Day 20 – Rain in Uturoa, Raiatea

Huahine to Raiatea, more or less. The light blue is reef.

We got up very early (5:15) for our arrival. We took a long circuitous to get from Huahine to Uturoa because the barrier reef only has one opening for a ship as big as the beautiful Zaandam, and it’s on the completely other side of the island. It’s quite a feat of steering – the space between the reef and the island is quite narrow in a lot of places. I stayed in bed and watched most of the arrival from the bow cam feed on our TV while Dave watched from 6 forward. 

Eventually I wondered if you could see any depth information on deck 7 where you can see the docking parts of the bridge, so I went out to see and met Dave on his way in. It turns out you can’t see any depth information, but I did run into Bev and Dennis, buddies from Tai Chi (and Hula for Dennis). Uturao has a much larger population than our last two ports, and we were able to dock at a pier right in the edge of the city, which is about 2 blocks long. Once we were docked Dave and I went to breakfast together. Still no prunes, but plenty of walnuts right next to the yogurt.

We had an early shore excursion to go kayaking up the Faaroa river, the only navigable in French Polynesia. We had two vans worth of people, and our guide Vivian was knowledge and funny. He was born in France but has lived in Tahiti since he was a teenager. Unfortunately when we got to the river it had been raining and both the river and the bay it empties into were completely brown and silty from run off. Vivian took us up to the top of the river where we would have paddled up to and it was just a roiling mess – definitely not a safe ride. On the way back to the ship Vivian kept pointing out things like the tallest mountain on the island or the other islands that are nearby, but it was raining so none of it was actually visible.

So we came back to the ship and dropped off our bags and went out and walked around. There was a big market with fruits & veggies downstairs and handicrafts upstairs, and some touristy shops. But there were also shops where locals would go to buy regular stuff, including a Carrefour which has a grocery store and also appliances both small and large and most importantly LU Paille d’or aux fraises, almost exactly like the framboises ones of my childhood that I have never seen anywhere else, and believe me I have looked everywhere. I bought a box and ate one of the 4 sealed packages. Canton, one packet is for you.

We got back and had some lunch, then I got cleaned up. Dave went to the gym and then got cleaned up. Getting this sunscreen off is a lot of work. I was starting to feel like I was catching Dave’s cold, so I took a huge nap and read all afternoon.

We had Mel, the guest services manager, with us for dinner. We’d seen her in the Coffee Chat so knew most of her HAL origin story, but she held up her part of the conversation and we had a nice time. Mikey left early for trivia, of course, and Dave and Ilene were going to try to the concert with Elliott Finkel and Adi the cellist from the Vivace trio (not to be confused with Adi our dining room steward) in the explorer’s lounge but it was standing room only, so we went back to the room for some reading.Dave went to the second show of Elliott & Adi, in which Elliott was the accompanist, much to Adi's delight. I stayed in the room & read.

Our route to our next stop, Bora Bora, is only about 90 nautical miles, but according to the captain we’re going to a longer route of about 130 NM so we can use the stabilizers for a smoother ride – wind will be force 6 with 3M swells, the best we’ve had so far this trip.

Day 19 - Huahine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got to have a pretty slow morning. I started off with TBP BB 6 up in the gym, then breakfast (no walnuts or prunes). Two different people said “Hi dancer!” as I walked by, which was fun. Then Tai Chi, where we’ve gotten into a section that Jorge is less familiar with and it’s a little rough going. We don’t learn new moves on port days, so we have plenty of time to get proficient.

After that we went to 6-forward to watch the sail in to Huahine, which is easily the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen in my life. None of the pictures nor my description will give you the breathtaking glory of this place. It’s much younger than Rangiroa so it still has the steep volcanic mountains, and it’s so green and lush it looks completely fake.  

Once we were anchored I went up to the Lido to put together a snack plate for later. The views out the windows were spectacular! Our tour is in the early afternoon, so we set up dinner in the Canaletto specialty dining restaurant to not have to rush to our early seating dinner. I knew we’d be a little peckish and didn’t want either of us to get sensitive. It was still breakfast in the Lido. There were walnuts. Then we went on a quest for bottled water, because the islands are very fussy about what can come off the ship (with good reason). We found them in the World Stage.

