Pacific
p. 135 · Read in the full issue
The
New Services For
Tahiti And Tonga
UTA-AIR France will inaugurate a second weekly service between New Caledonia, Fiji and Tahiti at the beginning of November.
A special economy excursion fare of £AI79/19/- from Sydney to Tahiti and return will be available until March 31.
Meanwhile, RAI, the French Polynesian branch of UTA, has inaugurated a weekly service between Tahiti and Moorea with a Gruman Goose aircraft.
The Gruman Goose, an eight passenger amphibian, takes off from Tahiti’s Faaa Airport and lands inside the reef at Maharepa, Moorea, near the American-operated Bali Hai Hotel. The flight takes 14 minutes, against about two hours in the diesel launch, which runs a daily service between Papeete and Paopao Bay. Fares are: Single, 700 Pacific francs (£A3/10/-); return, 1,200 Pacific francs (£A6).
Polynesian Airlines are to start a fortnightly service between Apia and Nukualofa on October 5.
Planes will leave Apia at 10.30 a.m. on Sundays and, crossing the international dateline, reach Tonga at 1.45 p.m. on Mondays.
Return flights are scheduled to leave Nukualofa at 2.45 p.m. on Mondays and arrive at Apia at 6 p.m. on Sundays.
There will be connections for Pago Pago in mornings and evenings.
Pacific Tours For
The Well-Heeled
FOR an outlay of $5,130 (about £2,330 Australian), Hemphill World Cruises, of Los Angeles, California, have organised two tours of the South Pacific next year for people with 68 days to spare who would like to have a good look around, and who insist on first-class air travel between stops.
The Hemphill tours begin in Los Angeles on February 27 and October 9 and take in visits to Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, Fiji, Western Samoa, Tonga, the North and South Islands of New Zealand, Australia (including Hobart, Launceston, Mel bourne, Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane,
Mackay, the Great Barrier Reef and Cairns), Papua-New Guinea, and the Solomons, If you’re prepared to do without the visits to Cairns, New Guinea and the Solomons, which take 11 days, the trip is yours for $4,390 with first class air travel, or $3,953 with economy/tourist class air travel.
But if you settle for the cheaper fare for either the short or long trip, you must be prepared to get by with only 44 lb of baggage, whereas first class passengers can take 66 lb.
In a brochure on their Pacific tours, Hemphills say: “We offer the best that can be obtained, whatever it may be. We do not search for hardships or discomforts, but members (i.e. passengers) will be expected to tolerate them should they occur. References may be asked of those who have not travelled with us before.”