Day 26: Auckland to Tahiti: The Longest Day
Amanda kicked off the day with a repeat of the fan-favorite French toast casserole dish from our first visit. It was very stormy in Auckland today, but it was pretty cool to see the whitecaps and kite surfers from their house. It also meant we didn’t leave the house, but no one was sad about that. Lots of playing and even trampoline jumping in the pouring sideways rain. They truly are Seattle kids at heart. Our plane was scheduled to depart at 7 p.m., so we left for the airport around 4 to ensure we’d have plenty of time.
A highlight was getting to walk on the ramp and load from the back of the plane, letting us see all the wheels and engines up close.
We enjoyed some cozy snuggles on the plane as the boys slept on each of my shoulders trying to get a little rest.
We arrived at 1 a.m. The kicker, it is 1 a.m. on the same day, since we cross the International Date Line. The boys were troopers as we were greeted by the humidity, darkness, and three Tahitian singers. Customs went fairly quickly (about 20 minutes or so). Unfortunately, despite confirming with their website the rental car company wasn’t actually open after all. This is when reality set in a bit. We were now in a new country at 1 a.m. where English wasn’t the primary language, with no local currency, and no rental car. Rob was quick on his feet figuring out what credit card would finally work in the ATM to get some Francs (as the cab drivers don’t take credit cards). Fortunately, our driver ended up speaking a bit of English and pointed out some interesting places during the 30-minute drive to our Airbnb.
A little after 2 a.m. we arrived to the pitch-black house. There are two bedrooms downstairs and one upstairs. After a delicious banana chocolate chip muffin (thank you again, Amanda!) we all went to get some sleep. Nicholas and I shared the upstairs room while Rob and Cooper shared a bed downstairs.
We all awoke around 10 a.m. to start this day again. Generously, the neighbor (and mother of our Airbnb host) offered to take Rob back to the airport to get us a rental car, as we couldn’t sort out how to get a taxi at this more remote location. Unfortunately he forgot to take his phone, and after two hours of waiting for him started to panic without a way to get a hold of him, but ultimately he did show up, and we were all together again.
After some time checking out the house in the daylight and organizing our stuff, we headed to Mahana Park, a beach frequented by locals.
It was so hot and humid that the boys opted for SPF 50 sunscreen, but no shirts. Unfortunately, this resulted in their first sunburn on their shoulders and backs when some of the sunscreen rubbed off.
On the way home we stopped by the grocery store, which was also an experience because everything is in French. We had to buy baguettes since we saw so many locals walking with them under their arms or in their bike baskets.
We did decently well at the store: frozen pizzas for dinner, with yogurt for breakfast, brie, sausage, baguettes for lunch, and chicken nuggets for dinner the following day. My local items were some French cookies, pomegranate juice, and wafer cookies. I guess I made some poor choices, as only the wafer cookies ended up not spoiled. Since it truly felt like the day that would never end at this point, we were all in bed by 8 p.m.