In which we visit our first handful of islands within French Polynesia’s Society Islands.
Quoting from Tahiti Tourism’s Visitors’ Guide: ”French Polynesia consists of 118 islands scattered over a surface area as big as Europe. The islands dot the Pacific Ocean forming five Archipelagos – the Society Islands, the Tuamotu archipelago, the Gambier Islands, the Marquesas and the Austral Islands – with a total land surface area of 4,000km2 / 2,485 sq mi.”
The Society Islands are further subdivided into the Windward Islands (Iles du Vent) which include Moorea and the largest French Polynesian Island, Tahiti, on which the capital of French Polynesia, Papeete sits, and the Leeward Islands (Iles Sous le Vent) which include Raiatea (second largest island) Huahine and Bora Bora, our first stop.
We woke just after the ship was coming through the reef that fringes the island and coming to anchor off the main town of Vaitape, to where the tender brought us--after breakfast, of course.
On shore, we talked to some of the locals offering tours of the island. While we thought about it, we walked round town a bit, took out some cash and had a cup of coffee in a cafe that wanted $5 for 30 minutes of Wi-fi (or free with lunch). We passed on the Wi-fi for now and headed back to the dock, where we book a couple of tours – a boat trip for next time we come to Bora Bora and a 4x4 trip for the time after that.
Time for lunch, so back to the Wi-fi cafe for a delicious chicken curry and about four hours of uploading photos, posting to the blog, plus sending and receiving e-mails.
Sadly, one of the e-mails received was from Juli’s Friend Ann, giving us the terrible news that her sister, Joy, had finally succumbed to a combination of serious illnesses, from which she had been suffering since before we came away. We were both very sorry to be reading this particular e-mail, though we had been expecting and anticipating its arrival for some days, particularly when we – but especially Juli – were so far from Ann and her family at this awful time.
The night before, we’d been to a special food and wine pairing dinner at Jacques. Following the news from home, we weren’t really in the mood for it, but it did at least give us the chance to raise several very nice glasses of wine to Joy, Ann and all their family. Consequently, we only had room for a light breakfast and needed a lot of rehydration.
Another tender to shore and more locals selling tours and excursions. We umm-ed and ah-ed quite a bit, but eventually settled on an inland tour in the back of a pickup. The tour took us first to Opundhu Bay (where Cook first landed) then to Cooks Bay (where he didn’t) then to a pineapple farm, a spectacular lookout on the edge of what’s left of one of the two volcanoes that formed the island, a jam and ice cream shop and finally to a pearl shop. It may not sound like it, but we had a great day out. Moorea (pronounced Moe-oh-Ray-ah) is beautiful: green, lush and covered in all manner of exotic flowers such as Bougainvillea, Hibiscus and Frangipani. It’s not hard to see why it’s the second most visited island after Tahiti.
Back on board, we had dinner early (in Red Ginger – yum) followed by a screening in their theatre of a most appropriate film: the 2001 remake of South Pacific, staring Glen Close and Harry Connick Jnr., a lovely movie, during which the ship moved on to Papeete, Tahiti.
Bit of a lazy start to the day: we had Sunday brunch in the Waves Grill while we watched an articulated-lorry driver and a fork-lift truck driver perform a sort of ballet with two containers in a really tight area of quayside. It was amazing to see how they were able to manoeuvre these full size containers (containing food items for the ship) in such a small space. You have to respect skill like that.
Today marked the end of one cruise section – our voyage comprises five cruise sections in all – and the start of a second, so today was a change over day, marked by most of the passengers who boarded in Sydney disembarking, while an equivalent number of new passengers got on, which meant a great deal of luggage toing and froing; bags and cases were being carried on, off and through the ship all day.
Our day was a lot less hectic, and mostly involved eating, drinking and/or sitting around. We did get off the ship in the morning to take a look at Papeete, although being a Sunday, it was mostly closed. The tourist information office was open, though, so we picked up a few brochures and thought about what we might do when the ship comes back to Papeete, which will be on a Thursday, so there should be a bit more happening.
