Let me begin by explaining what I do for a living:
In my line of work, I get to see some of the world's most beautiful tourist destinations, and the great thing is, I don't have to spend one cent of my own money doing it. Some people would say, 'Great life if you can get it,' but what makes it hard is that every one of these fantastic places I go to is to work.
I work for a company involved in prospecting for oil and gas. My 'territory' covers the enormous area of the Pacific Basin. The place I physically travel to stretches in a rectangle from Japan in the Northwest to the West Coast of the United States in the Northeast. From Japan, in the Southeast, I visit all reasonable size places across the Southwest, including Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
Tahiti is the furthest island in the Southeastern territory, with many beautiful places in between. Among the island groups, I visit Hawaii, Fiji, Tonga, Western and American Samoa, New Caledonia and Vanuatu, and the small islands of Micronesia and Melanesia.
More often than not, I base myself either in Sydney, Australia or Auckland, New Zealand. They're both exciting places to live with good weather most of the time. It doesn't do any harm that they are also renowned for beautiful beaches and great-looking women.
I don't spend too much of my time in any one place, so I have got used to feeling reasonably comfortable wherever I stay, and living out of a suitcase is now second nature. Within hours of landing in a new place, I can generally put down my temporary roots and feel at home. It always seems familiar after unpacking my bag, showering, and driving the Avis rental car to the next place. Of course, travel agents and tourist advertising are generally accurate, but even beautiful places have different languages and accents, and all sites feel the same if you work alone.
Staying in good hotels is a prerequisite for my job. Some might think I do this to name-drop the great places I visit. The reason for the excellent hotel rule is simple: I work and play hard and need somewhere safe to live when I'm not working. I want the comforts of home while enjoying the ease of communication. You don't get all of this at the second-rate hotels.
The good thing about staying in five-star hotels is that you often meet some friendly people. True, you also get to meet the opposite. Some people believe that money is a license to be a nuisance to hotel employees. I've never worked out why this is. They are often the noisy ones in a bar or the ones that complain about the wine or service at dinner.
Many people I have met on my travels are happily married. However, a single man would like to meet straight, single females, but they don't often travel alone, and this is probably the most sensible thing to do in many Pacific islands. If a European woman is alone in many places I travel to, they might as well have a yellow flashing light attached to their head saying, 'Hello, I'm here! Come and get me.' It must be infuriating for women because I know what I'm saying is true.
So, to recap, when I'm travelling, I often look for an eligible woman to join me at dinner and more if the circumstances are right. I prefer older women, but I don't mean so old they require a walking frame. To be more accurate, she will be in her late forties to early sixties.
In my most recent travels, I met a woman from the Australian High Commission in Suva, Fiji. Then I had a similar fling with an Air New Zealand hostess while working in Tokyo, and they were both excellent.
Don't get me wrong, though; I don't go to these beautiful places and sit around panting like a dog after a bitch in heat. If it happens, it happens; if it doesn't, then it doesn't. My next job is in Tahiti, so maybe my luck might change.
They gave me the details of the new job and a technical data dossier before I left my Auckland office. I estimated it might take about a week, maybe ten days maximum. A Japanese firm was negotiating to drill for oil offshore in French Polynesia. The local government officials asked my company to supply an independent consultant to review the Japanese data. I arranged to meet with both parties at eight on Monday morning in their downtown office in Papeete, the capital of Tahiti.
I arrived in Papeete on Sunday at five in the afternoon, local time. The plane landed reasonably well in the swirling winds continually buffeting the area. Although it was warm, the rain lashed the runway. Just as the rain went horizontal, the hostess decided this was the best time for the passengers to descend the steep aluminium steps they'd pushed up against the side of the plane. I was soaked to the skin before I got to the terminal building; rain ran off my clothes like being in a shower fully dressed.
After clearing customs, I went straight to the Avis desk and hired their only remaining car, a left-hand drive UK Mini Clubman. It had to be thirty years old. The paint colour was a combination of rust and fading grey. There was even a hole in the driver's door that I could get my fist through. They didn't advertise it as air conditioning, but it wouldn't have surprised me. The tiny car had seen better times, that's for sure. Then, just to make my day, as I was driving to the hotel, a giant cockroach ran up the right leg of my trousers and almost got me killed. I spent five minutes beating my leg until I got a warm squishy feeling running down the back of my calf. I had arrived in yet another tropical paradise.
The hotel was something else. I had not stayed in this hotel before, so the odd sensation when I used the elevator was different. The hotel was said to be the best in Papeete. It clung precariously to a hillside overlooking the ocean. I could see the twinkling lights of Club Med on an island close to the shore. Seeing the lights wasn't easy as a mist appeared as the rain storm went out to sea.
The sky came alive with stars, and an unseen hand had struck a match that set fire to the furthest clouds. Another ten minutes and the colour of the sky would change from a dull red glow to a soft blue as the moon came up and bathed everything in milk-white light. The cockroach aside, I was pleased to be in Tahiti again; this was a magnificent place to spend time, working or not.
After checking in at reception, at street level, the receptionist advised that my room was on the 8th floor. As I hit the number eight on the elevator wall, I was amazed as the elevator began to descend instead of ascend. The hotel's fifteen floors, including the ground floor, at street level, all went down the hill. There was no building above street level; it was all below.
After unpacking my bag, I had a shower and shaved, then lay down for a half hour to see if I could get rid of the fuzziness in my head. The long flight from Auckland had been tiring, especially with getting to the airport so early for security checks.
Two hours later, I woke slightly confused and hungry. I try to maintain sensible habits on planes and try not to sway from them too often. I only eat every other available meal and only drink a maximum of two drinks during a flight, no matter the distance. If you over-indulge in either of these, you will feel like shit at the other end of your journey. Travel for a living and find out.
I had been given a mobile phone number as my contact in the Papeete local government office. When I called at 8.15 pm, the reply was a female voice with a pleasant French accent, "Allo, Oui? Madam Voiret."
"Bonjour, Madam Voiret, this is Dave Bishop from Consolidated Oil and Gas."
"Ah, yes, Mr Bishop. Welcome to Tahiti. I hope you had a good journey."
"Yes, thank you, Madam; it was a good flight, but the rain when we landed was something else."
"Please call me Vivian, Mr Bishop; we do not stand on too much ceremony in Tahiti. Tell me, have you eaten?"
"No, I haven't. Would you care to join me for a late supper?"
"Yes, that would be nice. Shall I meet you at your hotel? They have a good restaurant, and it will mean you do not have to drive anywhere."
"That sounds great. How long will it take you to get here?"