Tahiti … this was, in a way THE Destination of our long journey, or so we thought before we went. All of us probably have images in their mind, with Tahiti being just THE south sea dream.

Or, where Australia delivered, Tahiti surprised.

Mo’orea, Tahiti’s family friendly sister, is maybe the most beautiful single beach destination.

The island’s mountainous interior, dazzling Cook’s Bay, and turquoise lagoon are, for me, just as beautiful as Vietnam’s Ha-Long Bay, or the amazing limestone formations in Thailand. But the water is much clearer, and the sea life more abundant. On the other Hand, this is not the 5 star care-free luxury pampering place Holiday brochures may make you believe, and locals in French Polynesia, while giving you the obligatory flowers, often do not really care about tourists.

The outer islands (such as Mataiva, Fakarava, and Nuku Hiva) felt just as remote as we had expected, and dazzled us with sea life. Basti could spend hours and hours standing on the little pontoon on Fakarava, and always find new species. We saw black-tip sharks (Basti even caught one with the fishing rod, which we liberated again), and bought black pearls… It was a great adventure. But, amazingly, we were glad to be back to civilization as well, and did not even once think of staying on one of these paradisiacal islands for the rest of our lives. But These islands are small natural wonders, and let’s hope they stay just as beautiful even if civilization arrives … Mataiva, for example, is so remote, that the island was completely cut off from the internet when we were staying, and all no more beer was to be bought, as it had all been drunken (probably no link with the Internet problems, though).

French Polynesia, or more precisely Mataiva, is also the place where our six-year-old son Basti fell terribly in love with a French girl of the same age, Lali. We met her and her parents again several times during our Tahiti stop-overs, and her parents helped us a lot with some traveller’s chores.

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