French Polynesia–When You Go There

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You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who’s been to French Polynesia who complains that the islands didn’t deliver on their promised dose of luxury and sun. Lonely Planet’s Tahiti and French Polynesia pages describe French Polynesia as “a mesmerising wonderland of reef-fringed islands and translucent aqua lagoons” that’s “[t]he epitome of the Pacific dream.” Not bad. Lonely Planet also points out that mango season comes in two chunks, from October to December and from May to July, that the “number of poisonous snakes and spiders=0” and that in French Polynesia there are approximately 300,000 Tiare flowers harvested each day.

Finding surfing blogs or “cruising” blogs that rave about French Polynesia is pretty easy; finding English-language blogs by writers who really know French Polynesian life and culture is a different story. Of course traveling to tropical island paradise” is different from living there day to day. Coconut radio, the blog of globe-hopping travel writer Celeste Brash, who literally wrote the book on Frensh Polynesia, while still written by a Westerner, promises, “no tourist hype…just experience-based storytelling and real-life images.” Brash lived in French Polynesia for fifteen years and has developed a perspective on life there that at least offers insight beyond that of your typical honeymooner. Who else will take you Tuna Wrestling in the Tuamotus, take you “Traveling French Polynesia on a Supply Ship” and introduce you to “Punu Pua’atoro: Spam of the Gods?” By the way, Brash explains the name of the blog: “in French Polynesia when gossip is passed along from person to person we call it the coconut radio.”

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