Day 26 Papeete Disembarkation

So today we left the ship!  We had so many people to thank that were staff for us and treated us like royalty. We were so appreciative of all they did for us!

We joined our newly acquired friends from Sarnia for breakfast on the Terrace Grill. We ate inside as it was raining hard!  I do believe Papeete had more typical weather for this rainy month. By the time we disembarked at 8:30 am, the rain had subsided. 

We only had to manage our carry on luggage as our big luggage was sent by the cruise line to the airport. With our insider knowledge of Papeete, we didn’t follow the boards of people to the luggage tents and taxi lines - we cut across another walking path and crossed the street the taxi stand near our Tiare Tahiti hotel. Two taxis were available!  We confirmed our price of about 2100 XPF to go to the Intercontinental Tahiti and were on our way. By 9 am we entered a very busy lobby of cruise ship passengers trying to extend their stay in their rooms (who would be embarking the ship today) and our crowd trying to get early access!

We were prepared to not get a room for a number of hours - so we went and changed into swim wear (think 1920’s bathing styles where you are totally covered up). We carried my backpack with us and checked the other carryon with the bellman. We found two lawn chairs under some palm trees in the shade outside the infinity pool and the Lagoonarium that is stocked with fish.   Our intent is to spend the day here until early evening when we will head to the airport. Our flight isn’t until 11 pm tonight. 

What a lovely last day in paradise. We got our room about 1:15 pm and napped and relaxed, then ate a meal before catching a taxi at 7 pm!

It has been a blessing of a vacation. 

And it is pretty remarkable to go through the Papeete airport, clear security and find an open air garden right next to your gate!!  That would be a bird of paradise growing taller than J!  Soaking up every last bit of heat - as there is no air conditioning at this airport. Will wait till the last second to change into long pants and shirts for the flight home!!

Day 25 Huahine

So I learned today that we have been very fortunate with the weather. Normally February is a very rainy month. Talking with entertainer Emily during tea time and she was told to enjoy the glorious weather in January because it would rain all February. 

We can see this has been the case the past three days in port, by all the standing water in puddles that it has poured rain just before we arrived.  J always says I bring the good weather with me after 26 + years of travel with me!

We have also had guides tell us that normally the best weather is September October and this past fall it was very poor weather. 

Today, we pulled into Nuahine and there was noteworthy cloud cover with a bit of sun shining through on occasion. We packed for a bit of everything and took a tender ashore. Once ashore, we asked if anybody would boat us to our one preferred coral garden to snorkel - but found no takers. Huahine Nautique would take us on the full motu picnic excursion- but I didn’t really want to endure the vanilla plantation, pearl farm visit and another 3 hour picnic just to get in two snorkels. 

So we found a taxi driver to drive us around the island to visit the Maeva archeological sites, see the blue eyed eels and we tried to go for a snorkel - but it appeared the beach was not open to us when we arrived. I couldn’t quite understand why.  Another lesson learned when negotiating with your taxi - ask the person selling you the trip if they will be your driver!  We negotiated our tour, then were handed off to the person who would be our driver. The driver spoke no English, and more Tahitian than French - so more challenging to communicate with him. Still we didn’t have to endure what Nick and Katie experienced - and that is their driver kept picking up hitchhikers? friends? And dropping them off as they toured around!!

Nevertheless, we got a flavour of the island, and supported the local economy (and I believe that is important when we travel), then returned to the ship.   We then spent the afternoon packing up as tomorrow is disembarkation day :(. 

We did go for high tea in Horizons on the 15th floor forward. 

Dat 24 Rangiroa

What a wonderful day. I was falling asleep at the dinner table I was so tired - so will be brief this evening. 

Today we weee up at 6:30 am - barely in time to catch our entry into Rangiroa. We were on the lookout for dolphin!  No sightings at this point in the day. We ate breakfast on the grill then caught a tender into town. 

We bought a few souvenirs, then walked to the far side of the island where we watched the very rough waves crashing in towards the channel. Quite powerful indeed. We enjoyed time sitting on the dock at Josephine’s and we did spot dolphins playing in the waves!!

After buying a few souvenirs we headed back to the ship for lunch. We had a snorkelling excursion booker for 1 pm. This snorkel consisted of snorkelling in the aquarium and a couple of drift snorkels through that very powerful channel. Yikes!!

We were in a zodiac boat and we were dealing with very big swells in the same channel we had been watching this morning!  I was a bit nervous and elected not to drift snorkel the first time, but then joined the group of 6 for the second snorkel. Rangiroa Plongee certainly was more professional Than any other company we used. We had life jackets and a life preserver being pukked by our guide. I chose to join in for the second snorkel and hold onto the life preserver. 

We returned to the ship where I did a load of 

Laundry. Tonight we were invited by C and E to join them in the Privee Dining. It was lovely attentive service. Our party is 8 could choose any menu items from both the Toscana and Polo Grill menus. What a spectacular evening. 

I am pooped and hardly able to keep my eyes open while J has gone to play bridge!

Last full day on the cruise will be in Huahine tomorrow!

Dat 24 Rangiroa

What a wonderful day. I was falling asleep at the dinner table I was so tired - so will be brief this evening. 

Today we weee up at 6:30 am - barely in time to catch our entry into Rangiroa. We were on the lookout for dolphin!  No sightings at this point in the day. We ate breakfast on the grill then caught a tender into town. 

We bought a few souvenirs, then walked to the far side of the island where we watched the very rough waves crashing in towards the channel. Quite powerful indeed. We enjoyed time sitting on the dock at Josephine’s and we did spot dolphins playing in the waves!!

After buying a few souvenirs we headed back to the ship for lunch. We had a snorkelling excursion booker for 1 pm. This snorkel consisted of snorkelling in the aquarium and a couple of drift snorkels through that very powerful channel. Yikes!!

We were in a zodiac boat and we were dealing with very big swells in the same channel we had been watching this morning!  I was a bit nervous and elected not to drift snorkel the first time, but then joined the group of 6 for the second snorkel. Rangiroa Plongee certainly was more professional Than any other company we used. We had life jackets and a life preserver being pukked by our guide. I chose to join in for the second snorkel and hold onto the life preserver. 

We returned to the ship where I did a load of 

Laundry. Tonight we were invited by C and E to join them in the Privee Dining. It was lovely attentive service. Our party is 8 could choose any menu items from both the Toscana and Polo Grill menus. What a spectacular evening. 

I am pooped and hardly able to keep my eyes open while J has gone to play bridge!

Last full day on the cruise will be in Huahine tomorrow!

