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Tahiti
NEW ME
The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what you are for what you could
become.
Charles Du Bos
I’ve always wanted to visit Bora Bora, French Polynesia. As a child, the name alone appealed to me even
without knowing the island’s location. When I found myself in Tahiti after my cruise went bankrupt, I learned
that Bora Bora was a 20-minute plane ride away. But it cost $250 – too pricey given that I had a limited
freelance writing income and would have to wait a month for my cruise refund.
I learned about an overnight freighter to Bora Bora for $50, one way. The price tag was perfect but a
freighter? Even in my 20s, I never embraced roughing it. I don’t need five star accommodations but I do
need basic comforts.
Aching to take advantage of this unexpected opportunity to visit Bora Bora but looking for an excuse to skip the
freighter, I grilled the Sheraton concierge about what to expect. “You must go,” she purred in a fluty
French accent. “Eet weel be ahn ahdventurrrre.”
Forty days on a cruise ship and four days at the Sheraton Papeete in Tahiti left me ill prepared for the dock scene
at Vaeanu. The freighter was a stubby pug of a vessel with crackling green paint and overhead cranes. If there were any
tourists among the teaming populace of passengers, they disguised themselves well.
Like the coming attractions of a long anticipated movie, all eyes were on me as I dragged a large duffel, knapsack
and a computer bag up the wooden ramp one at a time, globules of sweat flinging from every surface of my body. No cabin
steward or hotel bellman stepped forward to lend a hand. Instead, a surly woman in a brown muumuu splayed with
oversized white flowers, commanded me in French to pay the extra luggage fine.
The next morning I awoke in Taha’a, one of the four Leeward Society Islands and the last stop before Bora
Bora. The freighter-turned-ghost-ship had been depopulated by stops to the islands of Raietea and Huahine. Four
passengers remained on deck.
We set sail again in the cool morning air, under a bright, clear sky. A short while later, I pointed to the
cloud-shrouded peaks of the magnificent green mass I had seen at a distance from Taha’a. I asked a passing
crewmember, “Bora Bora?”
“Oui. Arrive´.”
Few experiences are more satisfying than becoming someone we always imagined we could be.
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