Love my nieces and nephews!

12-12-12 - quite a date ....I am having such a great time hanging out with family that the blog has suffered... but I am going to try to be better.  :)  But just to show ya.. here is why I have been distracted - can you blame me?

Tommy - will turn a year on Friday, he's so smiley!

Jessie on a whale at Hapuna Beach.. she loved this whale. It was like her pet.  LOVED spending time with her and Izzy and Karen.

Jessie, Lisa, Izzy and me at "Honu World"  where unfortunately there were no honus but lots of pools for us to play in! :)  These two little girls have iron feet.

Maddie, me and Lilly - we had a fantastic time skating... I was a little tired
We always do fun stuff at Biz's - highly recommended place to visit, for sure!

SOOOO.. I will give you a sneak peak of our last few hours of Bora Bora...

This is our view as we were having lunch before we left the island

This is our sadness :)

We are back!! :)

WHEW! Can’t believe we are back in Hawaii after being in the Society Islands of French Polynesia for 29 days.  We had an incredible time.  We were so very blessed with the people we came in contact with as well as the places that we stayed.  We had the time of our lives.  We won’t bore you with ALL the details of our day by day, but we will give you lots of pictures and some highlights and fun stories.

Here are our thoughts about our favorites about French Polynesia:

SUZ – for me, overall, my favorite part about being in French Polynesia (aside from spending time with Lisa, by BFF) was the intense beauty of our Heavenly Father’s creation.  I mean, you guys, it was incredible.  Pictures, of course will not do   it justice, the place is even better than you can imagine.  I am serious.  My favorite time was when we stayed in the overwater bungalow in Bora Bora.  I felt like a princess – AND I got to go paddle boarding, snorkeling, and kayaking as often as I wanted.  On our last night in Bora Bora, we sat on our deck over the water, listening to the waves crash out beyond the lagoon and watching a HUGE full moon rise over a motu off in the distance – pics to follow.  Lisa and I kept looking at each other saying – can you believe this is happening?  This is so amazing! ;)  Yep.  We seriously couldn’t believe it.

LISA – Wow my favorite thing about FP…that is hard because there are so many.  To travel with Suzanne was so much fun.  She knows a lot about random things and is a really bad card player so I always won J she is adventurous and really appreciates the beauty around you and can make you appreciate and get excited about looking at something as simple as a rock.  Excluding the beauty the first thing that comes to mind  our Jet skiing experience which you will read about later so I won’t bore you with the story and then the second thing is Bora Bora, I didn’t really want to go there at first because everyone goes there, but Bora Bora ended up being my  second favorite island.  We stayed in an over the water bungalow and seriously Suz and I were giddy, after the manager left from the personal tour he gave us of the bungalow and the resort and we got done acting like “oh yeah we stay at these types of places all the time” we started screaming like little girls (quietly of course because we didn’t want him to hear).  We saw the most amazing full moon rise over a motu from our deck along with having an amazing time paddle boarding, snorkeling and kayaking.  Sometimes it was hard to believe that we were “those people” you would see on tv, magazines, or postcards playing in such a beautiful place.

So, we won’t be able to get everything together today, but throughout the next few days, you will find new pics accompanied by some fun stories of our adventures in Tahiti and her islands.

BORA BORA

Yes, my friends, we are aware that we are very behind in our blog, but would you want to be sitting looking at a computer when you are in French Polynesia?!  :)

Just wanted to write a quick note to tell you that we will not be updating the blog for a while - we have very limited internet access throughout the remainder of our time in Bora Bora/Maupiti.  Check back beginning of December where we will post pics as well as all the journal entries we are writing before we go to bed!

And for any who are wondering - Bora Bora IS EVERYTHING you ever imagined... and maybe more.  It is absolutely breathtaking.

Suz and Lisa

Getting to a coconut 101

November 9, 2012

We love to wake up early here – except for this – when we turn out the lights to fall asleep, the geckos on our screens want to start talking – it kinda sounds like a frog/bird noise.  Then, if that isn’t enough to keep us from falling asleep, the neighbor dog – yappy kine – decides he wants to bark – constantly at the wind.  If that doesn’t keep us up – the chickens who obviously don’t know that they are supposed to WAKE us up – which they do anyway – decide to cackle cackle.  Once we get used to all that, and finally fall asleep – a torrential downpour flows onto our metal roof to awaken us… but if we don’t have that – it is so bloody hot that the sweat dripping down our faces disturbs our slumber.  As we fall back asleep, it is just in time for the roosters to wish us a good morning, which invites the entire rest of the island birds to call out the same lovely morning greeting.  I don’t feel bad anymore about taking a nap!! Anyways.. I am on vacation!  I can take a nap, right? J

