The funny thing about paradise is, it is always somewhere far, but not where you are at the moment and paradoxically home is only sweet, when you are far away from it, often close to paradise!
(Time for thinking …..)
However, my bags are packed.
I am traveling with a lot of diving and camera equipment, but believe it or not, there is still room in my bags.
It is almost impossible to fill up the Mares Cruise Backpack Pro entirely without extending the airlines 23kg limit for checked luggage. Unfortunately, the regulations for checked and hand luggage are getting tougher and tougher.
The good news is, in recent years materials have become lighter without compromising strength and resistance. This is also true for B.C.D's, regulators and other equipment. My beloved 20 year old Abyss MR 22 stays behind, but I am sure I will quickly become friends with the much lighter Prestige 15X.
For the trip I prepare for, I actually don't have to worry about luggage regulations too much. Because I am flying on ATN, halfway around the globe.
The baggage allowance on this airline is: 1 bag of 23kg and another bag of 23kg for diving equipment. That is what I call diver friendly!
Unfortunately they do not operate on many routes, but for me this is just right this time, ...they bring me home, home to paradise, far away from everywhere actually!
After a stressless check in I can relax and watch my own film “ Te Moana Nui - The Vast Ocean” on the airline's entertainment program. That is how I earned this flight by the way.
Now you get an idea where I am heading to, no? My final destination rests in the heart of the biggest body of water of our blue planet: it covers 165 million square kilometers. That is 46% of the Earth's water surface and one third of it's total surface. Air Tahiti Nui brings me right into the middle of the Pacific Ocean. French Polynesia, better known as Tahiti, is my second home. I was not born there, but it is the place where I did most of my dives - and that is what a diver calls his home, right?
Thousands of dives in nine years, countless extraordinary encounters and stories to tell, … it is truly a divers paradise...my paradise AND home -ha!
Modern nomads like myself always move on, but to some places we also return to once in a while.
French Polynesia is one of those places. It is a French overseas territory and stretches over 2000 km, a surface as large as Europe, from Norway to Sicily and Portugal to the Ukraine. Five Archipelagos containing 118 islands and atolls. You can imagine that the underwater world here has something to offer.
A place where you can swim with whales, dive with dolphins and hundreds of sharks. And this in crystal clear and warm water.
Are you getting curious and perhaps want to hear a bit more about this place?
Just let me unpack my bags after the arrival and then I will get into the water with you and introduce you to some of my two-legged and multi-finned friends.
To prepare for it and get in the mood, I am happy to share the film “Te Moana Nui” with you, ... the film I traded in for a flight ticket
Water - just add Mares!
See you soon and ocean greetings,
Peter
Peter
7th October 2016
Unnamed Road, Puna'auia, Französisch-Polynesien 
![DSC_4454 [2048x1536]_2](https://blog.mares.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/DSC_4454-2048x1536_2-400x225.jpg)