Day 23 Fakarava

So for the first time on this cruise, we awoke to rain!  I didn’t realize it was raining until we got up on deck 12 as we tried to figure out how we were approaching Fakarava. 

It wasn’t a heavy rain, but once we took a tender over to the island, it was apparent it had been raining heavily. In fact, I did receive another email from Dive Spirir Fakarava stating that today’s snorkelling excursion would be cancelled because the water was too “agitated”. I believe that was the translated term too state the water had poor visibility because it had been churned up due to the rain. So disappointingly, we would not be snorkelling today. 

Our backup plan was to rent bikes on the island to explore. You see, there are no formal excursions offered on this island with Oceania, so most of the 1200+ guests would be looking to explore the island which is home to just over 800 inhabitants. Our ship would be more than doubling the population of the island. 

Fakarava boasts an ecosystem that is so unspoiled the entire island has been designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve to preserve rare species (that I have never even heard of like Squills and sea cicadas).  This atoll is long and skinny - measuring 60 km in length. 

Our tender took us to the village of Rotoava (with its population of 800) and there is a grocery store and other necessary amenities. And as we were travelling with Missouri Mother (C) and daughter (E) we were looking to rent 4 bikes. It quickly became apparent that all the bikes in town were rented out!  C wanted to wait for a bike to be returned. E, J and I decided to walk the 3 km towards the Topaka Lighthouse. It is a 45 foot high pyramid with a square light tower. We wandered along the exposed side of the island and walked the beach before finding our way to the main road and the lighthouse. 

We returned to the bike rental place, by about noon. We were fortunate to find three one speed bikes available. We rented 3 bikes for 3 hours for $30. We thought that was s good deal!  In fact, the operator was only going to charge us $25 and was thrilled with the $5 tip!!

We cycled the other direction, clearly the more developed side of the island with shops and homes, not to mention some great beaches. We cycled 11 km, then turned around and cycled back into the wind!!  E and I needed to stop and eat, so just before 2 pm we found a little cafe and ordered some tuna, fried and poisson cru!  J had a Hinano beer. It was a lovely spot right on the water!!

We then cycled the last 4 km into the wind to return our bikes. It was an active day!!

A swim and a shower was in order once back on the ship. We enjoyed watching the sail away from the 15 deck of the ship. 

We were both hungry for supper at 6:30 pm so headed up to the buffet on the Terrace Grill. After dinner we went to the shops on deck 5 and ran into all kinds of friends. 

I plan to go the production show at 9:30 pm - so we will see just how wonderful it is!!

Life is great!

Day 22 Day at Sea

What a relaxing day at Sea. Nothing to rush to - but somehow we were kept busy all day. 

J went to a spin class today while I rode the stationary bike on an adjacent room and turned up the tension on my bike whenever they stood up to cycle. There is no way I could have lasted the entire class!  After 15 minutes, I was done and turned my attention to lifting some weights!!

Many scheduled activities kept me busy. At 10, Nick Glakas gave a presentation on the Pacific; this was followed by a cooking demonstration in the Marina Lou ge. Happily we were given recipes to the Chilean Sea Bass from the Red Ginger Restaurant. At 12:30, I went to the second class of my painting classes to work on my custom plate. 

The sea is getting rougher- and people are starting to get seasick. The captain hasn’t announced anything yet - but I wonder if our plans for Fakarava might be put on hold. The snorkelling company we had booked an independent tour with, contacted me by email to advise me that the Sea was very rough, and unless there was a significant improvement overnight, then the excursion would not be offered and  I would be getting a refund. We shall see!

I went to watch Bogemian Rhapsody in the Marina Lounge this afternoon. They offered free popcorn and (as always) free pop. 

We enjoyed dinner in the main dining room - where I gladly had the waiters carry my food to me!   Below is the lovely decor in the main dining room!  They never seem particularly busy in this dining room!!

Day 21 Nuku Hiva

What an amazing day in Huku Niva, Marquesas Island!!  Breakfast on the Terrace Grill off the back of the ship allows us to look down at the water - and today we spotted 3 manta rays swimming along!  How fabulous!  We watched them for about 10 minutes - then had to run and change to meet M from Sarnia for 8 am. We wanted to try to hike to Tehaatiki Viewpoint. 

A tender to town and then we started to climb off to the right. Only one yard with a dog in it sent us scampering back to the proper trail. What a well maintained trail. If they had a little box for donations, I would definitely have added some money to it. 

Once you left the concrete streets, and started on the Tehaatiki trail - it was nicely in the shade!  And eight degrees below the equator, you want shade!!

After about an hour climb, we made it to the viewpoint  where you had a thatched roof shelter that allowed you to view the stunning vista in comfort!

Take a look at my panoramic photo!  This was my ‘pinch me’ moment on this trip!  J and M left me and tried to hike higher and find a trail to the ridge. I stayed put by myself and revelled in the view!

I descended down and took the extra trail to Haetapatu Beach. This part of the trail was a little overgrown and not too spectacular a view - though J later told me it was a great beach to collect shells!!

As I returned to the ship, I quickly changed into my swimsuit and went for a swim. After a refreshing shower I felt all cleaned up. I found not one, but two sets of friends to join for lunch. The  couple from New Zealand invited me to sit with them while I ate my main course. They told me about their daughters (about my age) and granddaughters - about the age of our boys). Once I lost the shade of the umbrella, I moved to join the Mother Daughter duo from St Louis and had ice cream with them. Just then, J appeared, so I knew he safely returned from his hike!  More laughter and conversation ensued. 

We called our youngest son, attending University in Ontario and asked how he was doing. (Using the Vonage travel app for 1 cent per minute - get the app!)

The line was clear as a bell and not really delayed. We then ran into J’s hiking companion, M and his wife. We chatted and spotted more manta rays off the side of the boat!!

We returned to the room for 30 minutes - then joined the mother / daughter duo for a pre-arranged game of cards. The daughter was interested in a trivia game so we went and tried our hand at that. Lots of fun!!

I raced up to the Oceania club members cocktail party just to see what it involved - I learned there were over 200 Canadians on this ship (of 1200 passengers) with about 600 Americans and I grabbed a glass of red wine for my DH. What I really was interested in was sail away in 15 minutes time pulling out of the volcano!!  

We ate dinner on the back deck (for the our third time today) - we love this ship design for this cruise in French Polynesia - we truly get to enjoy the warm ( well I would say HOT) air morning, noon and night. It is 8 pm at night and I am just barely avoiding breaking into a sweat!!

I will publish this post then retire to the air conditioned comfort of our room and look for a movie. My three hours of exertion hiking today are getting the best of me!!

Tomorrow, we enjoy a free day st Sea!!