In the research that Juli did before we left England, she came across a self guided walking tour on the internet, and, with its guidance, we spent a happy couple of hours walking round the town. It seems quite a bit of money has been spent recently tidying up the water front, which now sports a number of green spaces, play areas and a small arena for music and sports events. We also walked by a large Protestant church – complete with white-hatted ladies in their Sunday best – and the Catholic Cathedral. In addition, we saw the national assembly buildings and the town hall (built in the style of the old royal palace) which Oceania had taken over to process all their new guests.
Back on board, we drank our second complementary bottle of Champagne and reviewed our new TV and Film guide: two new movie channels, but at the expense of the Downton Abbey channel. Now how are we going to get to sleep.
The day started with an early (08:15) safety and lifeboat drill. Must have been a bit of a shock for guests who just flew in, some of whom didn’t get on board until after 10.00pm the night before, but it has to be done within 24 hours of setting sail. Funny how it’s always the guest on the expensive decks who choose not attend. (They have to attend ‘mop-up’ drills instead. I hope they’re even earlier.)
Once that was over, we had a quick breakfast and went ashore. Juli was keen to visit the Tiki Theatre Village: a kind of reproduction, traditional Polynesian village for tourist with music, dance, a replica of Gaugin's house and handicrafts on display. We’d been told it was closed on Mondays, but the information we got from the ship suggested that it was open, but we had no way to get there. There were a group of dancers on the quayside to greet guests as they alighted from the tenders, and she wondered if they were from this village. She asked a guy with the group of dancers, who wore the biggest headdress if that was the case and it was. What’s more, he got one of the others to drive us to the village which was opening especially because of the ship being in port.
When we got there, we discovered that, yes, it was open, but that there wasn’t so much going on as usual. Mind you, they only charged us for the transport (normally there’s an admission fee) and we still got to look around and I got to play the Ukulele with a group of musicians, who taught me to play ‘You Are My Sunshine’. Not a traditional Polynesian song, but a bit of a laugh, although mostly for the musicians.
While we were there, a group from the ship on an organised excursion showed up. They were being offered a rum punch welcome drink. Well, it would have been rude to let them drink alone, so…
When we’d had enough of the tiki village, we asked them to taxi us back to the peer again and from there we got a tender back to the ship. Back on board, Juli went for swim and a Jacuzzi (in the rain) while I had a rest. Later, as the sun set, we enjoyed a gin and tonic on our veranda before dinner in Red Ginger again. Definitely our favourite of the speciality restaurants, and the only one where you can get anything even approaching spicy on board.
This morning, I went for my first run since being ill. It has been a while since my last run, so I decided, as I still have time to complete the entire sequence of podcasts before we disembark in Southampton, to restart the programme from week 1. My run was followed by breakfast in bed and some laundry before taking the tender ashore and a shuttle bus – known as Le Truck – to the principle town (village really) of Fare.
It didn’t take too long to look around town, but we had a bit of a problem finding a tour to take us round the island next time we come to Huahine. We found something like a tourist information office, but they couldn’t book anything for us, and suggested we try phoning from the post office.
It took us a while to find the post office (it was well out of the centre of town) but when we did, the guy there was supremely helpful. He called the number we’d been given at the tourist place, spoke to the tour operator for us then passed the phone to Juli. When she finished speaking to the tour company and handed the phone back, the post office guy wouldn’t take any money for the call.
Next, when Juli bought some French Polynesian stamps there, she discovered that, though there were stamps with images of many other islands, there were none of beautiful, unspoilt Huahine and expressed her surprise and disappointment at the fact. He thought about that for a moment, then stuck a random selection of low value stamps on an envelope and cancelled them with the island postmark stamp, which meant he was able to give Juli something with Huahine on it after all. Again, no charge. Can you imagine ‘cashier number 5, please’ doing that in a UK post office?
