March 5th, 2025

We arrived in Tahiti with no issues. We flew from Tallahassee to Dallas/Fort Worth on Monday the 3rd and had a 90 minute layover. We had wanted to run to the Capital One Lounge at the airport so we could grab a quick bite and they always have lots of to go food. We were thinking we would not have enough time but we really lucked out when our gate for our flight to LAX was 4 gates down from the lounge. That never happens but it did. We landed in LAX a little after 11pm and had to grab our luggage because we are changing airlines and have almost a 12 hour layover. We had gotten a hotel room near the airport with a free shuttle. we figured 8 hours of sleep and a nice shower was worth it. We took the shuttle back to the airport the next morning, March 4th and had a quick and easy checkin. Our fight left around noon and took 9 hours. Since it was a day time flight we planned on watching movies but I have to say that American had a much better selection than Delta. We did watch Conclave which we thought was excellent and then I fell asleep during our second selection.

We. arrived in Papeete at 6:30 pm, which is 5 hours behind EST. Immigration was quick and easy and a short taxi ride to the Intercontinental hotel where we will be staying for the next 3 nights. We have an ocean view and have a view of the island of Moorea from our patio.

The island of Moorea

I had to be up and out by 7:30 the next morning for diving but that was not really a problem since we are not adjusted to the time change and it felt more like 12:30pm EST. It will take a couple of days to get adjusted.

None of the dive sites in Papeete are a long boat ride. The dives were nice, not the best, but definitely nice. Most dives in Tahiti are wall dives due to the volcanic make-up of the island. I like turtles and am always happy to see a turtle when diving but there were SO MANY turtles on the 2nd dive even I was like “oh it’s just another turtle”. You would be taking a picture of one sleeping in the coral and 3 more would swim by. A few pictures of the turtles.

A white tip reef shark resting on the bottom

Lots of purple colored fish

The water color is incredible and lots of different shades of blues and aqua’s.

The interior of the island was having a storm but it did not affect us out on the water.

Kathy enjoyed her morning in the main lobby of the hotel that is in the open, sheltered and lots of sitting areas and a great breeze. After the dives I met her there and off in the distance we saw a water spout. We have never seen anything like it before and we thought it was a common occurrence here in Tahiti but a couple of staff members came over and were just as amazed as we were.

The water spout did not last long and when it dissipated it started from the bottom up and just collapsed until it was all gone. It did not collapse at once it went all the way up the spout. It was pretty cool. Not sure we would have wanted to be out in the water when it came by but fun to see from the safety of the shore.

We had lunch at one of the beach restaurants at the hotel and spent the afternoon reading in the lobby and 1 of us may have taken a nap. Since we had a late lunch we opted for no dinner. Tomorrow is more of the same. Diving for me and Kathy will try out the pool.