Day 20 Nuku Hiva

It was exciting to pull into Nuku Hiva today- a dormant volcano, in the Marquesas Island. On this cruise, this was new territory for us to visit. We didn’t visit this island on the 10 day cruise, Nuku Hiva was featured on this 12 day cruise so this was exciting new territory for us. Nuku Hiva is the largest of the Marwuesas Islands in French Polynesia. Nuku Hiva was also the site for Survivor: Marquesas, the fourth season of the popular CBS reality television show.  About 2,500 people live in this island. 

We were booked on a half day tour with a group from Cruise Critic. Richard Deane is legendary for offering private excursions here and we were privileged to find two spots on this afternoons’ tour!  There was 19 in our group and another couple had booked independently. So our group of 21 was shuttled around the island in three 4x4 trucks each seating 4 guests and one additional truck that seated 4 inside the truck, and 5 more in the covered back of the truck. 

The second viewpoint that we stopped at was where Survivor was filmed. 

In our vehicle we travelled with a couple from Sarnia Ontario and we used to live there so it was fun to talk  about all the people we knew in common!  J plans to hike the mountain tomorrow with M from Sarnia!

Richard Deane stopped at about 4 viewpoints as we travelled to the other side of the island. The roads were narrow and curvy - not unlike Norway where they would be single lane at points. Our driver was Maeva- Richard’s wife. Again, my French came in handy to translate!!

I had attended Nick Glakas’s tslk this morning and was excited to pull into port!  We arrived in port just after 11 am. Our tour began at 1 pm and lasted until 5 pm. 

There were some beautiful catamarans in the Bay here. When I asked Richard about these boats, he said they don’t belong to local people. Sailors stop here while enroute from Panama Canal to Australia or New Zealand. 

After a swim to cool down after our hot island tour we enjoyed supper st Toscana. Too much food!!

As we are staying overnight there, J went to try to view the stars from land as the ship casts too much light!  He was the only person on the tender both ways!  Still too much light to view the stars from on land!!

Life is good!!

Day 19 Day at Sea, Cruising the South Pacific

So today we are living life as if it were in Newfoundland!  We moved clocks forward 30 minutes in the night!  I don’t think many guests read the memo - because the Terrace Grill was empty at 6:45 am when we went for breakfast. It could have been the fact that we had a day at Sea and nobody had any desire to get up early!!

J went to a stretch class and then a spin class!  I was slothluje in bed, watching a movie. Then at 10 am I went to an Oceania presentation where they try to entice you to book another cruise. I sat with our friends from New Zealand - and the wife was one number away from winning a $250 shipboard credit!!(Must be present to win - and it is handed out at the end of the presentation!). As she said, might as well have been a 1,000 numbers away!!

Back in the stateroom, I received a call from E, who had hiked the 3 coconuts trail in Moorea with John. She and her Mom were looking for bridge players and invited us to join them in the French Polynesian air, at a card table, but out of the sun. I hunted down John and found him outside of the Barista. And, wait for it, I played a game of bridge. E, is a new bridge player, (and smart as a whip cause she is in med school) but I felt comfortable enough that I want the only newbie. Anyhow, J talked me through every single bid I had to make - and I got the cards, because I had the highest score at the end of the four hands, three times. 

E, her Mom, C and I then went to a painting class where we started painting a glass plate. Class two is in 3 days time where we continue on with the project. 

I then read and spent time by the pool and J went to his third free fitness class of the day - a yoga class. 

Supper was at the Terrace Grill and Marina, my favourite server at the buffet station, somehow learned my name!  Good for her!!  She is always super friendly!  

Our view from the back Terrace Grill tonight just after the sunset!!

We did attend the entertainment at 9:30 tonight - it is a female singer from Australia with some acclaim!  Claire Lyon has played the role of Christine in the worldwide tour of Phantom of the Opera and sung with Josh Grobin. She had a lovely voice - if a few too many opera songs for my liking!  She did sing Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” which is always heart warming!

Tomorrow we arrive in a new port, Nuku Hiva, the Marquesas. The island became known after it was featured in the fourth season of the television show “Survivor”. 

Day 18 Bora Bora

Today we remained in Bora Bora until 1 pm. The last tender back to the ship was leaving the shore at 12:30 pm. 

We awoke at our usual 6:30 am and had breakfast on the Terrace Grill. We love sitting outside in shorts and a T-shirt in 30 C weather from early in the morning till late at night. So after breakfast I joined my husband for a stretch class at the fitness centre. There is nothing too stretchy about this body!!  But I do appreciate that attending classes at the fitness centre are offered at no extra charge. 

We then caught a tender into the island of Bora Bora and walked down the road. Freelance tour guides were offering trips to Bloody Mary’s and circle island tours, but we just wanted to walk and check out a few shops. 

We visited a few shops and the local grocery store and found a few souvenirs. We then returned back to the ship around 10:45. The tender wasn’t crazy busy - but I heard that they were at 12 noon!

We headed to the dining room for lunch - thinking they might have something special for Valentine’s Day. 

While a pleasant and diverse menu, there was nothing about it offering chocolate!!  So after a Greek lunch, we headed up to deck 12. J had ice cream and I went to the watercolour class being offered. It was a class for newbies and I fit in just perfectly!!  At the end of the class I raced off to get some flourless chocolate cake - and was disappointed to learn there was none left!!  Honestly, Oceania underestimates how much people love chocolate for dessert!!  Many of the restaurants don’t offer chocolate anything for dessert!!

So then I headed up to the room to discover J wanted to have a nap - so I went to the Marina Lounge to hear Nick Glakas talk on French Polynesia again. I read my book on my iPad up on deck 12. Then J and I went for a swim. Time for a shower and got changed Togo to our reservation at Red Ginger. Since this is the third time we have eaten there in 2 weeks, the staff are getting to know us!!  Delicious as always!!  Love the forte tea especially!

Speaking of the best tea, it makes me think of the barista here. You can order specialty coffees any time on the ship. I have seen J drink more coffee on the trip than in our entire 26 years of marriage!!  He likes the coffee here!!

So again, Red Ginger has an amazing Chilean Seabass that I ordered for the main course, but they offer no chocolate dessert. So we headed up to the Terrace Grill for Flourless Chocolate cake -which was replenished by supper time!!

The ship did have the shops selling jewelry and women’s clothing as a special Valentines sale - but offered no special food like you might ordinarily find on a Princess ship for Easter and Christmas. Maybe Valentines isn’t a special enough day to warrant new dishes on the menu. 

I then found a comfy lounge chair in the open air of Deck 12 to write my blog. I’ll see if there is a production show in the Theatre at 9:30 pm. 

