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.

Day 40 - Fri 10/19/18 At Sea to Avatoru, Rangiroa, French Polynesia

My favorite view

Geometric shapes for the photo class

Today at sea was a long and packed sea day, and one that amazed us at least a couple times with how small our world is since we started serious international travel six years ago.

We started our day attending the 9am coffee chat with Jonathan, our Cruise Director and the Unexpected Boys. It was interesting to learn more about them and how quickly this group of four came together. Their rehearsals only began on September 3, which was one week before our ship departed from Fort Lauderdale. They, however, didn't join us until Peru. I also searched my previous cruise blogs and found that we had heard the second of two of their shows (different cast members) exactly 3 years ago on the Statendam as it sailed through Malaysia on its way to Singapore to be transferred to new owners.

Jo Bradford presented a fast paced session on Photographic Creativity which was marred by interruptions from a crew drill. She showed some amazing pictures taken with a cell phone. Meanwhile Angela continued her ukulele lessons. Martin Cohen gave his final Main Stage presentation on Coral Reefs which was quite good. Throughout our voyage, he has been an anchor presenter on a wide range of topics. David Happe gave his overview of the next 3 ports of call of which one we have already visited on the first segment.

After lunch with Deborah, Tani & Rose, singers from the Cook Islands delighted us with more Tahitian music in the Ocean Bar. HAL should book them more in venues where there is beverage service as I'm pretty certain it would do well. Dr. Sperlich gave a repeat talk on Polynesian Cultures and more of the new passengers should have been there! Gerald McCormack also presented a nice display of Polynesian Ornamental Plants and attendance there was very light. A couple of us slipped out to attend Jo Bradford's Phoneography class. 

While walking around the deck taking photos for the Phoneography class, I was wearing my Seattle Seahawks shirt and a couple commented on the shirt. It turned out they are friends of a couple who are long term friends of ours in Tacoma. It's a small world. Then as we were getting ready to watch tge Unexpected Boys show, a group behind me noticed the shirt and it turns out they graduated from the same high school that my wife taught at for 20 years. Again, it's a small world.

The Unexpected Boys gave another two full house concerts on the theme 'The trip of a Lifetime'. They are being well received even by a largely non-native English speaking audience. It goes to show how music transcends borders and languages.

Dr. Cohen gave a poignant story time talk about getting bitten by a coconut crab. Afterwards, Marny, Arlene, Angela and I enjoyed a terrific private chat with him. It was a good opportunity for us to give positive feedback and encouragement about continuing the EXC format. We all conveyed that it HAL had eliminated the next segment, a number of us would have booked through to Auckland.

It was a good day, and tomorrow is the first of three repeat ports. Stay tuned.

Day 39 - Thu 10/18/18 Nuku Hiva, Marquesa Islands

Arlene & Marny with the Maasdam in the Background

Today was another special day in Paradise. The ship anchored in Taiohae Bay, and we got an early tender off and met our guide, Lolo. It was an hour ride in a Toyota 4x4 pickup on a twisty concrete paved road over several mountain ranges (with a scenic viewpoint of the ship at anchor) before driving another mile on a dirt road to an ancient pier. There a small outrigger boat was being loaded with concrete stair posts and other building materials that we later saw were being used at Anaho Bay.  

After the concrete filled boat departed, our little open runabout bobs up to the dock and 10 of us pile in including one fellow who can't swim and has a look of sheer terror at about what is about to happen. I also looked around and counted up the PFD's (personal flotation devices): zero! This could be interesting. And off we go ploughing through the water and its 6-8 foot swells. The 'captain' steered us close to dramatically rough black lava cliffs with pounding surf trying to take down the lava rocks. After crossing about 3 bays were turned into what would be Anaho Bay which is quite protected.

At the end of the Bay is a little settlement with a pension and a restaurant. We all (but one) immediately got in the warm and waist deep waters of the bay and tried to find fish while the little runabout went back for the other two groups. There were a few fish and after an hour and a half most of us left the water and tried spotting small (under 2 foot) black tipped reef sharks and sting rays. They were quite visible in the shallow water. It was pretty nifty to have this whole Bay to pretty much ourselves.

We were served a BBQ fish and chicken lunch and I demonstrated how to break a coconut open which I had learned a few days earlier on our excursion in Moorea. After lunch, some went back in the water while others strolled the beach or just relaxed.

Since our group was first to arrive, we were first to depart. So we ploughed our way back to the ancient pier in heavy swells. At the pier we unloaded and a family with a mattress and two dogs got on the boat fir the trip back. The skipper was going to earn francs today! We retraced our way back on the dirt road and the paved road making stops at a scenic lookout, an archeological site with lots of tikis and wooden crafts for sale and an overlook for the site of the TV series, Survivor, Season 4 from 2001. We've now seen two of the Survivor sites with Samoa being the other site.

We got back at the little villlage of Taiohae (tender port) around 5:15 and our guide showed us the memorial to Herman Melville who lived here during the early 1800's. As it was getting dark, all of the little vendors were closed and we caught a tender back to the ship as we had a Caneletto dinner reservation for 7pm. It was a nice quiet dinner, and we caught most of the 8pm showing of BBC Planet Earth II before listening to the Cook Island couple, Rose and Tani, perform beautiful Polynesian love songs in the Crow's Nest after which we caught the whole 10pm performance of BBC Planet Earth II. We did notice movement in the ship around 9pm, so it appears that everyone got on board early so we left early.

Thanks go to Kathy (Jokelady) for setting up today's excursion. The scenery was stunning, it was great to get away from the crowds, and now I can say I've snorkeled at Anaho Bay. It's truly another part of Paradise.

Tomorrow we have a sea day with a packed schedule. Stay tuned.