When we got up today, we had some breakfast and then headed to the ocean with computer, guide books and a few other matters of business.  We were stopped by Rande, who asked if we wanted to shuck a coconut and make coconut milk.  Obviously, we said of course we would!  He taught us the step by step, including how to pick them off the tree, which ones to pick, which ones are best to drink the water from, which ones are best for milk and which are best for the soft meat as opposed to the hard meat that you press into coconut milk.  WE CAN SURVIVE on a deserted island with coconuts.  J  Below is the step by step portraits of our lessons.

This is Lisa first getting the stuff off the coconut

This is Randy helping her pull the stuff away from the coconut!  It was pretty funny

We skipped a step - the cracking of the coconut to get it in 2 halves.  You just hit it with the machete.  But this is her scraping the meat out of the coconut.

This is Lisa getting so excited to see the milk come from the shreds!!  Yeay.

This is a close up - I am squeezing the shreds through a cheesecloth.  I did all the steps that Lisa did - I just hogged the camera! :)

Yesterday, Natalie – Lisa caught her name today – was telling us that she feeds her Nemo everyday and that we need to go check it out.  I told her yesterday that I would do it with her today.  She pointed to an area on the reef where there is an anemone.  She’s been feeding this area (bread) for 6 years.  So we ventured out with her today.  I had already been snorkeling a bit, but walked out there with her and her husband.  Lisa was tentative as she gets sea sick and is just not used to snorkeling, but she did GREAT!  Natalie stuck the bread in the coral above the anemone and TONS of fish came to feast – like hundreds of different colors, sizes, shapes - SO SO beautiful.  We do not have an underwater camera, unfortunately, to share a picture of the beauty we go to see, but it was so fun!  DJ actually held his hand out and some of the fish came and bumped into it – searching for bread, I’m assuming.  It was pretty neat.

I was pretty excited that Lisa got out there.  I have been asked continuously to be patient with her while she becomes more comfortable.  Of course, I am.  Its just that I want to go see the fish and other sea life cuz its so so cool and want her to see it too – so today was awesome for her.  She got a taste of it and I helped her be more comfortable so I think we will have more excursions swimming with the tropical fish of Tahiti.  I have really enjoyed our little lagoon. 

J  We went into town this evening by bike.  It was much less crowded than when the canoe race was happening – by the way, EDT won the race – Shell has one for the last 7 years, but they implemented drug testing of the winning team this year and all of the sudden, Shell didn’t win!! Interesting, huh?  Anyway, the supermarket has these baguettes that are about as long as a yardstick and about 6 inches round for $0.53.  Lisa loves them so much.  I mean I like them, but Lisa thinks they are the best thing since peanut butter.  Its fun to tease her about her baguettes!  When we get a continental breakfast around here, it consists of an 8 inch baguette, a chocolate croissant and a mini box of American cereal.  It is quite interesting, but the European influence is clear here in French Polynesia.

Another beautiful sunset tonight.

Rande - our host - was getting ready for the big waves coming soon.. when they hit the north shore of hawaii, he said that 4 days later, they hit huahine.  He would paddle for about 20 minutes, do 3 laps around his property, 5-10 pullups and do it twice a day.  He is like 60.

Real November 8

November 8, 2012

Today we went on a bike ride around the north part of the island.  It was so so beautiful.  We rode by mountains, we stopped and checked out ancient sacred grounds (Maeva archeological site – for those who have been to Hawaii – similar to a heau), biked by ancient fish traps in an ocean fed lake, biked through farms – vanilla, coconut, Tahitian flower, cantaloupe, and other stuff we were unsure of – stopped at an ocean front that was the deepest blue I have ever seen an ocean!  It was quite a fantastic bike ride.  It ended up being about a 3 hour bike ride - 9.3 miles. 

