Day 47 - Fri 10/26/18 Raiatea, French Polynesia

I'll say it up front: today was the absolute best snorkeling of the trip and possibly anywhere for us.

We arrived early at the port and didn't have to tender! Today was a first visit of the Maasdam to this port, but what a nice stop it was. They have a nice terminal and shops and a grocery store across the street.  

We found our L'Excursion Bleue excursion boat behind the nearby Shell service station. One couple didn't show, so another couple, Peter and Kathy took their place. Our outrigger canoe type boat held 12 guests plus Bruno, the owner, and Carlos, his deckhand. Raiatea is the second largest island in French Polynesia and adjoining it is Tahaa Island, noted for Vanilla and Pearl farms. We journeyed over to Tahaa Island and first snorkeled with the sharks and rays and other smaller fish. There were dozens and dozens of black tipped reef sharks

We visited a vanilla farm and learned about how vanilla is grown and processed. They had a nice fruit snack there and an assortment of vanilla products to purchase. Back on the boat, We then did some wonderful drift snorkeling over coral formations before enjoying a nice lunch on Tahaa Island. After lunch there was a brief stop at a pearl farm where we saw how the pearls are cultured. A short boat ride across the lagoon brought us to the next drift snorkeling location. We waded or snorkeled to shore and then walked across the motu (Island) and re-entered the water following Bruno through the coral canyons on another drift snorkel where we saw all sorts of colorful fish including Nemo (a clownfish) and a giant moray eel. 

We then rode the boat back to the pier which meant that we had circumnavigated Tahaa Island. At the port we said our goodbyes and did a little shopping before reboarding the Maasdam. Refreshing showers cleaned off the salt residue and we enjoyed a leisurely dinner with Peter and Kathy chatting extensively about their experiences being foster parents.

Annie Gong was our entertainment tonight and was her cute little self. The theme was classical music. Later on Rose & Tani performed a set in the Ocean Bar. Afterwards we chatted with Erik & Marilyn before enjoying a brief chat with Annie Gong and then returning to our room.  

Tomorrow is unfortunately the last day of our cruise. We will be in Moorea, but we don't have anything planned. But stay tuned to see what we do.

Day 46 - Thu 10/25/18 At Sea to Raiatea, French Polynesia

A new day and a new harem

This last day at sea started out on kind of a sour note. The whole morning into early afternoon was pretty much blocked out for a face to passport immigration inspection with only 2 officers on board to process 1250 plus guests. The event was held in the Main Showroom so all events (the few that there were) had to be held elsewhere. The inspection was organized by deck of the ship with Deck 4 being assigned the time slot 8am to 9am. However, it took much longer than that and we were on Deck 5 assigned to the 9am time slot. We joined the line at 9:15am and were finally done at 10:30am causing us to miss a 10am ukelele jam session. HAL was doing the best they could, and they had an orderly process; there were simply not enough inspectors. On the flip side, once we reach Papeete, we could be standing in the heat on the dock alongside the ship in a long line. There are no port facilities to handle a cruise ship of this size. The whole process got significantly delayed causing the afternoon programming to be delayed and shuffled around and put into different venues.

A group of us gathered in the main atrium and we staged a new picture of me with my harem. We joked that it was a different day and a different harem!

We did watch Rose & Tani in the Lido Pool area which was hard to hear due to the splashing of the waves from the pool. I listened part of Kay's port talk on Moorea and Papeete before attending Jo Bradford's phoneography class on editing. I think she spent too much time rehashing material we previously covered and not nearly enough time on editing.

This final gala night dinner was pretty special. A group of ten of us (Ann & JOHN, Kate & Jim, Barb & Alex, Arlene and Marny, Tim & Angela) who have been on since the beginning of the cruise in Ft. Lauderdale shared a table together and we all enjoyed fun conversations and memories along with a surf & turf meal.

The evening's entertainment was The Unexpected Boys doing their fourth set 'The Finale' in which they announce they are now the Jersey Tenors. We went to both the 8 and 10pm shows with the Chocolate Surprise sandwiched in at 9:45. Of their 16 performances since joining the ship, we've seen 15 of them. We only missed one due to a dinner obligation. At the 10pm performance, they received an enthusiastic standing ovation. They are truly the best live non cast entertainment we've seen on a ship and we have nearly 400 days on HAL and 4 other lines.