Tomorrow is a day at Sea, so it should be fairly relaxed!!

Day 17 Bora Bora

This morning I woke up and decided to do another load of laundry. Some clothes just never smell that clean once worn here in paradise!  Laundromat opens at 7:30 am, not 7 am as I thought!  The door is kept locked outside of opening hours. 

J and I went to enjoy the view of Bora Bora from deck 15. We could see the much smaller Paul Gaugin ship was anchored here in Bora Bora too. I generally try to put on sunscreen before I leave the room so that I never get caught off guard and am on a sunny deck I protected. Skin burns so very easily here. I have heard the ozone layer is thinner here so we have seen many people with burns turn to blisters in just one day.  J thought I was packing excessively by bringing along 4 bottles of sunscreen!!  It will all get consumed, though we generally try to wear long sleeve protection when out in the direct sun. 

After breakfast on the terrace where you really can enjoy the open air and 30 C temperatures (the design of the Marina is well suited for French Polynesia), we headed back to our stsateroom. We enjoyed a few card games, reading and blogging. We have a 1 pm snorkel booked with H2O Bora Bora, recommended by some Cruise Critic people. They are supposed to offer some snorkel spots frequented by far fewer boats and have just 4 guests onboard the boat - so we shall see!

Just a few comments about the design of Oceania Marina rooms. We really like the size of the bathroom. There is a stand-alone shower (with a rain shower head too low for J, so he unscrewed the attachment and e use the other wand shower head). There is also a bathtub (a rarity on a cruise ship) with a long clothes line across it. Great for hanging all our wet gear after a day in the water. The sink in the bathroom is nice and deep so you can hand wash clothes easily in it. The mirror features hidden shelves behind it on both sides. Also two big shelves for storage below the sink. 

Where Oceania gives more space in the bathroom, they take away from closet storage space. There is one closet for hanging clothes about 4 feet in length. It is long enough. But access is right right next to my nightstand and it is awkward to get into it. Doors always have to be closed because there is a light inside the closet and shirt sleeves frequently get stuck in the contact points of the closet. 

There are four one foot square drawers - and then a selection of 3 very tiny skinny draws in our night stands.   We had to work pretty hard to find room for all our belongings , but we made it work. 

J’s complaint about the room is that everything is too short for somebody 6’4”. The couch is too short, the table is too short, the desk is too short and the shower is too short and the lights in the bathroom are too low. But we do have beautiful big windows to look out. (Albeit very covered with seawater!). But the size of the room is comfortable - the room is amazing considering we have the second lowest category of stateroom on the ship! 

So time has passed and we have now returned from our snorkelling excursion with David of H2O Bora Bora. What a fabulous afternoon!  First of all, David only has 4 guests on his boat!  Talk about personalized service! Two acquaintances from Cruise Critic recommended him and are we ever glad they did!

The very first snorkel site was an area to spot a manta ray!  And we saw one - about 4 metres long - just comfortably gliding in circles in an area where the manta rays like to go to clean up. A certain smaller fish populate this area and they pick the barnacles or whatever is on the manta rays skin - so the rays go there when they want to get clean!  Talk about exciting. 

Stop two allowed us to spot eagle rays - sometimes called leopard rays because of their spots. We also saw a barracuda, Tahitian Starfish, a pufferfish and a black tipped shark- not enticed by being fed!!

Stop 3 was a lovely coral garden with no other boats there. We saw a tiny spotted eel. We saw the Harlequin Wrasse - it was a juvenile and was orange and white striped in color (like a clownfish) but with a slight blue on the tail. 

Stop 4 had a stronger current, but I saw genuine yellow tail clownfish (J had always doubted that I identified them properly in the past - this time he was by my side to confirm the sighting). J got a video of a moray eel - I was okay to miss that!

We would highly recommend H2O Bora Bora!

Back on the ship, we cleaned up and backed up photos. Dinner at Jacques tonight was delicious. They offer a poached scallop gnocchi with lobster as a hot appetizer. J said that dish alone would make him consider booking another cruise with Oceania!!  The wait staff is so well trained in these specialty restaurants - there is nothing to fault. J was hurriedly sweeping his own bread crumbs so that the waiter wouldn’t come along with his little wisk (officially called a crumber according to my google search)!

We will see if we can stay awake till 10:30 pm when they have a party on deck under the stars while in port at Bora Bora!

Day 16 Raiatea

Today we arrived in Raiatea before we woke up!  We didn’t set an alarm - but we did wake up about 6:45. J put ear drops in my infected ear and then attended to some banking matters. 

We headed to the Terrace Grill to enjoy breakfast. We were packed and ready for a kayak excursion by 8:30 am. - hoping that somebody failed to show up for the ship’s excursion. That was not to be the case. Plan B was to walk out on the pier hoping somebody would sell an excursion to kayak up the Faa’roa  River. We found out only one company offers kayak excursions and if the ship is full - they are full. 

So Plan C was to book an outrigger canoe trip up the same river. It was leaving at 1:30 in the afternoon so that meant there was room for Plan D and that was to hike Mount Tapioi again this morning. We set out at 9:20 am - about an hour later than we had last week. It was hot - but manageable because we knew how far the hike was this time. 

Hot and sweaty at the top of Mt Tapioi 

I climbed up in 52 minutes this time - but was dripping with sweat - slipping off my arms and legs. The difference between hiking in the Rocky Mountains and French Polynesia is that when you get to the top in the Rockies - you cook down. In French Polynesia when you summit the mountain, you keep dripping with sweat in the heat!!!  The view was splendid and more clear with less cloud cover than we experienced last week. On the way down we offered to take a fellow’s picture and found out he was from the Sarnia area and worked for the same company as J. Interesting conversation!

We enjoyed the top for 40 minutes or so but then had to descend so we could get back to the ship, clean up, eat lunch and turn around to head out in the outrigger canoe for 1:30. I chose to shower off on deck 12 and jump in the pool wearing my bathing suit to cool down. That is when I learned our pool is a salt water pool!  So I showered off a second time after my swim too!

Our boat ride had 12 guests aboard and stopped at a pearl farm first. (Didn’t know it was going to do that). A woman on our boat bought a string of black pearls for $600 US and a pair of earrings so the pearl farmer must have felt his presentation was worth his while!  We then went up the river which was kind of cool - and evidently where James Cameron was filming a year and a half ago - must be the Avatar sequel - and the greenery would feel like Pandora!

After the river tour - we stopped at a motu for a swim. J went for a drift snorkel that turned out to be pleasant. I kept my head and ear out of the water!