The only problem was:  It was SOOO hot.  Lisa got heat exhaustion and thought she was going to die.  After she partially recovered – cold water shower as quickly as I could get her there plus some electrolyte drink and shade – she said to me “what was that?”  I smiled and said, that my friend, is heat exhaustion – maybe heat stroke.  She almost puked and couldn’t remember lots of what happened.  Yes – we had sunscreen on, YES – we had water, YES – we took breaks in the shade.  For all of those who are still skeptical – it is really hot here… as a matter of fact, I will no longer say “Hotter than Haiti,” I will now say “Hotter than Tahiti!”  J

The funny thing is this – there is couple who is staying on this property in a different house.  Her name is… not sure, but his name is DJ – I am too embarrassed to ask her name.  I simply forgot it.  Anyway.. they have been coming to Tahiti for over 30 years now and she says this is the hottest it has ever been… Thanks Lisa.  She has this way of bringing the “est” to wherever she goes… Sister Brinkley, if you are reading this – it didn’t rain at all when I was with my sister on the big island… I hear it rained every day you were there.  It’s Lisa’s fault.  J There are so many things that I could talk about – I seriously could write an entire post of just those stories.  Regardless – Lisa and I never dreamed that we would be in the shade as much as we are.  But we definitely are not complaining – PROMISE!  We really really really love it here.

For the rest of the day today – since Lisa hasn’t really fully recovered.  We just chilled in the shade – and went swimming and snorkeling.  We did watch the sunset.  It sets over Raiatea – an island we can see from here.  It is really beautiful.  Sorry there aren’t as many pics as I would like to post, but the upload speed here is atrocious – and my battery runs out before the uploads happen.  It’s a mess.  Maybe the next place we go will be better for that.

November 7 - Canoe Race

This is one of our favorite pics.  :)

November 7

It was pretty fun to be a part of the race.  It’s a pretty big deal here.  The president even came and spoke this morning I guess .  Rande and Emere sat with us and talked to us all about the race and all the boats that are in the bay.  It was very informative and a great morning. – we also found out that Barrack Obama has another 4 years.  Hope that’s good for our nation – I, for one, will be keeping him in my prayers.

It has been a beautiful day today, so we layed in the water for the better part of the morning and then this is what we have been doing the rest of the day!  This is seriously the life!!

Nov 6 - couple days behind! :)

November 6, 2012

                                                                               

Conversation of the day:

Suz- Why are you sweating?

Lisa – Cuz I’m FAT! NO WONDER WHY THERE’S NO FAT PEOPLE HERE! Its not meant for FAT people.  Its not made for the land of the FAT!

Suz – (busting a gut)

She gets a little crazy when she's hot!  LOL

Woke up and went on a run - I didn’t stop sweating for like 1 hour afterwards!  I even went at 6:45AM.  Guess 5:30 will be a better time next time.  But it started raining and really cooled things off.  I quite enjoyed it – Lisa and I played in the rain for about an hour, if not more.  Then we did a circuit workout in our wet clothes.  That is the only way to workout here – unless you are swimming!!  We have an outside shower and we happen to be in the back of the property, so it is very convenient!  J 

We went for a bikeride into town today (Fare) to be amongst the fun.  It was not very fun.  I just don’t like crowds – Lisa was fine with it though, but we ultimately decided to watch the canoe race from our beach instead of going downtown.  After our bike ride, we had to cool off, so we jumped in our lagoon and stayed away from the humuhumu! J  The rest of the day, we just relaxed.  Made a great dinner.  (steak and salad and rice with fresh coconut meat and mangos on top)  MMM MMMMM.  We love this place.  We are trying not to feel bad about relaxing so much.  It is very different for both of us.

(for all you bachelor/bachelorette fans out there – Lisa keeps saying “it really looks like it did on the bachelor – its so pretty and clear and hot.. remember poor Roberto sweating to death”)

Nov 5 - What in incredible place!

This morning we made our way to Huahine via Air Tahiti.  So, most of us know that I get a bit shy around cute guys… well, there is a canoe race leaving from Huahine Wednesday morning – many people on our flight were the buff, dark, handsome men who will compete in this race.  I was minding my own business getting some water in my nalgene when I looked up and one of these men was watching me.  I looked and smiled and he said “ia orana” – the Tahitian greeting… like Aloha in Hawaii.  So me.. not really knowing how to say it very well, looked down and said it under my breath and kept walking!  RRGHH!  I walk back to Lisa and told her the story.  She ironed out the details and said “Why didn’t you just say “HELLO?” – you clearly speak English!”  Yes, yes, she was right, I do speak English, and I do not know why they make me so nervous.  So I said to Lisa – I am going back to talk to him… ask him questions about the upcoming race.

