Last month, I snuck off to two of the most fascinating islands in French Polynesia for birders – Ua Huka and Rimatara. Although I was pretty much unplugged for this trip, I did have blog posts queued up for auto posting so no one probably even noticed I was away. But now it’s time to ‘fess up and introduce you to two amazing islands that most travel bloggers have never heard of, let alone traveled to!
Location of Ua Huka and Rimatara in relation to Papeete and Bora Bora
This map shows where we were in relation to the two French Polynesian islands most other bloggers have been posting about – Tahiti and Bora Bora.
This trip was a bucket list journey for me in which I got to see one of the world’s most beautiful birds – the Ultramarine Lorikeet for the first time………………….
Ultramarine Lorikeet
……………………and to see the beautiful Rimatara Lorikeet, previously seen in Atiu in their original homeland of Rimatara!
Rimatara Lorikeets
I have many more photos of these gorgeous birds, I haven’t really sorted through them all yet so as this journey progresses you will get to see a lot more………………and yes they will be clear shots!
This is one trip you can’t do totally with miles and points. I had originally planned to do it in Feb 2015 with AAdvantage miles redeemed on Qantas and Air Tahiti Nui but brought it forward to June 2014. All the recent devaluations have spooked me a bit and this is one trip that could be vulnerable to the new US/AA merger. Air Tahiti Nui is a partner of AAdvantage but not US Airways and even then they are only a half partner. You can redeem but not accrue miles on Air Tahiti Nui using AAdvantage and they are not in OneWorld or any other alliance. Theoretically, I should have been able to do this trip with Star Alliance partner United or even US Airways before they merged but it’s been over a year since Air New Zealand has released award space in ANY class – economy or business on the Brisbane-Auckland route and space between Auckland and other Aussie airports is extremely limited. I felt it was a situation of book now or possibly lose my chance to get the flights to Tahiti on miles period!
Once in Tahiti, we still had to get to the islands of Ua Huka and Rimatara. The only way to do this is on Air Tahiti (not the same as Air Tahiti Nui) and you can’t use miles, you MUST pay cash and these flights are not cheap! I’ll be going into detail in a later post but now you know why we ate ramen noodles for most lunches (and will be eating them a lot at home for the next couple months)!
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The airport is buzzing from 5am onwards as people are checking in for departures at 6am onwards. The line is pretty long, no elite check-in so get there as early as you can! Fares are not cheap as I already posted!
Flights boarded right on time. People with children were called first, then all others walked to the plane and chose any open seat. We went for the “poor people’s business class” in the front. Not a great idea as seat arms don’t come up and we were last off the plane.
