Anyway - before we blab about NZ we wanted to leave you with one last entry about the wonderful people we caught rides with around the islands. This is really how you get to know people and the locals here and it proved to be some of our most wonderful interactions with the locals. I'll describe most of the people who picked us up below these pics...
Yes, we did get to see some Polynesian dancing - in case you were wondering.
The many faces of hitching.
Yummy Polynesian treats.
Julie kisses some Polynesian ass. =)
Anyway - stories.... long ones too.
Our first ride in Tahiti: A family picked us up.....Jay had a rental surfboard and we were trying to get to a beach where he could surf. This black truck went past flying past our thumbs and waved - we thought they just waved to move us up the road a bit further where they could pick us up. Nope - they did a u-turn, came back and scooped us up. Mom, Dad, and teenager...going to the beach. The mother spoke some English which helped. They were wonderful and drove us to the beach and gave us loads of free bottled water from their cooler.
Second ride: A mom and her little boy. She stopped at her nice house (with a pool) and then took us to our pension in Tahiti. Then she stopped to get gas and asked us if we wanted anything - of course we said "no" but she came out anyway with ice cream and soda (which I drank to be polite but YUCK). She told us all the great places to stay in Tahiti.... and was soo sooo sooo nice.
In Moorea a lot more French expats picked us up...although by the end of our stay more Polynesians were picking us up. The first French guy to pick us up told us about all the fields we could go into to pick mushrooms. Say this in a thick French accent - "not the mushrooms you eat but ummm...the kind that make you....FLY...." =) He was listening to jazz and wearing big sunglasses. He sailed to Tahiti and loved it and decided to stay after sailing for so long.
Other folks provided great rides/stories too....one guy drinking his beer, another guy with a little girl in a car seat, an American expat who kept us in the bed of her truck because we were stinky from hiking. But the best ride was our last ride - the ride to the ferry from Moorea back to Tahiti.
We wanted to catch a bus to the ferry with our bags, but typical of the tropics, the bus never showed. So, bags and all we decided to hitch to the ferry. At one point I stuck out my thumb to this truck (after about 10 minutes of bad luck) and the truck pulled over. Yipee....but then we realized that there were already 3 girls in the truck bed and a cooler (Polynesians always ride around in the truck bed...they don't have highways - so it's not a big deal - and they travel in packs!). They didn't have a lot of space. So - we sadly refused the ride. Well - they seemed confused by this even though they saw our bags. The truck slowly pulled away and we kept trying to get a ride. But a minute later - the truck was back. The mother driving (a beautiful Polynesian woman) had all her kids and their friends (all girls!) jump out of the truck - make room for our stuff - and they grabbed our bags and tossed us in the truck too! Amazing. So, I sat shotgun and tried to speak what I could with the mother. Jay discovered (he was quite popular as the only male in the truck bed with 3 teenaged girls) that they were on their school break visiting Moorea with their Mom. The smallest girl sat behind me holding onto this little fluffy puppy. The other smaller girl gave me this massive - huge - bean-shaped thing. She motioned for me to split it in half. I did that - but saw nothing. I figured I was supposed to eat it - but how? So she showed me and opened the pod lengthwise. Inside were these little white fuzzy things that had the texture of cotton candy. They motioned for me to eat it, so I popped one in my mouth and started chewing. They all shouted out in horror and laughed at the same time. There was a huge, hard seed (as I discovered) in the middle. So, after I spit all the seed bits out and we all had a good laugh...I chowed on the yummy white coating of the seeds. And it was sweet and yummy just like cotton candy! Eventually they dropped us off at the ferry with fresh pineapples and these seed things in hand, waved goodbye and were off to the beach.
What peace could be accomplished in this world if everyone was as kind, generous, and loving as this family. We were blown away by how nice everyone was that picked us up - but the Polynesians really got the gold medal for generosity and going out of their way to help us.
Now we are in NZ! Car shopping in Auckland for pieces of junk that hopefully won't break down on us for 5 months. We want a campervan but fear we cannot afford that junk... maybe only a station wagon piece of junk instead? And guess what!? We saw my old roommate from grad school today - Gretchen - and her man Matt. We had lunch and a beer in downtown Auckland. Watched people bungie jump off the skytower there. Good ol' NZ adventure!
This is long and it's time to go! Hope you enjoyed this little piece of French Polynesia tales though.
1 comment:
What a wonderful start on your adventure. Wish we could be there. Love Mom
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