Wish I had a pic to show you, but I definitely did.  He was sitting with another guy and then another guy from the team came to sit down and chat.  They were very nice and helped me know what was going on with the biggest event in French Polynesia – the Hawaiikai Nui Va’a canoe race.  They asked me about myself and we had a great time talking.  Now I have a team to cheer for in the race – Tahitian Ohana.  NOTE:  When I came back to talk to Lisa, she said… I am so proud of you, why were you so brave?  I shrugged my shoulders and she said “its cuz you were comfortable talking about sports, huh?”  I shook my head yeah and said… “probably.”

We made it to Huahine - to Rande’s Shack.  J  Rande (originally from Santa Cruz,CA) and Emere, his wife (originally from Moorea, French Polynesia) greeted us as the taxi drove on to the property – the taxi that he arranged.

This is our home for the next 9 days.  We love our little house.  It’s about 40 yards through fruit trees from the water.

He told us that the more mangos and coconuts we eat, the happier he will be.  After he showed me around the property, the first thing I did, of course, was pick a mango with the picker and ate it!! SO YUMMY!  You can see in the above picture the mangoes he picked for us and left on the table for our arrival.

Lisa and I were very excited to unpack our backpacks and use the shelves in the bedroom.  There is a queen size bed In the room you can see and then in the corner you cant’ see in the pic, there is a twin bed.  We are still fighting over who gets the big bed!  It may just come down to a wrestling match at bed time – like queen of the bed. J

We noticed around these parts that 5:30AM is similar to 8:30AM in USA.  So we go with it.  In the airport at 6:30, it seemed like it was 10, seriously.  Noone looked tired, everyone was just buzzing like normal.  You go to an airport in the USA, everyone has their coffee mugs and sweats on – except your few select business people.  We are thinking its because it gets dark here at about 6:30.  Early to bed, early to rise.  I like it.

So after we unpacked our bags, of course we got our suits on and went to the water - so so so beautiful. I started out with no snorkel or anything and just wanted to get wet and swim a little.  Lisa is walking tentatively, unsure of the coral and what she should and shouldn’t step on – but I go out swimming, checking things out.  I see a fish swimming and it was very pretty…  So I stand up to tell Lisa to come along and see this beauty.  I look down and see this fish acting very different – kinda like Dori on Finding Nemo – when she forgets why Nemo is following her.  I just keep looking at this fish and all of the sudden – I kid you not.. it darted right into my leg!  WHAT?  That has never happened to me while snorkeling/swimming.  What on Earth?  I scream like a girl and dart back toward Lisa. “Lisa, I think that fish just bit me!”  NO seriously. I think it bit me. I raise my foot out of the water, and sure enough, I have little teeth/fish mouth mark on my leg.. see below!!  I guess I should have been more like Lisa and felt things out a little…

Yep… the teeth marks of that naughty fish!! -  I went back to the house to grab some snorkel gear, water shoes and some noodles.. and saw Rande.  I said “There’s some attack fish out there, huh?”  He laughed and said, Oh… the humuhumu got ya, huh?  - protecting his eggs.  Apparently, this attack fish was a humuhumunukunukuapua’a… which just so happens to be the Hawaiian State Fish.. it looks a little lighter here than in Hawaii.. most likely because of the lighter background.  He told Lisa that a girl from Idaho last week got bit too!  But she was warned… I however, was not!

We continued our adventures in the water… steering clear of that area, obviously.  The snorkeling is so pretty – so much life under there.  Many similar fish and sea life as Hawaii, so far, but I didn’t venture too far out today.  Lisa is just learning to snorkel and it is so much fun to watch her see this sealife under the water.  I love it.  However, she didn’t get out of the water unscathed today!

This is her battle wound from our snorkeling adventure today!  She was swimming and went over a big piece of coral.. I told her not to put her hands on the rock, but I was too late.  She had already tried and then she was kicking to get out of it.. lucky this was all she got from that.  I was nervous for her cuz I was standing by a piece of coral that had TONS of spiny sea urchins.  So glad she didn’t get stuck by one of those suckers!

We took a nap today and then went into town – it’s hopping because of the canoe race.  The supermarket is just like the European ones.  You should have seen us trying to figure out what milk to get… then, we grab the one we finally decide on and realize that there is English on the back side!  (we chose the right one, by the way)

Karen and Phil – remember the yogurt drinks in Europe!!! OH yeah.. they have them here.  Guess what I will be living on for the next month!  Lisa loves em too!

For the next 9 days, though, we will be happily drinking coconut water, eating coconut meat, mangos, and pakia fruit!  We are pretty blessed, I do have to say!  

This is what the pakia fruit looks like on the tree…

This is the inside of the fruit- the black part is the seed found inside of the white fleshy stuff.  The white part is the meat and it is the sweet part that you eat.  It is quite tasty. 

