South Pacific (2007)

 

1/6/07 – Saturday

We were on our way to the airport at around 10:00 am.

After going through the security process and while waiting for our seating assignments, we met two couples: Eileen and Jack from Los Angeles and Shaike’ and Chana from Jerusalem, Israel. They were scheduled to take the same trip with us on the “Tahitian Princess”.


The Israeli couple was informed by the airline’s representative that in order to visit the French Polynesia, they must have a visa, since they were Israeli citizens and they would miss the flight and can join us only when such a visa is issued.


The flight was pleasant and the eight and a half hours went by rather fast. We arrived at Papeete, Tahiti at 8:15 pm.

We stood in lines for the next couple of hours, going through the immigration and custom process. The humidity was rather high in the terminal and the only help came from few fans spread out throughout the terminal.

We finally were out of the airport and climbed onto the Princess Shuttle, which took us to the ship.

We arrived at the ship at 11:00 pm and after checking in, we were pleasantly surprised to find our cabin large and comfortable with a nice size bath and a wide balcony.

Since we were starving, it only made sense to visit the buffet for a late dinner. We later met Anita from Australia, who was traveling along with her husband and their 2 kids. The luggage arrived to our room at around 1:00 am.

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1/7/07 – Sunday

We woke up at 7:30 and after breakfast we left the ship to visit the island.

Papeete is a unique city like no other in the world. French Polynesia's capital and center of business, it's population is reported to be between 90,000 -120,000 people, depending on where the city limit is defined, accounting for well over half of the Island of Tahiti's overall population of 180,000 people. Papeete means “Basket of Water” in the Tahitian language. It makes up more than one-quarter of the total surface of French Polynesia. Tahiti is actually made up of two islands: Tahiti Nui (Big Tahiti) and Tahiti Iti (Little Tahiti).Virtually ALL travelers arriving in French Polynesia inevitably venture into Papeete because it is Polynesia's only international airport.

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As it was Sunday, all stores were closed and we opted to hire a driver to explore the island. We found a driver and a van right next to the ship and after a short negotiation about the price, we started our tour.

We stopped at Arahoho Blowholes. The surf pounding against the headland at Arahoho has formed overhanging shelves with holes in them. As waves crash under the shelves, water and air are forced through the holes, resulting in a geyser-like phenomenon.


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Our next stop was at Faarumai Waterfalls. A sign on the right just past the blowhole marks a paved road that leads 1 mile up a small valley to the Cascades de Faarumai, Tahiti's most accessible waterfalls. We parked near the stand of bamboo trees and followed the signs.
Vaimahuta Falls was an easy walk. The waterfall plunges straight down 850 feet from a hanging valley into a large pool, a source to a beautiful river running through the forest.

After a short drive we arrived at a location with two caves. Inside the caves we found locals swimming around, as the ground of the caves are actually huge pools.




Heavy rain started to fall as we arrived at Paul Gauguin Museum. Paul Gauguin arrived at Papeete in June 1891 at age 43 in search of the roots of "primitive" art. The museum Gauguin tells the painter's tormented life story and shows the present locations of his works throughout the world.


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We continued to tour the island’s surface and arrived back to the city at around 2:00 pm.

We asked the driver to take us to the only Synagogue on the island and found “Ahava Ve’ Akh’va” temple. We later on found out that there are about 40 Jewish families, who live on
the island. Most of them are of North African origin. The first Jew to arrive in Tahiti was Alexander Salmon, a banker from France and the son of a London rabbi. Over time other Jews settled on the islands, but most of them eventually assimilated into the local population and converted to Catholicism. In the 1960s, with the arrival of Algerian Jewish refugees, the first foundations of this permanent Jewish community were laid.

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We boarded the ship and after a delicious hot lunch Tova took a nap and I laid down at the poolside enjoying the sun.

At around 5:00 pm the ship sounded its horn and we said goodbye to Papeete and started our cruise.

At dinner we met our table’s companion for the next ten days: Jo and June from Pensacola, Florida. We also met our table’s server (Dwight) a nice guy from the Philippines and his charming assistant (Ricardo) from Mexico.

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At 8:30 we joined the Cabaret Lounge and met the cruise director (Dan). Afterwards, we enjoyed the “Welcome aboard Show”, and the music of Donnie Abraham.

We “bumped” into Jack and Eileen; Eileen Morgan and agreed that we should spend tomorrow together on the island of Huahine.


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1/8/07 – Monday

We woke up at around 7:00 am as the ship docked at Huahine. We met with the Morgan’s at the buffet and after a delicious breakfast we started our day on the island.

