go by right now.

Once darkness hits we focus more on just getting back. We can’t see any real sights any more so no point in dillydallying.

Dinner in Tahiti

When we get back, rather than head to our airbnb, if we can find it again, we have dinner.

Triston opted for steak and fries and I went with a pasta. Both were fine. Not amazing. Not great. Just fine.

Dinner finished, it is fairly late now so we head back.

We wake up at dawn. I forgot to take a photo of our view in the day when we arrived but I make point to take one before we leave.

We shower, pack the car and head off to the airport. Once the car is returned we check in. Wait. Board and leave to Auckland. We have a better idea of how to transfer and make the connection with no issues. On to another flight and home to Sydney. Taxi home and that’s it. All over.

No photos of that as it was all nice and sad and we had to get up too early to bother with photos.

We made it home safely. Sad that the holiday ended. Happy to see Lola again.