Today at dinner Lisa asked what was my favorite part of the day.  I told her that it was either picking the mango OR getting bit by the humuhumu… J  I returned the question and she said “when you got bit by the humu and screamed like a girl” – as she was laughing. 

Great day today.  To top it all off.. as we were walking in to town, guess what we walked by?  J  Our church.  Tender mercies of the Lord are all around us.  What incredible blessings the Lord gives us when we just realize that is exactly what they are – blessings.

Love this pic of Karen and Isa

Lisa and I had the privilege of joining Karen and her youth group for baptisms in the Kona temple.

Karen took us to a nearby resort where we walked around and got to see the dolphins interact with the people.  This one turned to say Hi to us as we were taking pictures.  They are pretty neat.

Jessie and I chillin at the pool. My friends Yvette and Brian who are great friends of Lisa and I in Port Alsworth happened to be vacationing in Kona while we were there.  They invited us to their resort and we had a fantastic time.

Tahiti: Hawaii with a European twist

Before I left Alaska, I was able to spend time with Pepper (Price) Pond and her family in Soldotna.  It was so nice to spend some time with her.  What a beautiful family - and lots of fun.  I also got to spend more time with Kaye (Worthen) Tuia and her family in Anchorage.  I feel very blessed to be reacquainted with them.

Bary and his family always show me a good time.  We went to Eklutna to hunt... notice everyone has bows and arrows.  I was the photographer.  Had a great time with them, as usual.  Definitely need to visit Alaska if you haven't.  It is incredibly beautiful.

I have been hanging out with my sister Karen and her family for two weeks on the Big Island, Hawaii.  Love her family so much, especially those sweet little girls.

:)  Isa is enjoying ketchup on her fries as well as the rest of the nachos!  YUMM

She's a nut!  Gotta love her.

I forgot my camera or I would have most certainly taken a pic of them in their cute unicorn costumes on Halloween.

So up to date:
Lisa Brinkley and I are traveling French Polynesia - more specifically the Society Islands (Tahiti, Moorea, Huahine, Raiatea, Tahaa, Bora Bora, and Maupiti) this month of November.  After a frustrating circus with our passports - we went to Honolulu where Lisa finally acquired her passport, the day before we left for Tahiti.  YESSS!! we are finally in Tahiti!!

Papeete, Tahiti
Day 1.  Last night we flew across the southern seas of the Pacific from Hawaii to Tahiti, where we landed at 10:30PM.. we waited in lines for about an hour to get through customs (LOTS of people and LOTS of humidity and heat!)  Blech. - then 30 more minutes in another line to get out of the baggage claim area.  I was happy to get the heck out of the airport, as you can imagine.  My idea of fun is definitely opposite that scenario!

Our hotel is across from the airport - up a hill.  My backpack is 40 lbs... Lisa's is 29.5.  SO.. as we were already sweating from the choas of the airport (and the heat of a Tahitian summer) we were thinking of what we could ditch from our bags - simply too hot to be needing anything extra.  We will be sending some extras home.  It's worth the expense of a package!!!

We were excited to find a church right close to the hotel.  We weren't sure how to get there, so we started early.  We grabbed the continental breakfast (which was interesting - a big baguette of bread, a croissant with chocolate and a bowl of cereal - lots of carbs!) and were on our way to find the church.  I thought it was really close, but couldn't find it.  We started walking the other way and I said a little prayer that we could find it.  A few steps later - I saw a steeple!  How incredible are the tender mercies of the Lord. :)

We walked into the church and found an empty pew.  We had no idea what they were saying (speaking in French).  Then a Tahitian woman, named Mary - she dumbed her name down for us - came over and said "Hello! Bonjour! - I know English, I will translate for you."  NOTE: we were sweating like pigs roasting on an open fire from our walk to the church.  She continues to get cozy with Lisa (arm wrapped around Lisa and leaning in to translate).  The chapel had the slot windows with about 20 fans to try and keep it as cool as possible - oh, my friends - it was not cool... Lisa informed me on our walk home that she had sweat dripping from places she did not know could sweat.  Mary was great.  She even offered to take us on an island tour on our way back through at the end of the month.

Fast and testimony meeting was just like everywhere else I have gone to church.  I love that about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I feel so at home no matter where it is.

Moorea under the cloud.. this is the view from our hotel room.. I will get better at taking pics.. can't wait to fly to Huahine tomorrow and see the islands from the air.