Unfortunately, Juli’s phone conversation did not have a successful outcome. It turns out that Oceania have pre-booked every tour operator on the Island for the days the ship is in port, which meant there were no vehicles or guides left to hire anywhere on the island. The only way we’re going to get to see any more of the Huahine is by taking one of the ship’s excursions, which are massively overpriced. Hey ho.
This is one of the few islands we’ll be visiting just once on our way through French Polynesia, so it was important to get some sort of tour or trip organised. It was a pity, therefore, that we overslept – we both have colds again – and didn’t get ashore until mid morning. When we did, we found that most of the tours were booked up. The only one we found had a good itinerary but a very late departure. Not too late to get back on board before the ship sailed, but later, apparently, than any other passengers wanted, which would mean having to shoulder the full price for hiring the vehicle and driver/guide ourselves, unless anyone else booked on later. We said we’d think about it and check back before lunch to see if they’d had anymore interest.
We talked about it while we walked round town – Uturoa: principle settlement on the island and administrative capital of the Leeward Islands – and decided that we would spring for the full price of the tour; for one thing, having the vehicle to ourselves would mean being able to tell the driver where we wanted to go (no pearl shops, no vanilla plantations) and would, in any case, still be cheaper than sharing it with four others on a ship bought excursion.
Once that was arranged for much later, we went back to the ship for lunch and a rest before going ashore again in the afternoon for our personal tour of the key sights of the ‘Sacred Island’.
Our driver and guide was a young (mid twenties) islander with excellent English. It turns out that he had been adopted by a French family – all teachers, apparently – and sent to college in New Zealand to study engineering, with a view to him becoming a teacher himself. Life, however had other plans for this chap, and so now, with a wife and seven-year-old daughter, he drives a 4x4 tour vehicle and works for a company that hires out sailing boats. He also runs two indoor football teams and tries to encourage kids to get involved with sport instead of smoking locally grown cannabis, which has become something of a problem on the island.
One of the obstacles he has to greater involvement is a simple matter of money. Money for equipment, money for facilities, even money for kit. we suggested that he get writing to any and every French players and teams he could think of to get their support for the youth work he’s trying to do. We feel sure that there will be a wealthy famous club or soccer star out there who would love to have their name associated with such a worthy project in such a glamorous destination.
Our guide drove us through some beautiful scenery and to some interesting cultural sights, such as a sacred place called Taputaputea, an important Marae (part temple, part palace, part settlement) from which stones were taken to all parts of Polynesia and beyond, including Hawaii. (An ancient name for Raiatea is believed to have been ‘havaii’.) Most of the site's artifacts have now been moved to a museum on Tahiti; we'll try to see them when we're backc there. We learned a lot about the island, and, with local and national election campaigning just getting underway, about the politics of the islands too.
Back on board, we watched Cloud Atlas with Tom Hanks and Halle Berry amongst others. It’s an interesting film with several oddly interconnected storylines from the past, present and future that are too complicated to understand after only one viewing (let alone explain) so I think we’re going to have to find another two and three quarter hours to watch it again, and/or get the DVD to watch it with the subtitles turned on. (Some of the dialogue from a couple of the storylines – one from a dystopic future, the other from an arcane past – is a little difficult to follow at times.)
That evening at dinner, we watched a terrific display of lightning that continued through the night, turned into a thunder storm this morning and continued as showers on and off all day. Apparently it does this a lot here. And they call this place paradise on earth? Well, it is the tropics.
That’ll do for the present. We’re back at Bora Bora now, where we’ll return once more at a later date during cruise segment number three. I think I’ll post this bit today and the next section beginning from this second visit to Bora Bora when we get back here again in a week or so.
TTFN - N
[Click for more photos from the South Pacific.]