Upon our return to the ship - we cleaned up, then enjoyed dinner outside on the Terrace Grill in 30 C weather as the sun set. I know we are missing some very cold weather at home so I appreciate every degree of warmth we can get. 

I will try to keep my eyes open till 9 pm - but the morning hike I had worn me out!

Tomorrow we arrive in Bora Bora but have no plans until 1 pm. 

Day 15 Moorea

Since Moorea is about 12 miles away from Papeete - we set sail about 5 am and arrived by 7 am in Moorea. This island is known for growing pineapples. In fact when J was off the ship, he saw empty pallets of being moved by the tender boats to Moorea - so that they could be filled with pineapple and returned to our ship!  Talk about fresh tropical fruit. Sadly for me, pineapple is one of the foods I react badly to, so tend to avoid choosing that fruit when choosing my breakfast fruit!

Today J set off to hike the 3 coconuts trail and met four women who had rented a car and offered him a lift to the start of the trail!  So in fact he climbed to the top of A trail, but was unsure if it was actually the three coconuts trail! Once he returned he double checked a map to learn he did climb the correct trail but not to the end. 

I returned to the Dr on-board and had further treatment in my ear. He irrigated my ear - eeyouch!!  And once the wax was removed, he could see yes, indeed my ear was infected. So he proceeded to provide me with antibiotic ear drops that I need to use for 5 days in a row - with a stern warning to return if it doesn’t get better. Good thing we have so many onboard ship credits. The first Dr visit cost $170. Today’s visit was $99 for the irrigation and $175 for the antibiotics with Dr fees adding up to a total of $370 (all in US $). My one year medical insurance policy for travel outside of Canada will more than pay for itself, once I get reimbursed for these expenses. 

I didn’t have pain in my ear sleeping last night - so hopefully we are on the mend now. And I didn’t have the drama of one fellow who was at the medical office last night - he had his leg all torn up, bandaged by the time I saw him - somebody had stolen his backpack and he chased down the perpetrator (on land in Papeete)  and got the backpack back. He wasn’t a particularly accommodating patient in that he left the office before signing for his paperwork. I expect they will still deduct the charge from his stateroom credit card. 

John returned about 12:30, pleased with his morning outing, so we then headed up for lunch. We enjoyed lunch on the terrace with the stunning view of Moorea. 

After lunch we lasted 10 minutes in the sun on lawn chairs - that is where we both had to tap out. Temperature was 29 C with 76% humidity. So we walked around deck 14 and took pictures of Moorea. I was happy to retreat to our stateroom and enjoy the lightly air conditioned room. 

I rearranged some future excursions, booking privately online. Private excursions always allow for smaller groups and a lower price tag than ship excursions. The ship assures you they will not leave port without you if you are on one of their excursions- so you have to be diligent about using reputable companies, if booking privately, who will get you back before the ship pulls out!!

At 5 pm I went to the Destination services desk, where I asked if we had cleared the wait list for a kayak excursion tomorrow in Raiatea. Still no luck - but the attendant did suggest we come down to the Marina Theatre tomorrow morning at 8:45 am to see if there are two no shows. 

Two of the women from Missouri who were in the car stopped by the stateroom. They kindly invited us to join them for a private dining room reservation booked for Feb 20th. We said we would be delighted to join them! 

We then went to the Captain’s Welcome reception up in Horizons Lounge onndeck 15 Forward - aptly named because you can see the horizon from the windows!  

Dinner was in the Polo Grill tonight!  The 5 mini desserts were the highlight for me. J and I played two board games tonight. Now, with additional ear drops in my ear, I am ready for bed!

Day 14 Papeete Turnaround Day

Well today was a good day to wake up with an earache. I am not surprised given all the snorkelling SW have done. Most days when I got out of the water it would feel like I had water in my ear that wouldn’t come out. 

Because today is the day when one group of passengers gets off the ship and another new crop gets on, we had the luxury of no set plans for the day and time on our hands!  So when I woke up in the middle of the night with an aching ear that kept me awake the rest of the night, I knew I wouldn’t be jumping on an impromptu circle island tour. 

My lovely husband woke and offered to go get hot water to fashion into a hot water bottle out of my nalgene container, I gratefully accepted. He also provided me with an antihistamine. We went for breakfast on the 12th floor Terrace Grill. When I came back, I fell asleep with my hot water bottle and my drugs and felt better when I woke up!

At 11 am we decided to leave the ship and walk in Papeete - looking for a pharmacy. Local laws prevent most everything from being open on Sundays so there were many closed doors. We did stop in at a church that was having regular Sunday morning service. We were clearly underdressed. People wear there Sunday best. Men in button up shirts and dress pants, women in dresses with Sunday bonnets!!

After about an hour walk we did get directed to a pharmacy that was open. Here I picked up some anti-inflammatory drops for the ear ( and again I was thankful I had enough French to convey my problem and understand his reply!

Once we fit back to the ship we headed to the Terrace Grill for lunch. We met a lovely couple from New Zealand. After lunch, J put the drops in my ear and the ear became even more plugged. 

So I appreciated the lazy afternoon while J went for a bike ride at the fitness centre. After our 5:15 muster drill I went to ship’s dr for assessment. (Already made a phone call to the insurance company for pre approval). I have ear wax deep in ear so received ear wax treatment drops and have to return in the morning for the “plunging it out” treatment!

I met J up at Horizons for a Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle. We met some nice folks - but it will be tough to replace the great group of friends we had last cruise!!  We will give it a go!

We headed up to Toscano’s - the Italian specialty restaurant for dinner. Having learned from last time- I only ordered a pasta dish - not a main course too!  Last time J had to roll me out I was so full!

Hope to get a good night of sleep with the ear as it is tonight!  Again - this was the perfect day to be slowed down with a sore ear!  J is talking of hiking the 3 Coxonuts trail in Moorea tomorrow. He may be doing that solo!!

Day 13 Huahine

Today marks the last full day of cruise number one. We very much enjoyed not having to pack up and move out of our room. As we are booked on back to back cruises, in the same stateroom, we can simply leave our belongings in the room and stay on the ship all day if we desire. This differs from a cruise in North America - where we would have to get off the ship and get the passengers down to a zero count before you could re-enter the ship for the second cruise. 

So today we visited Huahine and had a tour booked with Huahine Nautique. Today’s excursion involved two snorkels, a visit to a pearl farm and an extended picnic on a motu. 

