Windsurfing Championships and Tahiti

Last week Miriam and I heard about the windsurfing championships going on at the beach. So we thought we would visit the beach and check it out. Now the races are way out there in the harbour so you can't see the races at all. But there is a lot of action going on at the beach. The feeling on the beach is kind of an Olympic feeling because they are all trying to qualify for the Beijing Olympics. All the equipment is the same and all the sails have a number and the country flag. We took a bunch of pics and talked to a few racers. We had a fun time. When the wind really picked up the wind surfers really got moving! On Sunday the 20th of January I left for the beautiful island of Tahiti. Tickets were pricey so Miriam stayed home. I went from the 2oth to the 26th. Tahiti is also called French Polynesia. I guess many years ago the island requested protection from France and now its a very french island. So I spent the week saying Bonjour which is hello in French. There were a few employees of the Church that went to Tahiti so on Sunday 4 of us went to church which was very close to the hotel. They had just put in a new Bishop and he was only 24 years old. It was fun to see him conduct a ward conference. A nice man that new English sat behind us and translated sacrament meeting for us. Bruce and I drove around the island in the afternoon and looked at a couple of new chapels that had just been completed. My training was Monday and Tuesday. It went very well and on Tuesday we stopped for a couple of hours and played some basketball. We played ball on Thursday too. The beach outside of our hotel was amazing. The surf was huge, and was constantly pounding down on the beach. Unfortunately it is the rainy season in Tahiti and it rained almost every day. Luckily I went to work not play. One night we went to the wharf where the cruise ships come in. Every night restaurants on wheels come to the wharf and set up and sell crepes with everything in them. Supper, dessert or anything else you want they put it in a crepe. It was pretty good. We played ball again on Thursday and DANG I rolled my ankle. DANG DANG.. now I don't know if I can heal fast enough for our hike in Able Tasman. Anyway, it was a great trip and I had a good time. Enjoy the pics. Don't forget to visit the album page.. Bob