Papeete, check-in

Today was really built around disembarking from the boat - though it was all done by 9am. Unfortunately, they insisted that our bags be outside our cabins by 6am but not be put out the night before. So it was an early start.

Anyway, it was all pretty simple, we got off the ship, found our bags and took a taxi to the Hilton. Not surprisingly, at 9.30am we couldn't get into our room, but there were plenty of seats in the shade and breeze. So we read for a while, then wandered over the road to the shopping centre - there is a large Carrefour supermarket that sells everything, so we're all set.

Shortly after getting back we got our room and moved in. While Lynn was unpacking I ducked back to the supermarket and got a bagette for lunch.

We hadn't really planned to do anything today, so we sat and read. Mid-afternoon we walked down and swam in the pool.

We got hungry early and so went back to the supermarket for some pizza and general provisions, then before the sun set we went down to the bar to listen to the music and have a drink.

That worked very well until the rain started. Then we moved under cover and eventually retired.

Taha'a

Fortunately I was starting to feel better today, because we had things to do. We woke up as we arrived at Taha'a. In these polynesian languages you tend to pronounce each vowel individually. So it's "ta-ha-a".

Anyway, the important thing is we're back in the Society Islands group. This includes Tahiti, and we're within view of Bora Bora, where we'll be tomorrow. Unfortunately that also makes it the last section of the cruise.

We had a 7am breakfast - early for us - then went ashore for an island tour. This was about 30 people on benches in the back of utes. We landed on the east side, at Fa'a'aha Bay, then they drove us up the mountains to a viewing point.

From there we went down to the west side of the island and drove clockwise. Stopping at a pearl farm where they explained the process for culturing pearl and (naturally) then tried to sell people pearls. 

Next we went on to a vanilla farm, where the same cycle happened. The vanilla bean process was fairly interesting, but honestly just riding around the island was the best part.

We were then taken back to the bay and boated out to the ship. We had a quick lunch, then got changed and went by boat out to the small island, Motu Mahaea, which the cruise ship had set up for the afternoon. A barbeque, bar, deck chairs and various watersports equipment. The logistics was quite impressive.

It turned out to be fairly windy and there was a bit of a current. So the only thing we could really do was go snorkelling off the south side of the island (right side in the picture above). Which was great. Typical of things we've seen before, but very pleasant.

We got back to the boat mid afternoon to freshen up and rest. At around 5 the boat unmoored to make it across to Bora Bora in the evening where we could spend the night at anchor in calm water.

Rather than leave the reef where we were, on the east, the ship motored south, between Taha'a and Raiatea and up to the west side to a channel there. Then it's a short hop north west to Bora Bora.

At Sea, Southbound

 Still headed south, not very much more to say.

The day started out pleasant, if overcast. By the middle of the day, the rain we could see in the distance had reached us.

This was a pity because we started off trying to have lunch on the deck, but the wind was picking up and we had to retreat to the main restaurant. The afternoon was spent reading in our cabin with the doors closed, as the rain was blowing in and it got pretty rocky.

In the evening we'd booked for the other speciality restaurant. Which was extremely good, but also so filling we couldn't even finish our main course, let alone have dessert. Surprising when we have overeaten every day without difficulty.

At Sea, Northbound

 Not much happened today. Which was probably a good thing – it allowed us to settle and recover from a poor night’s sleep (probably due to jetlag plus cocktails).

The ship is travelling north between island groups; from the Society Islands, which include Tahiti, Moorea and Bora Bora, to the Tuamotu group. Hence the extra time spent travelling.

After a light breakfast we found a place to sit and read, in a lounge up by the bow of the ship. Unfortunately there was a quite a swell running all day and this caused me enough nausea to haver to lie down. I tried unsuccessfully to go to the trivia competition late morning, but had to abandon that and leave Lynn to compete on her own.

Fortunately I recovered enough to go to lunch and then we sat and read on the warm but breezy deck for an hour or so. At least until we were overcome by lethargy and retired to sleep. Late in the afternoon we went to a talk on spinner dolphins (common in Tahiti), had a drink at the bar and attended a welcome reception before dinner. All of the food has been very good so far.

We did stagger out a little later for the 'guess that tune' quiz. Kinda wish we didn't. It's very frustrating when you almost know a song. We did poorly.

Embarkation

 We woke up in the morning to find that we actually had a very nice view of the ocean and the adjacent island of Moorea (last stop on our cruise). Also of the end of the airport runway, which is immediately next to the hotel, notwithstanding that the taxi cost us around $30 last night. Once finally awake we went down to breakfast which is set out over the water; you can look down at coral and tropical fish as you overeat.

The rest of the morning was really just spent reading, re-packing and mooching. We checked out at 11am and at 12 took a taxi to the ship, which was close enough that we could see it from the hotel. The process of checking in and boarding took another hour or so, lots of sitting around and then bursts of activity.

Once we got aboard it was certainly a smaller ship that we’ve been on in a while, so everything was compact but quite smart. We found our cabin, pretty much in the centre of the ship, went and got some lunch in a casual buffet, then spent much of the afternoon and organising, broken by the ubiquitous and obligatory muster drill.

At 5.30 we wandered up to the deck for some sort of welcome, which turned out to be just an advertisement for the ship’s services. But this got us out of the room and so we had a cocktail and sat watching the sunset. When we booked we got a package that includes laundry, internet, tips… and drinks. So we have all the cocktails we can drink. This isn’t actually very many, but we’d certainly had a few by the time the sun had gone and the ship was under way.

Next stop was dinner, which did require a change of clothes, though it’s not very formal by the standards of previous cruises, just not shorts and t-shirts. And dinner was very good. Apparently you can choose every night whether you want a table to yourselves or to be sociable… we’ll see if we’re ever social. By the end we’d reached our limit of food and drink and so chose to retire.