Solar Eclipse Tahiti July 2010

I was fortunate enough to accompany our trip to Tahiti this summer to witness a total Solar Eclipse along with 130 Explorers Eclipse travellers, a trip operated through our sister company. This trip combined all the best elements of an adventure trip with the chance to see a unique solar event. The sighting of the Eclipse, lasting just over three and a half minutes was from a remote atoll in the Tuamota Islands, known as Hao. This island is itself over 2 hours away from Tahiti by plane. As the infrastructure on the atoll is limited (it is a former French military base and now primarily used as an emergency landing strip for NASA) we found ourselves camping close to a vantage point where our astronomy expert John Mason, determined we would get an optimal viewing. We were not to be disappointed and the sighting of the Eclipse itself had both mystery and a strange beauty. Many of our fellow travellers were expert photographers and suitably equipped to take high quality images during the entire passage of the Eclipse. The trip also included several other highlights during the course of its ten day duration, before some of the party moved on for an Easter Island extension. Whilst on Tahiti we also got the opportunity to take in other Tahitian sights such as a visit to the Botanical Gardens, an island tour, a trip to Moorea (a sister island) and a visit to the Gauguin Museum.