Who Knows Where The Time Goes?*

We left Rapa Nui at 10pm, flew for five hours and 15 minutes and landed in Tahiti at 10.15pm; don’t think we’ll ever get used to it. We loved Rapa Nui so much; there was a sadness about moving on that we haven’t really felt so far.
We landed in Papeete and the first shock was to be greeted with “Bonsoir, MonsieurDame” as garlands of tiari flowers (Gardenia taitensis for our RHS Member readers) were placed around our necks, we were driven along the coast to our hotel. When we booked this through Trailfinders we got their upgrade – wow! We entered our ‘room’ into the hallway, through the hallway into the very large bedroom, thorough the bedroom into the very large bathroom (bathtub and shower big enough for eight people), through the bathroom into our huge lounge – and back into the original hallway (with its own loo) but we never got there because one wall of the lounge is a large sliding glass doors which open on to our balcony from where we can see the ocean. Wonderful and well done Trailfinders.
And well done LAN, we got our vegetarian meals this time – and real metal cutlery to eat it with; and red wine to drink with it. The aircraft also had an entertainment system which allows passengers to build their own music playlist – it wasn’t long before G had got a playlist with Neil Yong, Keith Jarrett, The Smiths, Charlie Mingus, Buena Vista Social Club and Brian Eno.
*"Who Knows Where the Time Goes?" is a song written by Sandy Denny. The song was originally recorded privately by her in 1967, and again during her time with Strawbs. It is best known in the version sung by her on the Fairport Convention album Unhalfbricking, although a solo version is available on the Sandy Denny Live at the BBC recording.