Travel Day: Fly, Bus, Ferry, Hitchhike

Hitchhiked from my place on rangiroa to the airport, and made it a nice 2.5h early for my flight haha (left enough time to walk there if didn’t catch a ride). The RGI airport is one open room, no walls, no security, you could bring anything on this plane! Checked my bag, got some lunch and ate it by the water, and watched the plane come in!

Landed in PPT, the next adventure was figuring out the bus system, which only has a barely functioning website to navigate. Caught the bus and made it to the Pape’ete waterfront! Walked to the ferry terminal and bought a ticket for the cheapest company’s last sailing of the day (there are three companies that run this route). Student price (50% off!) without even checking my ID!

Got poisson cru on the boat, and watched Mo’orea get closer and closer

The main way to get around Mo’orea cheaply and reliably is to hitchhike, so that’s what I did! (There’s one bus that goes around the island but it doesn’t have a set schedule and definitely had stopped running for the day by the time I got there). The first guy who picked me up was very nice, named Tauhia, and he had worked for 6 months in Powell River of all places, so knew the west coast of Canada well. Apparently he worked there (or on Texada?) cutting down trees for Christmas wreaths. He invited me to join him for a drink this weekend!

Got a second ride from a couple of girls who live here and the dropped me off at Painapaopao Backpackers!Read more