Day 293 (Bora Bora for the first time)
Quoting from Tahiti Tourism’s Visitors’ Guide: ”French Polynesia consists of 118 islands scattered over a surface area as big as Europe. The islands dot the Pacific Ocean forming five Archipelagos – the Society Islands, the Tuamotu archipelago, the Gambier Islands, the Marquesas and the Austral Islands – with a total land surface area of 4,000km2 / 2,485 sq mi.”The Society Islands are further subdivided into the Windward Islands (Iles du Vent) which include Moorea and the largest French Polynesian Island, Tahiti, on which the capital of French Polynesia, Papeete sits, and the Leeward Islands (Iles Sous le Vent) which include Raiatea (second largest island) Huahine and Bora Bora, our first stop.
We woke just after the ship was coming through the reef that fringes the island and coming to anchor off the main town of Vaitape, to where the tender brought us--after breakfast, of course.
On shore, we talked to some of the locals offering tours of the island. While we thought about it, we walked round town a bit, took out some cash and had a cup of coffee in a cafe that wanted $5 for 30 minutes of Wi-fi (or free with lunch). We passed on the Wi-fi for now and headed back to the dock, where we book a couple of tours – a boat trip for next time we come to Bora Bora and a 4x4 trip for the time after that.
Time for lunch, so back to the Wi-fi cafe for a delicious chicken curry and about four hours of uploading photos, posting to the blog, plus sending and receiving e-mails.
Sadly, one of the e-mails received was from Juli’s Friend Ann, giving us the terrible news that her sister, Joy, had finally succumbed to a combination of serious illnesses, from which she had been suffering since before we came away. We were both very sorry to be reading this particular e-mail, though we had been expecting and anticipating its arrival for some days, particularly when we – but especially Juli – were so far from Ann and her family at this awful time.
Day 294 (Moorea for the first time)
The night before, we’d been to a special food and wine pairing dinner at Jacques. Following the news from home, we weren’t really in the mood for it, but it did at least give us the chance to raise several very nice glasses of wine to Joy, Ann and all their family. Consequently, we only had room for a light breakfast and needed a lot of rehydration.Another tender to shore and more locals selling tours and excursions. We umm-ed and ah-ed quite a bit, but eventually settled on an inland tour in the back of a pickup. The tour took us first to Opundhu Bay (where Cook first landed) then to Cooks Bay (where he didn’t) then to a pineapple farm, a spectacular lookout on the edge of what’s left of one of the two volcanoes that formed the island, a jam and ice cream shop and finally to a pearl shop. It may not sound like it, but we had a great day out. Moorea (pronounced Moe-oh-Ray-ah) is beautiful: green, lush and covered in all manner of exotic flowers such as Bougainvillea, Hibiscus and Frangipani. It’s not hard to see why it’s the second most visited island after Tahiti.
Back on board, we had dinner early (in Red Ginger – yum) followed by a screening in their theatre of a most appropriate film: the 2001 remake of South Pacific, staring Glen Close and Harry Connick Jnr., a lovely movie, during which the ship moved on to Papeete, Tahiti.
Day 295 (Tahiti for the first time)
Bit of a lazy start to the day: we had Sunday brunch in the Waves Grill while we watched an articulated-lorry driver and a fork-lift truck driver perform a sort of ballet with two containers in a really tight area of quayside. It was amazing to see how they were able to manoeuvre these full size containers (containing food items for the ship) in such a small space. You have to respect skill like that.Today marked the end of one cruise section – our voyage comprises five cruise sections in all – and the start of a second, so today was a change over day, marked by most of the passengers who boarded in Sydney disembarking, while an equivalent number of new passengers got on, which meant a great deal of luggage toing and froing; bags and cases were being carried on, off and through the ship all day.
Our day was a lot less hectic, and mostly involved eating, drinking and/or sitting around. We did get off the ship in the morning to take a look at Papeete, although being a Sunday, it was mostly closed. The tourist information office was open, though, so we picked up a few brochures and thought about what we might do when the ship comes back to Papeete, which will be on a Thursday, so there should be a bit more happening.
