3rd April: Intercontinental Tahiti Resort and Papeete, French Polynesia

Due to the crossing of international date time, we managed to live through 3rd of April again. We woke up at about 9:30am and went to Tiare restaurant to have breakfast at 10am. Whilst there was great variety, the food was already cold and there were not much left. It was disappointing since I expected more for Intercontinental. I did order a Poisson Cru (Tahitian Raw Fish with salad) and it was OK.

We spent the next few hours swimming in the pool, enjoy the sunshine, walking around, sun bathing, just relaxing.

Intercontinental Tahiti - 1


Intercontinental Tahiti - 2


In the afternoon we went to the concierge to ask to get to Papeete. We ended up getting a “free ride” to Tahitian Pearl Market (as recommended by concierge) at Papeete and ended up bought a pearl there. Sure it may not be the cheapest place for pearls but hey it was Mrs Edison’s birthday so it all worked out well. We also visited the City Hall, as well as the Papeete market, which was interesting as I could see the locals selling locally produced fruits, vegetables, fishes, arts and crafts.

Papeete Market


Of course, the local shops decided to all close at 4-4:30pm so ended up spending 1-2 hours walking around before the Les Roulottes comes to the foreshore and setup. At 6pm they began in operation dishing out a variety of food to serve the people. We tried a number of roulottes and ate some beef skewers, spring rolls, tune skewers, crepes and burgers. It was an interesting experience, and we ended up catching a Le Truck back to Intercontinental Tahiti, where we managed to watch a Tahitian dance show.

Les Roulottes


Tahitian Dance Show


4th April: Tahiti to Moorea

We woke up a little bit earlier and had breakfast at 9am. The variety is the same but at least this time there are plenty of food rather than just leftovers. We had to check out at 11am because apparently there were a lot of people checking in from Paul Gauguin cruises. However, we still spent the next 3 hours on the infinity pool overlooking Moorea. The infinity pool is so beautiful we could not resist ordering drinks and enjoyed the view at the pool bar.

Intercontinental Tahiti Infinity Pool and Swim Up Bar


Intercontinental Tahiti Overwater Bungalow


We hired a taxi from IC Tahiti to the Papeete ferry dock for 1700XPF. After a short wait we caught the Aremiti 5 to Moorea.

Aremiti 5 is actually a very large catamaran that also carries cars. Interestingly there are plenty of seats compared to the number of people catching. The interior was luxurious 80-90s style. However we went straight to the roof deck as the weather was beautiful. The boat slowly but surely leave Papeete and once it got out of the port it went full steam ahead to Moorea.

Aremiti 5


The boat eventually slow down once it gets to Moorea, and you can see all the corals around the island. After half an hour of departure, Aremiti 5 arrived at Moorea dock, where we saw a lot of people waiting to go back to Papeete. We got off quickly and got our luggage. There was already a lady waiting for us for transfer to Hilton Moorea.

It took about 20 minutes of driving to get to Hilton Moorea, going past towns like Pao Pao. Once we got there we quickly check-in at Hilton and were picked up by porter with golf carts to our overwater bungalow (OWB), where we will be spending for the next 7 days and nights.