Maeva
— Welcome
The
symposium will be held at Sheraton Hotel in Tahiti Island
(French Polynesia).
Time
zone
Tahiti
and neighbor islands are delayed by 10 hours from GMT. Examples of time
differences are as follows: -11 hours in winter time from Paris (-12
in summer time), - 2 hours from the United States Pacific Coast time
zone, - 6 hours from Santiago de Chile, - 19 hours from Tokyo and Sydney,
and - 22 hours from Auckland.
Currency
The
local currency, the French Pacific Franc (CFP), is on a fixed parity
with the Euro (1 EUR = 119.331 CFP). The official banking code is "XPF",
but "CFP" is widely used in French Polynesia.
In
Papeete International Airport (PPT), the change office is open from
Monday to Friday from 7:45 am to 3:30 pm, as well as one hour before
all departures and all arrivals of international flights. Automatic
Teller Machines are also available at the airport.
Major
credit cards are accepted in most hotels, restaurants, boutiques and
other tourist establishments.
Most
Hotels (including Sheraton Tahiti Hotel) will also exchange various
currencies for CFP. ATMs are available in many locations to withdraw
cash.
Weather
The
temperature, which is always pleasant, is cooled by the trade winds
of the Pacific that blow throughout the year. The average ambient temperature
is 27 °C, and the waters of the lagoons are a fairly constant 26
°C.
Travel
Tahiti
airport is located in Faa'a, less than 5 kms from Papeete. It is conveniently
reached via direct flights originating from the US (Los Angeles, San
Francisco and Hawai), Chile (Santiago), Japan (Tokyo and Osaka), Australia
(Sydney) and New Zealand (Auckland). From Europe, the most convenient
route is via Paris, from where flights to Papeete are scheduled daily.
More information on the airlines flying to Papeete are available here.
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Some
nice shots of French Polynesia
Photos Courtesy of Robert Maurin
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