In the research that Juli did before we left England, she came across a self guided walking tour on the internet, and, with its guidance, we spent a happy couple of hours walking round the town. It seems quite a bit of money has been spent recently tidying up the water front, which now sports a number of green spaces, play areas and a small arena for music and sports events. We also walked by a large Protestant church – complete with white-hatted ladies in their Sunday best – and the Catholic Cathedral. In addition, we saw the national assembly buildings and the town hall (built in the style of the old royal palace) which Oceania had taken over to process all their new guests.
Back on board, we drank our second complementary bottle of Champagne and reviewed our new TV and Film guide: two new movie channels, but at the expense of the Downton Abbey channel. Now how are we going to get to sleep.
Day 296 (Moorea for the second and last time)
The day started with an early (08:15) safety and lifeboat drill. Must have been a bit of a shock for guests who just flew in, some of whom didn’t get on board until after 10.00pm the night before, but it has to be done within 24 hours of setting sail. Funny how it’s always the guest on the expensive decks who choose not attend. (They have to attend ‘mop-up’ drills instead. I hope they’re even earlier.)Once that was over, we had a quick breakfast and went ashore. Juli was keen to visit the Tiki Theatre Village: a kind of reproduction, traditional Polynesian village for tourist with music, dance, a replica of Gaugin's house and handicrafts on display. We’d been told it was closed on Mondays, but the information we got from the ship suggested that it was open, but we had no way to get there. There were a group of dancers on the quayside to greet guests as they alighted from the tenders, and she wondered if they were from this village. She asked a guy with the group of dancers, who wore the biggest headdress if that was the case and it was. What’s more, he got one of the others to drive us to the village which was opening especially because of the ship being in port.
When we got there, we discovered that, yes, it was open, but that there wasn’t so much going on as usual. Mind you, they only charged us for the transport (normally there’s an admission fee) and we still got to look around and I got to play the Ukulele with a group of musicians, who taught me to play ‘You Are My Sunshine’. Not a traditional Polynesian song, but a bit of a laugh, although mostly for the musicians.
While we were there, a group from the ship on an organised excursion showed up. They were being offered a rum punch welcome drink. Well, it would have been rude to let them drink alone, so…
When we’d had enough of the tiki village, we asked them to taxi us back to the peer again and from there we got a tender back to the ship. Back on board, Juli went for swim and a Jacuzzi (in the rain) while I had a rest. Later, as the sun set, we enjoyed a gin and tonic on our veranda before dinner in Red Ginger again. Definitely our favourite of the speciality restaurants, and the only one where you can get anything even approaching spicy on board.
Day 297 (Huahine for the first time)
This morning, I went for my first run since being ill. It has been a while since my last run, so I decided, as I still have time to complete the entire sequence of podcasts before we disembark in Southampton, to restart the programme from week 1. My run was followed by breakfast in bed and some laundry before taking the tender ashore and a shuttle bus – known as Le Truck – to the principle town (village really) of Fare.It didn’t take too long to look around town, but we had a bit of a problem finding a tour to take us round the island next time we come to Huahine. We found something like a tourist information office, but they couldn’t book anything for us, and suggested we try phoning from the post office.
It took us a while to find the post office (it was well out of the centre of town) but when we did, the guy there was supremely helpful. He called the number we’d been given at the tourist place, spoke to the tour operator for us then passed the phone to Juli. When she finished speaking to the tour company and handed the phone back, the post office guy wouldn’t take any money for the call.
Next, when Juli bought some French Polynesian stamps there, she discovered that, though there were stamps with images of many other islands, there were none of beautiful, unspoilt Huahine and expressed her surprise and disappointment at the fact. He thought about that for a moment, then stuck a random selection of low value stamps on an envelope and cancelled them with the island postmark stamp, which meant he was able to give Juli something with Huahine on it after all. Again, no charge. Can you imagine ‘cashier number 5, please’ doing that in a UK post office?