Tomorrow we are visiting a new port in Raiatea, French Polynesia. Stay tuned for what appears to be another great day in Paradise.

Day 45 - Wed 10/24/18 Raratonga, Cook Islands

Today at Raratonga, we scored the bookends of a first for us. We made it off on the first tender and then, drum roll please, I was second to the last back on board on the ship while Angela was the last one to reboard the ship. Before arriving at this port there was some concern about whether we would be able to tender due to sea swell conditions. Jonathan, our cruise director, even requested patience as the sea conditions produced swells of 6-8 feet. It was a rough tender boarding from the ship and rough reboarding at the end of the day. Plus the swells in transit were in the 6 foot range.

Once on shore, we obtained maps and walked across the street to wait for the Cook Island bus. The island has a ring road and two bus routes around the island. One runs clockwise and the other runs anti-clockwise (they don't use the term counter clockwise). We took the anti-clockwise bus for a full 18 mile loop around the island to get a feel for the island. An older lady and her daughter and grandson boarded the bus and it turn out that the older lady was the mother of the bus driver. The cost for an unlimited stop daily bus pass was $16NZ per person. A single stop was $5NZ. And other pricing options were available. At the end of the loop we got off the bus in the main township of Avarua and did some walking around and shopping and unsuccessfully trying to find a copy of Rose & Tani's CD before reboarding the anti-clockwise bus for a ride to Muri Beach. We happened upon the Te Ara Cook Islands Museum of Cultural Enterprise which is a small museum recounting the history of the Cook Islands. It was very good and the history message conveyed was parallel to what we heard on the ship.

Afterwards we walked the Muri Beach area where I finally found a Cook Islands non-cotton shirt before boarding a clockwise bus back to the port and city center. That bus was late and totally packed to the point that Angela sat on my lap to make space for another passenger on our seat. The bus driver graciously dropped us off at the post office which is a shipping container with post office boxes mounted in the side. There is also a retail facility next to it. We then walked back to the tender dock and noted at least 3 tenders worth of passengers waiting to board. We got on the last tender and made it back on board as the last two passengers.

Rose and Tani performed during the sail away. It's probably worth noting that the Maasdam was unable to anchor due to the depth of the water. It maintained its position by use of the bow & stern thrusters and main propulsion system. We enjoyed another great Guest Chef's dinner in the Pinnacle Grill with the good company of Don and Barbara from California before watching the 10pm comedy show of Jim Short.

Tomorrow is another sea day as we make our way back to French Polynesia.  

Day 44 - Tue 10/23/18 At Sea to Raratonga, Cook Islands

My Mariner lunch harem

Today was a recovery day for most of us after 3 back to back ports full of activity. Lectures for us today included a port talk by EXC guide Kay, Reef fish by Martin Cohen, Light in Photography by Jo Bradford, & Ask the Captain. But the most bizarre gathering was the Mariner's Award presentation during which only 2 bronze Medallions were passed out. The Hotel Director indicated that on the next segment that there are no awards. It was a real waste of time and effort in my humble opinion. The Mariner luncheon was excellent and 5 of us 48 day cruisers were shared a table. The 4 ladies said I had my personal harem!

Angela and I watched the movie 'Adrift' which despite a sad ending was pretty good. Tani & Rose, the Cook island couple who have been singing in smaller venues throughout this segment were the Mainstage Entertainment and they did two different shows at 8pm and 10pm. They were excellent!!

Tomorrow we hope to tender into Raratonga. The seas today were swells of 6-8 feet and it was overcast. Stay tuned.

Day 43 - Mon 10/22/18 Bora Bora, French Polynesia

Somebody is going to get bit

Day 42 - Sun 10/21/18 Huahine Ini, French Polynesia

Today was the day it was hard to remove the stupid grin from our faces. Apart from Easter Island, this simply was a beyond amazing day. So what made it so? We did something that was so far outside our comfort zone: we rented jet skis and proceeded to motor our way around the islands. We rode 2up in the open ocean, in sheltered bays and lagoons, under a bridge, and even rode around the Maasdam at full speed. It was so much fun squeezing the throttle and getting up to 53kmph or about 31mph bouncing across waves. We even got to do some drift snorkeling which was fantastic, and there was a brief refreshment break on an island.

