Dry land

8:16am Police, fire, and medical personnel are waiting. News reporters with cameras rolling, all seeking interviews. Tables with French bread and jam, coffee and juice, blankets. It is as though the entire island has turned out to help us.

But first things first...last one to the store across the road gets to fly to Tahiti naked! A fashion mob scene ensues in the broiling upstairs clothing section of the Chinese grocery, the only store open on Sunday morning. If you thought Day-After-Christmas Sales were bad, you haven’t seen desperation like this.

Over the course of that Sunday, most, if not all, passengers are flown back to Papeete Tahiti on scheduled or chartered Air Tahiti flights (about an hour by turbo-prop) and are given rooms at the Sofitel.

We leave Raiatea at about 12:15pm. When our flight arrives, motor coaches are waiting a few steps away on the tarmac for us. I read later the Minister of Tourism herself was even there. A police escort with blue lights flashing leads us on the drive to the hotel.

<<Back Next>>