Unfortunately, Juli’s phone conversation did not have a successful outcome. It turns out that Oceania have pre-booked every tour operator on the Island for the days the ship is in port, which meant there were no vehicles or guides left to hire anywhere on the island. The only way we’re going to get to see any more of the Huahine is by taking one of the ship’s excursions, which are massively overpriced. Hey ho.
Day 298 (Raiatea)
This is one of the few islands we’ll be visiting just once on our way through French Polynesia, so it was important to get some sort of tour or trip organised. It was a pity, therefore, that we overslept – we both have colds again – and didn’t get ashore until mid morning. When we did, we found that most of the tours were booked up. The only one we found had a good itinerary but a very late departure. Not too late to get back on board before the ship sailed, but later, apparently, than any other passengers wanted, which would mean having to shoulder the full price for hiring the vehicle and driver/guide ourselves, unless anyone else booked on later. We said we’d think about it and check back before lunch to see if they’d had anymore interest.We talked about it while we walked round town – Uturoa: principle settlement on the island and administrative capital of the Leeward Islands – and decided that we would spring for the full price of the tour; for one thing, having the vehicle to ourselves would mean being able to tell the driver where we wanted to go (no pearl shops, no vanilla plantations) and would, in any case, still be cheaper than sharing it with four others on a ship bought excursion.
Once that was arranged for much later, we went back to the ship for lunch and a rest before going ashore again in the afternoon for our personal tour of the key sights of the ‘Sacred Island’.
Our driver and guide was a young (mid twenties) islander with excellent English. It turns out that he had been adopted by a French family – all teachers, apparently – and sent to college in New Zealand to study engineering, with a view to him becoming a teacher himself. Life, however had other plans for this chap, and so now, with a wife and seven-year-old daughter, he drives a 4x4 tour vehicle and works for a company that hires out sailing boats. He also runs two indoor football teams and tries to encourage kids to get involved with sport instead of smoking locally grown cannabis, which has become something of a problem on the island.
One of the obstacles he has to greater involvement is a simple matter of money. Money for equipment, money for facilities, even money for kit. we suggested that he get writing to any and every French players and teams he could think of to get their support for the youth work he’s trying to do. We feel sure that there will be a wealthy famous club or soccer star out there who would love to have their name associated with such a worthy project in such a glamorous destination.
Our guide drove us through some beautiful scenery and to some interesting cultural sights, such as a sacred place called Taputaputea, an important Marae (part temple, part palace, part settlement) from which stones were taken to all parts of Polynesia and beyond, including Hawaii. (An ancient name for Raiatea is believed to have been ‘havaii’.) Most of the site's artifacts have now been moved to a museum on Tahiti; we'll try to see them when we're backc there. We learned a lot about the island, and, with local and national election campaigning just getting underway, about the politics of the islands too.
Back on board, we watched Cloud Atlas with Tom Hanks and Halle Berry amongst others. It’s an interesting film with several oddly interconnected storylines from the past, present and future that are too complicated to understand after only one viewing (let alone explain) so I think we’re going to have to find another two and three quarter hours to watch it again, and/or get the DVD to watch it with the subtitles turned on. (Some of the dialogue from a couple of the storylines – one from a dystopic future, the other from an arcane past – is a little difficult to follow at times.)
That evening at dinner, we watched a terrific display of lightning that continued through the night, turned into a thunder storm this morning and continued as showers on and off all day. Apparently it does this a lot here. And they call this place paradise on earth? Well, it is the tropics.
That’ll do for the present. We’re back at Bora Bora now, where we’ll return once more at a later date during cruise segment number three. I think I’ll post this bit today and the next section beginning from this second visit to Bora Bora when we get back here again in a week or so.
TTFN - N
[Click for more photos from the South Pacific.]
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