Huahine is, arguably, the most picturesque island in all of French Polynesia. Virtually untouched by any signs of tourism until very recently, Huahine, pronounced who-a-hee-nee by the locals, has steep mountains descending into protected bays of azure blue and emerald green colors; the island is also one of the more geographically diverse of the Society Group. Also known as "The Garden Island" due to its loads of lush green tropical plants and wild jungle-like scenery.

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A tender brought us from the ship to shore. Once we arrived, we rented a car and started our journey with some suggestions and a map.

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We first visited the island’s colorful market (in the town of Fare) where we checked our email and surfed the internet. We also bought me a pair of walking shoes.



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We continue our trip and arrived at a place where the locals feed eels. There were 4-5 eels, each around six feet in length, wriggling and fighting one another to gorge themselves on the flakes of tuna, provided by a local. I had never seen anything like it; these fellows had blue eyes and long ears.

We had a tough time locating “The Vanilla Plantation” but after asking some residents, we finally were able to locate a small villa with some vanilla plants. It wasn’t what we expected (to say the least..).

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We continued our journey and arrived at a place where a motored canoe was waiting to take us to the “Huahine Nui Pearls and Pottery” out in the middle of the lagoon.

The salesperson at the farm gave us a short description of how the Black Pearl is formed: In nature, a pearl is formed by an oyster which has had a foreign body accidentally introduced into its tissues. The oyster, in defense begins forming a thin coat of aragonite (some kind of mineral), the same material as its shell, around that intruder. The foreign body is rotated and isolated by the hardened layers of aragonite and the pearl is created. There is one chance out of 15,000(!) of finding a pearl made without human intervention. Therefore man helps the process along.

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We continued our beautiful day stopping at a local grocery store to purchase beer and cokes and situated ourselves on a white sand beach, where we had lunch, provided by Jack (he prepared some delicious sandwiches on the ship).


I was walking on the beach collecting shells and taking pictures when I accidentally bumped into Brenda Ingham, who I used to work with 7 years ago at First Alliance Mortgage. What a small world!!




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We returned to the ship around 4:30 pm and after a shower and a delicious meal we got together to watch Tom Fletcher and his comedy routine.

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1/9/07 – Tuesday

We were scheduled to reach our next destination, Rarotonga (“The Deep South”) tomorrow, and as the ship cruised along we had “A Day At Sea”

We woke up rather late (9:00 am) and after breakfast Tova took a Cha Cha dance lesson as I walked around the ship (on the 10th deck) for 45 minutes and then joined the Blackjack Tournament.

I joined the Bingo game (along with Jack and  Eileen) and won the 1st prize of $150!

Dinner was “Formal” as we put our best clothes on, and joined the crowd at the dining room. Afterward we enjoyed the music of the cruise’s entertainment group as they presented “The Century Sings”.

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1/10/07 – Wednesday

We woke up as the loudspeaker announced that because of strong winds and heavy rain, the captain decided to cancel the visit to Rarotonga. Tova received the news with excitement as she preferred to stay on board, enjoying the facilities of the ship and of course take long naps. I was disappointed as I was looking forward to enjoy the famous white sand beach of the island.

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We ended up sailing back at half speed so the rough sea will not make our lives more miserable.

We tried our skills at the Trivia game and had 11 out of 15 questions right. The table next to us got all of the answers right and was declared as winners.

After dinner we met at the lounge to listen (once again) to the voice of Donnie Abraham.

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1/11/07 – Thursday 

Another day at sea.

The day was spent in reading, relaxing and eating (of course)!

We met a nice couple from Australia: Igor and Anna. They asked us if they could join us tomorrow on the island and we decided to meet at 8:00 am for breakfast. We also learned that Shaike and Chana will join us tomorrow as well, as they made it to Raiatea – Our next destination.

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Dinner was delicious and afterwards we watched Hal Marquardt, an average magician who performed his tricks with some humor.

Back at the cabin I watched Mission Impossible III. Pretty good movie!

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1/12/07 – Friday

When we woke up at around 7:00 am, the ship was already docked at the Raiatea port. We had breakfast and welcomed Shaike and Chana as they boarded the ship earlier and joined us for breakfast.

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Heavy rain was pouring but this was not going to stop us from exploring the island.
We rented 2 cars and drove around the island.

Raiatea, meaning "Faraway Heaven", was first named Havai'i after the homeland of the ancient Polynesians and is the most sacred island in the South Pacific. This, the second largest Tahitian isle, was the center of religion and culture over 1,000 years ago and still lends enchantment to ancient legends told to this day. It is still considered to be the most sacred of all of the Society Islands by Polynesian past and present.

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After a short visit at a historic church, we visited the Vanilla Plantation. This time it was actually very impressive as a local guy met us and explained the process of making all kind of crèmes and delicious extracts from the Vanilla plant.