The first snorkel was at a coral garden with lovely clear water and no current. It was stellar. We were in a boat with 8 other people - and two of them didn’t get off the boat, so we had just 8 snorkellers in the area - no doubt this contributed to our enjoyment!  We took a leisurely boat ride to a black pearl farm. This one had a slightly different method of grafting an implant and some tissue from another oyster than the pearl farm we saw yesterday. This operation checked the shell after 6 weeks to see if the implant was rejected,whereas yesterday the farm would wait two years to discover that information. The Huahine pearl farm had a 50% success rate whereas the Raiatea Pearl Farm had a 90% success rate!!  All very interesting!  Today’s Pearl Farm also sold pottery that looked beautiful- I worried if I could get it home in one piece. 

After the Oearl Farm we did a drift snorkel in another area and the current was nice and calm!  We saw lots of anenome and a couple of clown fish (made famous by Finding Nemo!)

We then made our way to a motu for an elaborate, elongated picnic. Ither boat joined us, and J went for a second drift snorkel. Our guides demonstrated how to make poisson cru - beginning with tearing open the outer husk of the coconut, grating the coconut and squeezing out the coconut milk- added to the fresh tuna, grated carrot, cucumbers,onions and lime juice. It was delicious!

Fresh grilled fish, chicken, green salad and fresh fruit was added to the lunch. After we ate, our guides demonstrated various ways to tie a pareo- the colourful hand painted fabrics fashioned as dresses and beach cover ups. We even had dance lessons for the men and women. 

We then headed back to the ship’s tenders. After a clean up of showers, J and I took care of revising some reservations for specialty restaurants for the next cruise, then offloaded some pictures to a USB stick. We wanted a back up of photos and planned to share the pictures of our trip with our friends from Missouri. 

Sail away was stunning from Huahine. The scenery was breathtaking!

We then had a final specialty restaurant reservation for Red Ginger. We had a table for 8 with our friends from Cruise Critic from Ottawa & Cambridge and our Missouri friends. N from Ottawa said she had been planning this trip for 7 years and kept putting it off till they could afford it and finally this was the year!  J said maybe the real reason it got put off so long was so we could all meet and become friends!  Everybody said cheers to that!  We exchanged emails so that we could keep in touch in this big wide world of ours! But it was a little sad saying farewell to such wonderful people we met just 10 days ago!

J and I went to the entertainment tonight and it was a husband and wife duo playing the violin and guitar and they were quite talented. I believe they will stay on as entertainment for next cruise too!

We are blessed indeed!

Day 12 Raiatea

So we woke up to the stunning scenery of Raiatea this morning. We packed our bags for a snorkel tour combined with a vanilla farm and a pearl farm visit that we had booked privately with l’excursion Bleu. 

I have to say it is more effort to research independent tours and book them in advance, but inevitably there are fewer people on these excursions. When we arrived at the vanilla farm for instance, there was a ship’s tour with about 60 people involved while our group consisted of 10 people!  Our boat had 2 people from France, 2 others fluent in French, a couple from Hong Kong and a couple from Illinois and J & I (the Canadians). We had Bruno as our captain and Rani as his first mate. 

Our first snorkel was with black tipped sharks and a few rays. We then visited the vanilla farm. We learned in Raiatea they hand pollinate each and every flower on the vanilla plant. The plant is surrounded by coconut shells to constantly keep the soil moist. I purchased some vanilla and vanilla tea. 

Our second snorkel took us further around the island of Tahaa (the secondary significant island of Raiatea). This was a drift snorkel and the current was quite strong. 

We stopped at lunch and J commented it was reminiscent of a lunch we had eaten at somebody’s home in. Belize!!  It gave you a sense of what it would be like to live on this family’s home. Simple, but tasty food. 

We then visited the Iaorana Pearl Farm!  They export 600,000 pearls per year - mostly to China and sell each pearl for an average price of $30. Fascinating operation. It is a science to getting those pearls to grow -and no accident that they arrive!  They have a 90% success rate in producing a pearl in each of their oysters. 

Snorkel 3 was another drift snorkel that was really interesting this time - though J felt bad for some of the coral as others in our group were not capable snorkellers attentive to keeping their feet off the coral. It did require considerable effort in the strong current. But we saw some really cool anenome!

Most exciting to cap off a super day was spotting a pod of dolphins frolicking along - perhaps a group of 50 or 60 were playful and jumping!!   Bruno turned the boat around so we could all get a good view up close!

After returning to the ship I kept running into friends - socializing, I then watched the best entertainment yet on the ship - a production show with Sonny and Cher era music!!!  I still was in my wet clothes from the excursion so raced to our room to shower, change clothes then go to Martinis to meet friends for a Drink before supper!

We then headed to dinner on the terrace to meet with the young couple from our hometown. They got a great table overlooking Raiatea as we pulled away from port. 

After lots of laughs, we acknowledged we were all ready for bed. So as soon as I post this blog, I, too will heed to bed!!

We are really enjoying this vacation!  It is just stellar!!

Day 11 Raiatea

So today we wanted to climb Mt Tapioi - the highest point on the island of Raiatea, rising about 460 m from sea level. In the Rocky Mountain, that would be a mini-hike. In French Polynesia, in 30 C and about 78% humidity, that climb had us profusely sweating within 5 minutes. 

I believe my blogging mentor Pescado Amarillo, referred to this hike as a death march!  So we were prepared!  We came with hiking poles, me wearing my knee brace and plenty of water. And when we were climbing in the direct sun, it was HOT!  We made a point of not stopping unless we could stand in the shade.  We were told to be wary of wild dogs, but in fact we only encountered horses, cows and chickens - all free range!!

Finding the start of the trail was the biggest challenge - we knew the trail started between the post office and the gendarmerie (the police station). Friendly locals pointed us in the right direction and little red signs saying Mt Tapioi helped too. 

We managed to get to the top after about an hour and enjoyed a visit with a couple from our home town in a nice shady area as they were descending, so we knew what to expect. Thank heavens for some cloud cover and breeze the higher we got. 

But the view was worth the effort to be sure!!

On the descent only 7 people were in their way up - so clearly we were one of the tardy climbers by starting at 8:30 am!!

After a very desired and needed shower, we went for lunch and ran into our Missouri friends so we enjoyed eating with them!!

We then returned to our room and I did a load of laundry - the laundry room on our floor was a busy place. Three washers and dryers were being used once I added my load. Each wash and dry requires a token that costs $2 US, but soap is provided for free!!

J had a nap (I did too but he had a longer nap!) as I went out shopping in the port. Stores were closing by 4:30 and most were closed by 5 pm. We are staying overnight in this port so I guess we won’t be going ashore after supper. One other exciting feature about Raiatea is that we were able to dock here!  No tender required!  Yippee!

I stopped at the specialty dining reservation desk and was able to change my Red Ginger reservation from Feb 10 to a table for 2 on Valentine’s Day!!  That was something that definitely wasn’t available when I tried to pre-book it from Canada!!

