| Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020 | |
Getting to the 2010 total eclipse?Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea | ||
The next total solar eclipse will be visible July 11 along a narrow band in the South Pacific. Some tour groups have pretty much locked up flights and lodging on Easter Island, which sits near the center line, even though weather prospects are iffy. A better bet for weather is near Tahiti, but actually getting to the totality zone requires a flight to one of the outlying atolls or a boat ride about 150K south of Papeete. At the moment, the only available flights are being chartered by tour operators as part of overpriced packages. (Some people are going to Patagonia, but weather prospects aren't promising.) Question: If I make my own arrangements to get to Tahiti, will local operators be providing transportation to a suitable viewing site? This seems like a once-in-a-lifetime commercial opportunity for anyone with access to a boat or a plane. Air Tahiti hasn't responded to inquiries. If this is news to anyone, here is the link to the NASA website with complete details: | ||
Write to the Tahiti Tourism Office They should be able to provide information on local operators. | 1 | |
With these events, almost all planes and passenger-type boats are chartered well in advance. I doubt you can get to the Gambiers, etc. if you just show up in Papeete. Better to bite the bullet and join one of the lower-priced trips. Weather in EI won't be that different rain-wise from Tahiti at that time of the year. | 2 | |
“Better to bite the bullet and join one of the lower-priced trips.” Excellent advice. The problem is that none of these packages (and there really aren't all that many) really qualifies as “lower-priced,” and most are fully booked (I'm on some waiting lists). Prices typically start at about $4000 and up for five or six nights in the islands, plus a large single supplement and the international airfare. By contrast, if I book five hotel nights for myself for about $900 and I spend another $500, even $1000, for local transportation to the totality zone, I still come out way ahead. It's hard to believe that Tahiti locals won't be interested in seeing this unique phenomenon on their doorstep and arrange day trips for themselves. Any boat with a range of more than 300 kilometers (150K each way) could do this. I understand that there are ferries connecting the islands. Would one of these have the range to get to totality? Inquiries to Air Tahiti and the above-suggested tourism authority have gone unanswered. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Jay Anderson, the eclipse-chasing scientist who makes a specialty of plotting weather conditions, predicts that historically the Tahiti area looks like a slightly better bet than Easter Island, where the hotels and airlines have marked up their limited facilities exorbitantly and where packages cost much more than the ones to Tahiti. Here's the weather map: and the graphs: and the track map: | 3 | |
This topic has been covered several times on the Tahiti Explorer forum, I provided links just a couple of weeks ago. You will have to purchase a flight to an outer atoll on Air Tahiti. I've heard that they are booking up fast. Cargo boats do serve the region but they are not a practical alternative. There are no ferries traveling outside of the Society Islands. | 4 | |