World Schooling Launched…From Tahiti

We launched our first leg of WorldSchooling by going somewhere we have never been before. The beautiful, amazing islands of Tahiti and Moorea. Technically, our first leg of WorldSchooling was New Zealand, but most flights stopped in either Hawaii, Fiji or Tahiti, so we felt like we should stay for a few days in one of the places if we had to stop anyway. So we flew to Tahiti and stayed in French Polynesia for 8 days on our way to New Zealand.

We left out of SFO. That means we upped our departure day to spend 3 days in San Francisco before heading to Papeete. The girls’ cousin joined us for the Tahiti part of our trip.

Girls had their 6th grade graduation/awards ceremony on a Friday and we left Saturday. Of course. (Itching to depart at the first opportunity!) While waiting for our flight at SFO, we caught a glimpse of Airforce One.

We then arrived to Tahiti, where we were greeted at the airport by a serenade!

We stayed at a lovely villa with a pool and the most gorgeous views, of our second destination, Moorea.

The vistas were stunning, everywhere.

We called it the beginning of Worldschool launch but it wasn’t, not really. It was a glorious break. It was the much needed relaxation, downtime before we being the school year. Summer break. Except Winter in Tahiti. Confusing. Tahiti is lovely. French Polynesia and it’s people were amazingly friendly. So many experiences — the security guard who comes over when we double parked and instead of yelling at us to move, offers to walk with us and help with all our luggage to show us where the elevator is around the corner. The person who runs over and makes sure we aren’t lost. The person who escorted us to our rental house to make sure we found it and knew how everything worked. All speaking French. Which is honestly the disconnect because that famous French aloofness is absolutely lacking in Tahiti. (And not lacking in another French island, Guadeloupe, where we vacationed in 2022, so the contrast was stark. And a pleasant surprise.)

The French Polynesian waters, well, the waters are indescribably beautiful and pictures do not do it justice. We loved swimming and snorkeling, and though we generally dislike hot humid weather, we were fortunate to be there on the “coldest” day of the year, what we call the summer solstice, but I guess is actually their winter solstice, June 21. Late June is a very nice time to be in French Polynesia.

That said, while we love warm water beaches, but dislike heat and humidity, we were beginning to look forward to actual winter in New Zealand. It was hard to say goodby to Tahiti, and of course we are already seeing how to plug a few days into Tahiti during our Down Under Module (2024).