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Visit Mo’orea with me! 🌴 Have you heard of t Visit Mo’orea with me! 🌴

Have you heard of this island? I took a solo trip here from Tahiti on my last day in French Polynesia and this is how I spent it. I’d have loved to spend more than a day here but this was all the time I had and when there’s a will, I’ll find a way. Like biking nearly 30 miles on an e-bike in one day which transparently, I have never done before 😅

Side note, in preparation for my 30(ish) day posting challenge, I’m already challenging myself to show up more consistently, more authentically, less polished. My goal is to fall in love with social media again. I’m starting by having more fun with video editing and voiceovers, like this one.

___

Tahiti | French Polynesia | Moorea | #moorea | #freediving | Coral Gardeners | #coralgardeners | #travel
Postcards from Polynesia 🌴 Has a place ever fe Postcards from Polynesia 🌴

Has a place ever felt like a warm hug and a familiar friend? French Polynesia felt like this to me. Like a place I’ve known my whole life. If it weren’t for the French speaking and the love of roquefort (jokes but seriously I will never be sophisticated enough for blue cheese) I’d say it felt like home.

Some of my favorite moments from my first time in these beautiful islands (swipe):

🌸 Watching the surfers at world-famous Teahupoo
🌸 Every time a whale revealed itself to us 🫶🏽
🌸 This playful little girl, who had no idea how big she was and got a liiiiittle too close 🥹😅
🌸 Boat chats, dancing, and endless inside jokes 
🌸 Swimming with a fever of 20+ eagle rays, where I felt time slow down before my eyes 
🌸 Our wonderful hosts for the week and of course, the pink pony club 🐴
🌸 Seeing a coral nursery and feeling hope 

🫶🏽 i have one more post from French Polynesia coming for now, thank you for following along!

📸 underwater photos @natureman.j 

French Polynesia | Tahiti | Humpback Whales | Freediving | #FYP | #freedivers | #travel
When the doomscroll aches, look around, come up fo When the doomscroll aches, look around, come up for air, and name at least 3 things to be grateful for. 

Can you do that? 

PS - Follow @racheloffduty for more travel joy. I’m on a journey of self re(discovery) in my 30s, and I’d love to take you along 🫶🏽
Nearly every time I go online lately, it feels lik Nearly every time I go online lately, it feels like drowning. It’s why lately, I’ve felt like posting less and less. 

But when I come up for air, and stop to look around, I am constantly reminded of all the things worth remaining optimistic for!

Things like...

1. dancing with strangers turned fast friends, or

2. laughing so hard my belly aches because a woman with 73 years of life experience who lives on the other side of the planet is giving me hilarious, and most definitely questionable, advice on how to get men (haven’t we all met someone so unbelievably wild and full of life while on vacation??) or

3. witnessing the beauty and resilience of nature, or

4. sharing a meal with people offline paired with real, raw conversation

5. health, and the ability to move my body and do little things that scare me

… all these little things, that become the big things in time. 

I’m slowly finding new inspiration to keep showing up here. To keep showing up in my joy and my silliness and my hope even when the world feels crazy. 

So here’s a little reminder in case you, like I, might’ve needed one 🫶🏽 When the doomscroll aches, look around, come up for air, and name at least 3 things to be grateful for. 

Can you do that?
Turns out, she was always there ✨ ‘In my 30s, Turns out, she was always there ✨

‘In my 30s, it feels like I’m only just now unlocking a new part of myself that was always there but needed encouragement. A change of scenery. A new challenge. I am endlessly inspired by people who aren’t afraid to be new, to try something different, to put themselves in unfamiliar situations. And I realize, now more than ever, that I can be one of those people, too. I AM one. 

I am recognizing a shift in myself mentally this year. A realization that I don’t have to just be this version of myself on vacation, but in my everyday. A person I look up to and am inspired by beyond the pretty photos and stories of “that one time when...”

How do I make sure she doesn’t get left behind, in this place? 

How do I bring her with me wherever I go?’

These are some notes I jotted down on my phone while waiting for the whales two weeks ago in French Polynesia. And as I sit in front of my laptop and am very much no longer on a boat or out at sea 🥲 I was reminded of these words.

How DO we carry the versions of ourselves we meet on vacation home with us? Have you ever learned something new about yourself while traveling that stuck around?

PS - if you’re new here and resonate with self (re)discovery in your 30s, hit the ‘follow’ button and let’s be friends ❤️

___

French Polynesia | Whale Watching | Tahiti | Self Discovery in Your 30s | Lessons Learned in My 30s | Freediving | #FYP | Travel
Let me deinfluence a week spent in French Polynesi Let me deinfluence a week spent in French Polynesia swimming with humpback whales 🌺

It was without a doubt one of the most magical weeks of my life. But it isn’t all perfect ocean swims and sunny days and playful whales!

It’s also:

• Rustic accommodation in the middle of nowhere
• Minimal to no wifi
• Lukewarm showers
• Damp clothes that never seem to fully air dry
• A medly of bug bites no matter how much you spray
• Jelly stings and sea lice zaps galore
• Smelly wetsuits and lots of spit in your goggles (trust me) 
• Hours of waiting and watching, sometimes full days without a whale encounter

Expeditions like this are challenging and take you out of your comfort zone. But if you weren’t willing to ‘rough it’, you’d never have the chance to see whales with no other boats present. And if you didn’t have patience, you’d never wait around long enough for magic to unfold 🙏🏽

Some of my favorite days were days without a single whale encounter. We laughed and told embarrassing stories and ate simple, lovingly homemade meals around a communal table. We snorkeled in the most unbelievable places and forgot our ages and the weight of our lives and we played and squealed and were happy. We discussed hard things like politics and war and inequity and the environment with curiosity and zero prejudice. And at the end of the day we slept deep. So deep. Because the hours were filled not with phone screens but with living 🫶🏽

There is so much magic in unglamorous travel. The stuff you don’t see on Instagram. And I promise, you’ll almost always find the best stories aren’t made in a 5 star hotel. They’re made here.

So yes, this is the trip I gifted to myself for my 32nd turn around the sun. 

And it was perfectly imperfect. 
And the days stretched longer than they ever have. 
And I already miss the bug bites and the salt on my skin.

what questions do you have about traveling like this?
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