In 1998, Nicole, Pauline, Virgile and I spent 12 days on four different Hawaiian Islands. We had won a raffle at the high school band carnival that helped with the cost -- $500 and five nights in a time-share Maui condo -- and we visited Kauai, the Big Island, Maui and Lanai. We had a wonderful time, and with Pauline 18 and Virgile 13, it was last last big family vacation we took together.
The next summer, Nicole and I did the tropical thing one better. We decided to spend a week at the Club Med in Moorea, French Polynesia. Moorea is not the best known of the Society Islands -- Tahiti and Bora Bora probably are -- but I don't know if I've ever been anywhere more beautiful than the next island west from Tahiti.
Club Med is aimed more at international tourists than at Americans. It's actually a French corporation headquartered in Paris, and most of its locations are outside the United States.
To get to Moorea, you fly from Los Angeles to Papeete and then catch an island-hopping flight. It was the first time in my life -- and to date the only time -- I have been south of the Equator.
The Club Med was a lot of fun, and I always thought we might go back someday. But when I checked the Website a few years later, I saw that there was no longer a Club Med on Moorea.
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| Club Med Moorea |
It was just a year or so ago that I finally learned what had happened. In 2001, just two years after we were there, the Moorea Club Med had been destroyed by a fire. The damage was complete, and it wasn't feasible to rebuild.
I doubt I'll ever make it back to Polynesia. It was 4,100 air miles from Los Angeles to Papeete, but it's only 3,800 more to get to Sydney from there.
And as much as I loved the South Seas, there is no place in the world of all the places I have yet to visit that I would rather see than Australia.
I may be more than halfway through the back nine in my 18 holes of life, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to play it out.
And enjoy it very much.
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