Tonight we have a shared table at The Polo Grill at 7:30 pm. I trust we will enjoy it!!

Day 10 Bora Bora

This morning it was a pleasure to wake up to the views of paradise naked Bora Bora. That is the first time we have ever stayed overnight in port on a ship. Some people use the opportunity to stay in one of the overwater bungalows but they are too rich for our blood at $1000+ per night!

After breakfast in the Waves Grill we were down in the Marina Theatre at 7:30 am to catch a tender. It occurred to me that I have used the theatre more times to catch a tender than actually to watch the entertainment!

Once ashore, we found Arii from Moahi Nui and he directed us to Vai. We waited with our friends M & P from Cambridge (the Canadian one) as they were waiting for an ATV tour combined with snorkelling, whereas we were repeating our day yesterday but adding in a picnic on the private motu. Both yours were offered by Moahi Nui at a more reasonable price than the ships excursions. 

This time we had 12 people in our boat with Teddy as the Captain and Vai as the tour guide. Vai was born in Bora Bora but raised in California so she spoke perfect English. 

We saw lemon sharks out side the reef at the first stop, lots of black tipped sharks and singrays at the second stop and a variety of fish in the coral garden. 

We met up with the ATV crew at lunch on the motu. What a beautiful motu. Here they had started roasting a pig in an underground oven and had plantains, breadfruit, a chicken and spinach dish as well. 

The meal was augmented by some tuna cooked on a grill that was delicious. We served ourselves up on plates woven from fresh greenery and felt that we had an authentic Polynesian feast!

After talking with P and M, I felt we made the right choice not doing the ATV option as they were sitting on benches in the back of a truck going up and down very steep, precarious roads!!

It felt a bit like we were filling in the day because we had paid for a full day tour. But it was enjoyable nonetheless. 

So after a vote, we decided to boat to a destination where we could just jump into shallow water and float for a bit. This was a lovely way to appreciate the beauty of our surroundings. We then went to another snorkel sight and found the current VERY strong st this point. We couldn’t let go of the outrigger balance pontoon while snorkelling or we would have needed a pick up a long way away!!  J thought this was the best snorkelling in Bora Bora!

Once we returned to the shore, I walked through the craft market and bought a pareil- a piece of fabrics hand painted in my favourite colours than can be used as a bathing suit cover up. 

Back at the ship, we showered and cleaned up all our gear.   We tried out high tea in Horizons where the string quartet plays for a very classy ambiance while looking out at the views of Bora Bora!

Dinner at the Terrace Grill Was wonderful!  Visited with a young couple from Calgary and enjoyed lobster, shrimp and chocolate mousse cake for dessert!  8 pm and we are tired again!

Another day in paradise!!

Day 9 Bora Bora

We arrived on the beautiful island of Bora Bora today. I need to watch the film Mutiny on the Bounty!  It was filmed here I do believe. 

We had a relaxing morning with not pulling into port until 10 am. Stunning scenery. Absolutely stunning. Four shades of turquoise blue water at least!  

We headed down to the Marina Theatre to grab tender tickets and loaded onto a tender to arrive in Bora Bora by 11:30 am. We looked for the Maohi Nui sign and joined the other 3 people in our group. All cruise critic folks were with us (two were from Victoria BC). 

We headed to our first snorkelling site which was in about 30 feet of water and saw lots of black tipped sharks and two lemon sharks. The largest lemon shark made me a bit uncomfortable. As J says, my head could easily have fit in his mouth!!!  Cue Jaws music!!  Our guide was comfortable enough to feed the lemon shark a broken piece of fish and reach out to pet him as he went past!  The other two women on the tour made a hasty exit back to the boat when that largest lemon shark came into view!

The next snorkelling site was in shallow water about four feet in depth. Here we had lots of black tip sharks and loads of sting rays. They Sean right up to us and are quite muscular too!  One nearly knocked me over.   The water was warm like a bathtub!!

The third snorkelling site took us past the Conrad Tahitian huts over the water to a coral area with a variety of fish. One finished snorkelling, we  took about a 45 minute boat ride past lots of resorts with classic huts over the water. 

What a fabulous way to enjoy Bora Bors for $70!!  Great private excursion!

A tender back to the ship at 3:30 allowed me to squeak upstairs to the Wave Grill before it closed at 4 pm!

Three Vonage phone calls to LC, JG and P (sister and two sons) and we felt caught up on life in Canada!!  What a great way to stay connected for 1 cent per minute!!

We had a delightful dinner on the terrace with our friends from Missouri and Ottawa. Talk about paradise, sitting outdoors to eat dinner in 30 C weather with high humidity, surrounded by the islands of Bora Bora!  Splendid!

Day 8 Rangiroa

We awoke at 5:30 am with the sounds of work being done right below us on the tender boats. Good thing we tend to be early birds anyhow!  (What with going to bed at 8 or 9 pm!)

We remembered that one could watch the dolphins jump in the water as one entered the atoll of Rangiroa so we through on some clothes and raced up to deck 16 near the mini golf to watch our entry into the atoll from the front of the boat. We saw no dolphins but we did have a fabulous view of the island!!

We then went down to the Terrace Grill for breakfast. Once we finished eating we joined four new friends while they ate breakfast and talked about adventurous activities like cycling and canoeing before talking about the day’s plans!  

After a quick few laps around the very small track around the back of the ship, we made plans to join one other couple planning for a bit of snorkelling. We decided to take a boat to the very nearby aquarium - which we negotiated for $40 US apiece - instead of $50 for two hours worth of snorkelling. Once you arrive at the spot, the drivers say okay - jump in and start spotting the marine life!!  I don’t know if I expected a beach nearby or what- but at least the boat would stay at the site and allow us to climb back on if we got tired. Our friends from Missouri would have liked a pool noodle - like others were using ad a flotation device in the water - but since our boat didn’t have those - they had a life jacket to wear!!

We saw black tipped sharks, loads of fish and a few moray eels!  The eels are kind of creepy. The boat periodically left us and went back to the pier and collected more customers. That was a bit disconcerting  to have lost our anchor. In the transfer of acquiring more passengers our friends lost access to their life jackets and that wasn’t good. Nevertheless a good day of snorkelling in turquoise blue water that was warm like bath water!

At noon we returned to the dock, where we decided to return to the ship, clean up, get on dry clothes, and eat lunch. We then returned in a tender back to the dock. We wanted to catch a free shuttle to the Paul Gaugin Pearl Farm. We quickly learned the shuttles were finished for the day. We contemplated renting electric bikes for $10 per hour per bike, but needed to return them in 90 minutes. So we decided to walk to Josephine’s. There was a wonderful boardwalk facing the water with a few tables and chairs. I had a juice while the others had a beer. What a delightful way to pass a few hours in the afternoon. 

