| Ruby Sara Duvall, correspondence
reporter for the Sunday Seeker, filing this report from aboard
the SS Elysium. Since prices to visit the most exclusive of the Club Med group of resorts started to drop in 2004, my boss has finally agreed to send me to the secluded atoll to file this report. I am now about half an hour out of the atoll, which is in plain view from the ship's observation lounge. Captain Straker makes the Mururoa run (known as the Sinade O'Conner run) every month on his ship the SS Elysium, and has ferried hundreds of well known celebrities to the resort since it opened in '98. Spirits are high as we draw in to the atoll's lagoon. Later we may come back on one of the |
glass bottom boats and look at the
strange coral forms native only to this area. For the adventurous, special scuba equipment is available, and a guide can take you to see many underwater spectacles, such as the caverns and fissures lining the whole lagoon. Thousand Sun Beach is clearly visible as our vessel docks, some people even basking without any protection despite today's warnings of such action. After stowing away my belongings in my lavishly furnished room, I received a complimentary 'Half Life' from the bar. While drinking my cocktail, I walked around some of the resort, noting the wreck of the Rainbow Warrior II shimmering in the crystal clear uninhabited waters of the massive lagoon. |
Tours to the wreck reveal the twin
holes in the hull, and odd iridescent green discolouration of
the metal. The walk through Einstein's Arboretum is very relaxing, with soft ash underfoot, but almost frightening with the total lack of sound other than those you make yourself. The walk culminates at McTaggart's Point, place of the last sighting of 20th Century activist John McTaggart. Looking out to sea, you wonder if anything could be more beautiful than what Nature has created here. The price was expensive, but as I didn't have to pay for it, I can just sit back and enjoy the spoils of the area. |