After leaving Honolulu yesterday we’re finally in Raiatea and on the sweet Honu. On the drive to the airport my mom called and said she sold the house. Whew, she found a condo last week and sold her house this week. I’m so relieved to be on this long trip and not have to worry about that.
Check-in at the airport was easy for me. I was worried, but it went very smoothly. The bags were 67 and 70.35 pounds. Just under my limit. Steve showed up about 30 minutes behind me and waited about an hour in line. Then he had some mixup about his inter-island ticket. This mixup will come back to haunt him again today.
The flight was easy, but Hawaiian Airlines was having all kinds of technical problems with the video system and the film was only available in French. C’est la vie! Immigration was a breeze too.
The bags came out quickly and customs never stopped us. Just outside the doors Steve is suddenly surrounded by three people, leis flying. Then it was my turn. Steve has some friends that are here for a few months and they came to the airport to greet us around 9 this morning Jacques picked us up for brunch. Off we went the Intercontinental where there was a lavish buffet set out. I tasted many new delicious things today. What they were I still don’t know. After lunch we had a nice walk around the property. There were fish to see in a lagoon they had stocked. We were very leisurely, because our flight wasn’t until 3:00.
Titaua had said that we should go to the airport and drop our baggage at the freight office and it might be cheaper than taking excess baggage. It’s a good thing she made this suggestion too. We arrived at the airport around 12:45 and got the big heavy bags checked in. Jane was exceptionally helpful speaking French for us. In the process we found
out that there is no flight at 3:00. So, we finally went over to the ticket counter to find that we are acutally on the 1:15 flight which leaves in 15 minutes! Plus, Steve still didn’t have ticket.
At the gate in Honolulu Steve’s travel agent handed him and envelope and said “here’s your ticket.” We looked at it later on the plane only to find a check in French Polynesian Francs made out to travel company. Jane again translating we find out that he was supposed to exchange the check last night for a ticket. Apparently, someone was waiting at the
airport for him. Oops. So, off to the other counter he had to go and buy another ticket. We were the last to get on the plane. Luckily it was late. However, we were on a very small plane and our luggage was on a later flight that takes freight.
Captain Susan was quite surprised to see us show up hours earlier than anticipated. Hugs and pictures ensued. A couple hours later we walked to the Airport, retrieved our bags from a 30+ minute late plane and got a ride back to the harbor.
Susan cooked us a three course dinner that consisted of pupus, which included the most fabulous pate’, soft camembert and dry French sausage. Then came the raw salad of many vegetable chopped. Following the salad were crepes of ham, cheese and tomato. Ooh, la, la. What a treat. It was terrific. Life is good. Very good.
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