We returned to the ship at about 4 pm - a full 30 minutes before the last call to board the tenders!

We played a board game of Carcasonne and passed the time until our 7:30 reservation at Jacques- the French restaurant. We had a lobster gnocchi for an appetizer 2 the best gnocchi of my life!!  My main course was Coquille St Jacques - scallops. Delicious. And chocolate mousse for dessert. 

John headed to the room, while I listened to the entertainment in the theatre ( and sat in the back row to finish this blog!)

Life is good!  Tomorrow, we pull into Bora Bora!!

Day 7 Fakarava

What a day!! Fabulous!!

It is 8 pm and J and I are all tuckered out - in fact J is already snoring in bed!! I will do my best to keep my eyes open and fill you in on the details. 

Today we set an alarm for 6:15 am so we could be eating breakfast at Waves Grill as soon as it opened at 6:30 am. Our plan was to be in the Marina Theatre by 7:30 am all packed for a day of snorkelling and we needed to be on the first tender ride. That meant we were given the coveted red tickets to be on the first tender. 

You see we had a private boat booked with Ato Lissant and six of us from Cruise Critic were travelling to Sable Rose. The boat ride to get there was at least 1.5 hours long - but our guide had to stop and fish for lunch food so that made it more like a two hour boat ride. It was a blue sky day and we covered up as much as we could with SPF clothing but I still ended up with burned skin on my neck and on the back of my hands. 

We got to a remote village in Fakarava where we did a drift snorkel - hopped on land and walked back to the start and drifted again. We then boated to our own private island to have lunch. The two guides, Matai and Coco, built a fire and started cooking our fresh fish, lobster and chicken over the open flame. We explored this little tiny pink sand island, sat in the water and swam to totally enjoy the day. Talk about paradise!

We have our friends from Cambridge and Ottawa, ON with us on this fabulous day!  We probably stayed 2 hours on this private island before loading up in the boat to head back. 

We returned to the ships tender area by 4:15. We each paid $140 US for this tour - and it was very exclusive!!

Once back on the ship , we showered and cleaned up for supper. The Terrace Grill was a lovely to eat supper tonight. 

Today was Superbowl Sunday and the ship had a viewing party with special food in Horizons on 15th Forward. 

I really want to include a picture but know that wifi connectivity is pretty poor in the middle of the South Pacific and pictures really slow down the load speed!!

Day 6 Day at Sea

Today was our only full day at Sea this cruise. 

After breakfast in the Terrace Grill, J went for a spin class ( all the fitness classes on the ship have limited spaces but they are free!!). I went for a light workout. 

At 11 am we both attended a lecture put on by Nick Glakas about the islands of French Polynesia - we had met Nick and his wife, Katie, processing through customs at the airport. It was very informative and J and I both took notes!!

We met up with two other couples from Canada, with whom we planned a snorkelling excursion in Fakarava tomorrow!  We were joined by Tammy and Rick again as they will be snorkelling with the same company tomorrow - but going to a different destination. The right of us shared lots of laughs in the Terrace Grill over a two hour lunch. 

We attended another educational lecture by Nick  in the Marina Lounge at 2:30. We decided to go play some mini golf after that, followed by reading by the pool. I went for a lukewarm hot tub after that.  J attended a yoga class while I went to the cocktail party to meet the ship’s officers and staff. 

Our reservation at Toscana at 6:30 was at a shared table. We met a delightful couple from Austin Texas. We had so much fun that dinner took nearly 3 hours!  I am feeling a bit too full, but not entirely wowed by the food at Toscana. 

We have retired to our room and packed our snorkel bags for a 7:30 meet up in the lounge to get the first tender tickets off the boat!!

Day 5 Moorea

We awoke before 6 am today - our ship pulled away from the dock around 5 am, so we probably felt motion on the water. We went to the Terrace Grill - thinking breakfast started at 6 am - but we learned it wasn’t open till 7 am. They pointed us to the Waves Grill as it was to open at 6:30 am. We enjoyed eggs over easy and some muesli. 

We walked up to deck 14 to view the approaching island of Moorea!

Many ports on this cruise involve dropping an anchor - and tendering into port. These islands are not big enough to support the size of pier needed to dock such a large ship.  

We entered the theatre to find out the process to obtain tender tickets. In fact, you needed to be ready to walk off the ship as soon as you were provided tender tickets (though you could in fact wait for a few minutes till you were called)!

On our tender over we met a bit our first but the second couple from our home town!!  The first couple had rented a small vehicle and planned to hike, the second were scuba diving. The Marina had dropped anchor in Opunohu Bay and we took the tender a little west of that point to the village of Papetoai. 

We walked off the ship and were intent on finding a circle island tour. Dammon, an outgoing fellow approached us and showed us a map of where he intended to take a group on a driving tour. He had an air conditioned van and spoke good English and would charge us $50 pp. Sold. We just needed to wait till he sold the tour to another couple. We were joined by a delightful couple from St Louis, Missouri, and then a third couple from Tucson, Arizona.  Dammon provides us with lots of insights on the local flora and fauna and general historical information. 

We drove inland into the crater and up to Belvedere which is a lookout over Opunohu and Cook’s Bay. Here we met 2 buses from our ship where ship excursions cost about $150 pp!!

We circumnavigated the island clockwise, stopping occasionally to hear stories of the history, the geography and the people of Moorea. On the east coast we stopped for a view of the Sofitel Beach Resort to see how the rich lived!  

The Sofitel huts over the water are in the background here!

We continued south past Vai’are where our ferry landed two days ago. Then past the Lagoonarium where one could experience the fabulous snorkelling. 

Unfortunately the best weather was on the west side of the island where we didn’t do any stops, so our pictures don’t have blue skies. It rained on and off all day - still a lovely 30 C!

Once we returned to our starting point, I bought a pair of black pearl earrings. We were hungry for lunch so we tenderer back to the ship. J showered and we headed up to the Terrace Grill where we continued to visit with the couple from St Louis. 

After lunch, we read, prepared this blog and played a game of croquet!  Tonight dinner will be in the main dining room. 

I hope to check out the entertainment on the main stage tonight at 9:30 pm. Since the all aboard call is 5:30 pm - we will be pulling away from nearby land and therefore having an even tougher time trying to post the blog. With a day at sea tomorrow- it might mean the blog gets posted a day later!

Enjoying this fabulous cruise!!