OK, this is Paradise. But I soon learn that the best things in life aren't free!

Lesson One. American Breakfast for two will set you back 50 quid. Luckily, I pre-booked this as part of a package which also include a free night stay. So I feel very pleased with myself.

Lesson Two: The hotel souvenir shop. A two litre bottle of mineral water will cost you the thick end of a fiver. A Mars Bar around £2.50. A bus you can pick up outside (heavily subsidised to ferry low income locals around the island) will take you to a supermarket a few minutes down the road for around 16p. There you can purchase aforesaid mentioned items at still inflated prices but nowhere near as bad as the hotel souvenir shop.

We took the bus (known as Le Truck) down to Papeete to walk around the Saturday morning market and to look for the dark pearls for which Polynesia is famous.

The place is bustling with traffic. Motorbikes, scooters and cars weave in and around you from all directions. None of the locals appear to look affluent enough to afford to buy any of the items on sale in the market.

The pearl traders are doing a brisk trade but they're selling purely to tourists.

We returned to the Hilton where we spent the rest of the day parked on a sunbed on the hotel's own private beach. The shallow lagoon immediately in front of us is quiet but away in the mid distance the water is busy with speedboats, inter-island ferries and diving boats busy criss-crossing the horizon in front of us.

This gentle easy-going sea-going traffic is entertaining along with the regular low flying in and outgoing flights to nearby Papeete airport. Noise isn't a problem as there aren't enough flights to cause a nuisance like if you lived in, say, Middlesex under the Heathrow flightpath.

Towards the end of our day on the sand, we notice an outbound Air New Zealand flight to Auckland turning as it taxis to the runway. I swear this is no more than 400 yards away as we can clearly make out the airline name and logo on the tailfin with the naked eye.

Wonder if I can get a £45 refund on the return private transfer as I'm sure I could lug our bags across the sand back to Papeete International on Tuesday morning?

With the money we think we can save, we head to the hotel cocktail bar and discover the Chi Chi, a rich creamy long drink which, after a couple, sneaks up behind you and belts you over the back of the head.

Ingredients for a Chi Chi

• Vodka
• Pineapple Juice
• Coconut Cream
• Crushed Ice

Quantities for one drink:

• 2 oz Vodka
• 5 oz Pineapple Juice
• 1 1/2 oz Coconut Cream
• 1 Cup Crushed Ice

Blending Instructions:

• Pour the vodka, pineapple juice and coconut cream into a blender with one cup of crushed ice
• Blend well at high speed, and pour into a collins glass
• Garnish with a maraschino cherry and a slice of pineapple, and serve

Kath particularly enjoyed this as two of these turned her both very giggly and highly amusing.

A couple of Chi Chis will certainly be the order of the day on our last night in Tahiti on Monday evening.