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Tuesday, May 31, 2016

More adventures in the South Pacific

On day 3 we got up and went for a run - it was ridiculously hot! We started our 10km run at 7am and it must have over 25 degrees already! Not the smartest move but still, more half marathon training under our belt! After this, it was a spot of reading on the beach, a snorkel over the Motu opposite and then lunch at the Hisbiscus hotel again (mainly because it was so close). On the way back to our hotel I heard a restaurant playing actually good music (OK, Duffy but it made a change from 90s ballads or island music.) As we entered the Plantation Bar and Resturant the music changed to Me and Mrs Jones so happily we ordered a beer each. It's a cool set up, tables on the deck in shade but a fence separating the bar from the road for privacy. There was a Resturant inside and possibly a dance floor given the shiny disco ball already lit at 2pm.

 As the Hinano Amber beer was served to us the music switched to I believe I can fly..... Seriously ....and was closely followed by Ronan Keating. Oh well. It was a nice beer and a good opportunity to watch the locals. Two sets of mothers and sons ate food together as it was mothers days. The women both wore pink dresses and the sons sadly looked old enough to be their husbands. A sign that sun ages you I guess. 

We left and walked back to our room for afternoon naps. We started on the shandies when we woke up. The advantage of having the beachfront bungalow was that we could sit there and watch as the sun set without needing to join the others on the beach but that night we were slightly distracted by the fact I'd packed the wrong passports. As in, our NZ passports when we had 9 months earlier booked the Easter Island flights using our British passport numbers.....a frenzied email later sent to LAN but it was hard to shake the fear we might actually not be allowed on the plane.

 To cheer us up we decided to head to the Mayflower, a restaurant that was known for being a bit fancy and offering something a little more than the usual pacific fare of tuna or mahi mahi in coconut milk. It was amazing! It was a lovely cosy dining area and the food was out of this world good. Without wanting to go all AA Gill on you, Beautiful Shrimp dumplings to start (after the obligatory bread rolls of course, I've missed this European trait of giving you free bread with all meals but my figure hates it. Bread is my kypronite!) and then I had lobster ravoli (as good as Carlos in Donny!) and Andy had grilled tuna and both were really special. We treated ourselves to a carafe of Cote du Rhone wine and then lemon meringue pie for desert. Noms! 

The next morning we woke up to discover an email reply from LAN that simply said, thank you we have updated your passport details....oh the relief! We packed up and sadly left Fabienne and Elvis, the brilliant hosts at Fare Miti. A shuttle bus picked us up to take us back to the ferry terminal but due to a few inconsiderate beings not turning up on time for the bus our time got later and later until the driver was clearly speeding along the windy roads to get us to the ferry on time. We turned in with 10 minutes to spare but there was a taxi in the bus space and a few angry words were exchanged until finally our driver got out of the bus, climbed into the man's taxi (he was helping people with their bags) and moved it for him. With minutes to spare we got on our ferry and away we went. Back to Papeete, which it turns out is as much of a shit hole in the day time as it was at 1am. 

Because our flight to Easter island wasn't until 3am the following day we booked a cheap hotel opposite the airport. But decided to head to the intercontinental hotel a few miles up the room to utilise their pool and restaurant. Which it turned out was a good way to while away a few hours. Back to the room to watch some friends episodes on Netflix, and a quick visit to an ok Chinese restaurant for tea and finally it was time to head to the airport. And this is where we are now! 

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