We had the tour company drop us back in the little town of Fare where we shopped and each of us had a grilled to order French Crepe. We also met up with Deborah from the ship and tried snorkeling at the public beach, but there was no coral and there was a stiff current. So we caught the ship's shuttle called Le Truck which is essentially a 2 ton cabover truck with a set of seats the length of the frame and it has a covered roof. It's sort of like a truck mated with a trolley car.

We showered and watched the sail away through a very narrow buoy marked passageway. It was pouring rain, so we watched from inside the Crow's Nest. I went to the Half Moon room to lead the interdenominational service but only 3 people showed up (6 pm is not a good time as it is in the early dinner hour). A couple excused themselves and we chatted with the remaining person who is a deacon in the Catholic Church. It was a great conversation about spiritual things.

Dinner tonight was a special Polynesian themed dinner prepared by the guest chef from Auckland. The overall meal was the best of the special dinners we have eaten and the chicken entree was the most moist chicken I have ever had on a ship. Our table mates from Oregon, Norm & Sue, were terrific.  

These special dinners take a long time, so we missed the 8pm performance of the Unexpected Boys who were doing their Broadway show. But we caught the 10pm show. We first saw this show a few days over 3 years ago on the Statendam. It's still really good and I could see it again tomorrow!

We have an exciting day planned for our return visit to Bora Bora. Stay tuned!

Day 41 - Sat 10/20/18 Avatoru, Rangiroa, French Polynesia

Today was Paradise revisited day in Rangiroa. We were here a few weeks ago, and for today we decided to try to go over to the other part of the atoll to the village of Tiputa and visit it.

Tendering began at 7am but we didn't leave the ship until after 9 following a short wait. Others reported waiting some 1.5 hours to get off. Once on shore Angela asked a tour operator where the water taxi was, and we were directed to the other side of the dock. Shortly a small covered roof boat came and picked about 6 people up including 4 from the ship. The fare was 300 francs per person or about $3. It ran on a 30 minute schedule until 5pm.  

Once we arrived at Tiputa, we walked to the post office/telecommunications office/ATM building. We also found a local little general merchandise/grocery store plus 2 others as we walked into village. We saw two churches (one Protestant and one Catholic) but neither were open. We walked about a mile down the main road, made a left turn, and found ourselves at a coral beach on the Pacific Ocean side of the atoll. We walked along the coral beach for at least a mile enjoying the many different shapes of the now calcified coral. From time to time we would walk in the tide pool, and Angela sat in the tide pool and allowed a large wave to break over her as I photographed it.

We even found teensy hermit crabs and played with them a bit. At one point the surf deposited a 3" long fish at my feet and it was thrashing around, so I scooped it up and got it back in the water. One small scoop for a fish; a large dose of satisfaction in helping a small creature.

On the way back to the water taxi, we encountered a couple ladies with coconuts. We admired them and in turn they gave us two. They absolutely refused to accept any money and wouldn't let us refuse them. I was able to open one without any tools using my new found skill at opening coconuts! We enjoyed the refreshing drink, and learned that this was really an immature coconut as the meat inside was like gelatin and hadn't hardened. We ended up bringing one back to the ship for future enjoyment.

After catching the water taxi back to the Avatoru village, we enjoyed a raw shrimp ceviche like dish at the restaurant on the left side of the dock as one faces way from the tender. It was quite good. We then headed off to snorkel at the public beach and had Deborah from the ship join us. Angela has been teaching her how to swim over the last few days and today was a breakthrough day. We even joke about adopting her. She's really progressed in losing her fear of the water.

After snorkeling (we saw quite a few fish) we walked back to the tender dock and shopped a bit before catching the last tenders. We were on the second to last and Deborah was on the last one.

After showering we went up to deck 13 above the Crow's Nest to watch sailing through the narrow passage out of the reef. Due to overcrowding we moved down to Deck 11 in front of the gym for an excellent vantage point. There were a few dolphins in front of the ship.

Once out in the open sea, we watched the sunset before having dinner in the Lido with friends. Annie Gong was the entertainment tonight. We've seen her before and she's a skilled Chinese accordionist. Peter Carey told an interesting story about his first trek to count seals at the Snares Islands. I started to watch the movie, "Love Affair" set in French Polynesia but gave up after 1/2 hour. Angela later said I really missed a good one.

All in all, I think we did our own EXC exploration today, and it was really enjoyable. It was also really good to do a repeat visit, and we are going to do repeat visits to Bora Bora, Moorea, and Papeete over the next week.

Tomorrow we are really going to do something well out of our comfort zone. Stay tuned.