ATMs and Changing Cash in French Polynesia

We are budgeting for our trip and are amazed at the amount of cash we are going to have to take for 3 weeks in French Polynesia. We have read mixed reports on people's sucess at getting ATMs to work. We would be interested to hear experiences of how you all managed with money changing, ATMs, which is the best currency to take (we have pounds sterling and changing into euros or dollars is not wildly attractive right now)? Thank you.

My experience has been you can't beat good old Travelers cheques. My bank doesn't charge for them and they receive an excellent exchange rate w/ no additional transaction fees.

We bought some Pacific Francs before we left home and wish we had taken more with us. It has been awhile but we had no luck getting francs from the ATM's. We relied on our travelers cheques - the bank there charged us a straight fee(rather steep if I remember), no matter the amount changed so it would be better to exchange as large an amount as you are comfortable with. We did not come across an American Express office, but if you can find one they exchange without a fee. I don't know if it has gotten better but we also found credit cards were not as well accepted as in other places.

Both ATM's at the airport did not work for me with two different ATM cards.

I used travelers checks and cashed them all at the airport. Some islands do not have banks or ATM's. Travelers checks offer a better rate than cash. There is an approx. 500 cfp fee for currency exchange (about U$ 5.50)

Do check on the Tahiti Explorer site for the latest information: http://www.tahiti-explorer.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=cfrm

Euros are always at the same rate to Pacific francs but I would not buy them especially for the trip. If I had pounds I would take the pounds.

Thank you for your answers