Back in Sweden

I've now been home for a few days, settling in with the family life once more. It feels really good to be back again, although the climate in Sweden this time of year is horrible when you've gotten used to tropical heat for two months. It actually snowed two days ago...

It seems that all our equipment and samples are en route to Stockholm right now and are estimated to arrive at the lab either tomorrow or on monday. For the moment it seems like all my persistence and hard work that last day on the ship payed off.

I have a few more days off back home with my family before I have to get back to Stockholm for work and even though I have some things, private and professional, that needs immediate attention I will make the most of it.

I realise that I never said much about my few days of vacation in Tahiti and my updates during that time were non-existent. Needless to say, I had a great time and that's why I never wrote anything on my blog during that time.
In summary: me and my Italian friend stayed at a rather fancy hotel for the entire stay, which was awesome. We were fortunate enough to get a huge discount on our stay, so in the end way paid less for our 4-star room than our colleagues did for their 2- and 3-stars downtown. The only downside to it was the 10 min taxi ride from downtown Papeete.
Overall we didn't spend much time at the hotel anyway, but what little time we did was great (the pool, the breakfast and the bar/dinner) and they had a fair internet connection which meant that I could call home on a regular basis.

The first couple of days we rented a car and went around the island, exploring the beaches of Tahiti, which are black in the north and east and white in the west and south (Tahiti, just as most of the small islands in the Pacific is a volcanic island). We also tried to locate some of the natural scenery like waterfalls, lookout points and the famed Teahupoo surf spot with its massive waves.
The waves were not as big as you might see on TV but they were still impressive and we were fortunate enough to see a few brave surfers master the barrels out by the reef.


One of the best parts of arriving in Tahiti was good beer (from the local brewery), although sweeter ale than I would prefer, and food other than French. It may sound like I would have been happy with whatever but truth be told, the food (especially the street food) was really tasty (not always cheap though, but still well worth it). This meant that we spent almost every evening in Papeete, which is a tiny city even with Swedish standards. Needless to say, I quickly got fed up with it.

The final day off we went to the small sister island, Moorea (which apparently is older than Tahiti). Prior to arriving in Tahiti we all got told that this island was a must, and I couldn't possibly agree more. Pristine white beaches like taken straight from postcards greeted us as soon as we set foot on the island after a 45 min ferry ride. The whole island felt less exploited and not as run down as some parts of Tahiti. There was no town on the island just a few clusters of buildings and the occasional luxury hotel on a long stretch of white beach and the shielding reef making the water closest to the shores turquoise. Further inland, if you can even say that about an island which is 60 km around, remnants of the old volcanic crater rose up like rocky needles. Some were fortunately large enough to climb with a car so we could easily get an awesome view of the island and the surrounding barrier reefs.
The main purpose of the trip to Moorea was for me to finally scuba dive again after seven years out of the water. I did two awesome dives, even though the second reef dive was nothing special, it felt great just to be back in the water. The first shark dive though was really cool and I swam around with lots of black tip reef sharks and a couple of impressive lemon sharks.
Before heading back to Tahiti we also had time for a sightseeing tour with a crazy Italian, Mario.

All in all, I'm very pleased with the perk of my profession.