We drove around the island, finding it sometimes difficult to maneuver the damaged roads, and found a hotel were we used its facilities and spent the next couple of hours eating lunch on the beach (sandwiches and fruits that we brought from the ship), feeding the fish with bread crumbs, and swimming.
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We returned to town where we found a small Internet Café and then boarded the ship.

The show after dinner was performed by a local group: “The Children Of Tamarii Uturoa” where adults and children performed folklore dancing and singing. The girls can move their
hips really fast!! I had a great time watching
them!!!

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1/13/07 – Saturday

We arrived at the most beautiful spot of Society Islands: Bora Bora, or the “Pearl Of the Pacific” where we were scheduled to spend the next couple of days.

Bora Bora, located about 160 miles northwest of Tahiti and approximately 2,600 miles south of Hawaii, was discovered in 1722, and is arguably the most beautiful island on the planet. Its ancient name of Vau Vau suggests that the original inhabitants of this seven-million-year-old island arrived from Tonga. And interestingly, in the local Tahitian language there is no "B," so its actual name is then Pora Pora, meaning "First Born." 

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Bora Bora's fabled blue lagoon is, according to novelist James A. Michener, "so stunning, that there are really no adequate words to describe it."

Volcanic in origin, Bora Bora's rugged main island, is completely surrounded by coral reefs and is home to about 4,000 people. The island is only 27 square miles in area.

Once again we all met for breakfast and prepared sandwiches.

We climbed the tender, which took us to shore and noticed that there are canoes behind the tender as the locals made it a sport to follow the tender and “catch” waves, which makes the canoe go much faster. It was quite a sight as some of them were really good.

We rented two cars and drove around the island.

We stopped at the famous and unique restaurant: “Bloody Mary”. Ceiling fans, colored spotlights, and stalks of dried bamboo dangle from a large plant stalks roof over a floor of fine white sand. There are a few interesting statues in the front and back of the restaurant. We were told (by Dan, the Cruise Director) that each evening, the daily catch of the local fishermen from Bora Bora is displayed on ice, where after an explanation of exactly what's available on the particular evening (there are no menus here), the host takes the orders directly with the chef. One can choose from the vast selection, pick one of the combination plates, or create his own particular combination.

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 We continued to drive around the island and arrived at “Bora Bora Hotel”, which is a bungalows hotel. The comfortable Tahitian-style bungalows sit among the palm trees on the flat shoreline on either side of the headland. On the north, some of the 15 over-water bungalows are actually perched right on the reef's edge, where coral gives way to a deep blue lagoon.

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We had lunch sipping the local beer and enjoyed the beautiful view from the hotel terrace.
Our tour ended where it started – at the Rent-A-Car office. The Morgan’s paid a visit to the Pearl Factory and the rest of us sat down at a café and enjoyed the local Ananas Juice (Pineapple) and cappuccino.

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We returned to the ship and after dinner enjoyed the cruise entertainers group, performing “Ports Of Call”.

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1/14/07 – Sunday

We met at the buffet (around 7:30 am) and after the (now) traditional breakfast and preparing sandwiches for lunch we took the tender to the island.

Brad and Theresa Luster joined us for today’s adventures. We were now a group of 10 people!

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We opted to rent a boat and after a short negotiation we met our “captain” for the day, Morano, and boarded his boat.

Morano navigated his boat (he built it with his own two hands!), while playing a guitar and singing local songs. We arrived at a spot where stingrays and sharks were hanging around

waiting to be fed. Morano was the first to plunge into the water and Jack and Eileen; I followed him. He gave us pieces of bloody fish, which attracted the stingrays, who actually grab the meat from our hands. The sharks entered the action and chased away the stingrays as they enjoyed the bloody raw fish. It was quite an experience!

We sailed a few miles farther and arrived at a coral reef. Morano provided us all with snorkeling equipment and for the next 45 minutes we dived around the coral, admiring its beauty.

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Morano offered to take us to his private island. On the way we passed some bungalows where, according to Morano, some Hollywood stars live when they are here vacationing. One of the bungalows belonged to Marlon Brando. We also saw another island, where the reality show “Survivor”, took place. We also passed by another complex of bungalows: The Four Seasons Hotel is going to finish their project on one of the other islands and the cost per night would be around $1,500!

Morano’s private island is about an acre in size. He told us that the French Government gave it to him. He built his own house, which consists of a bedroom overlooking the lagoon, a small kitchen and a shower (The toilet was outside the house). While we were walking the little island beaches, collecting shells, Morano prepared a meal for us, which consisted of the local fruits (Ananas, papaya, mango, and banana).

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