Usually the dining room is closed on port days, but today they had it open with a stripped down menu – potato soup, fish’n’chips or chicken caeser salad, cherry cheesecake. We were in and out in 25 minutes which was excellent, and then went and put on the icky sunscreen (ick! ick!) and hung out in our room looking out at the beautiful mountains until it was time to go.

Another tender port; our excursion guide (a very nice French woman who has been in Polynesia for 15 years) said that it’s very rare for ships as big as ours to stop here. They only have 1 tender dock and no mass transit to the one town, so Dario kept recommending that if you didn’t have a shore excursion or shuttle ticket you stay on the ship. Because it is hot here, and it’s a considerable walk to town. Because we’re 4 star mariners we have priority tender privileges; basically that means that instead of having to wait with the riff-raff in the Ocean Bar we go to the Wajang Theatre where they verify our starredness and hand us two tender tickets for immediate boarding. We walked to the tender loading place and got on the tender at which point it left almost immediately even though it wasn’t full. I don’t think the immediate departure had anything to do with our extreme starriness but it’s fun to pretend.

Because of all this efficiency we were a half hour early for check in. They had an open-air bus that we could sit in to wait, but we walked around a bit. It’s kind of a residential area and everybody had mangoes and coconuts lying around under their trees, just like we have cherries and apples in our neighborhood. Eventually our bus came – they’re big truck boxes with long wooden benches inside – and everybody got out of the bus they’d been waiting in and onto the identical but apparently more correct vehicle. Our excursion was to the Marea, the ruins of temples of the pre-Christian population. They are interesting and our guide was very knowledgeable. We walked up a hill to see the ruins of the ruler’s land and it was a nice little hike up a hill. The most interesting thing we found out is that Huahine is the only Polynesian island that was matriarchal – they had Queens as rulers. We also went to see ancient fish traps and the blue-eyed eels.

We got back to the dock at 4:30 and jumped on a tender, so we were back on the ship at 4:45. We ate our snacks and got showered (the icky mineral sunscreen is hard to get off!) in time to go out and watch the sail away from 6 forward and then go aft for the sunset, which was clouded out. Because it was a port day, Coffee with Dario was Cocktails with Dario at 6:30, and today’s guest was the singer Anita Newby. She was very funny and interesting and we’re looking forward to her next show.

Our dinner at the Canaletto exceeded expectations; the service was very fast and the food was very good, especially my seabass with ratatouille. 

The tourboats are coming! The tourboats are coming!

Sail Away on 6-Forward

 

Our Guide and some guide-ees

A fish trap, used during the time of the queens

Goodbye Huahine

 

 

Day 18 - Avatoru, Rangiroa

Things I haven’t mentioned: It is hot. And it is humid. It’s over 80 degrees day and night and 100% humidity. We’ve acclimated pretty well, in fact we didn’t even notice it today off the ship (there was a nice breeze) but when we step out on our balcony it’s a momentary shock – and the binoculars fog up immediately.

Also we’re near the equator, so two things: 1. The days and nights are almost exactly the same length and 2. The sun sets quickly and shortly after it is dark. No lingering sunsets here. Dave would be happy to explain why if you ask him.

OK, we slept in this morning - I woke up just as we were coming through the channel into the central lagoon of Rangiroa. I had to miss Tai Chi again, because we had a 9:15 shore excursion. I found the walnuts at the oatmeal station so it was a good morning (still no prunes). We put on the thick reef safe biodegradable sunscreen(ick!) and got to the World Stage for our shore excursion, but because the ship had been late clearing customs and tour company only has two boats our excursion was delayed. We went back to the cabin and I got the blog finished, and then it was time to go.

Our tender left from the aft tender platform, so I was hopeful that it meant that we’d be boarding our shore excursion boat directly from the ship, but it was a regular tender. Texas and Mrs. Bix were on it with us – she was covered head to foot in white. We eventually got on our little boat (eleven people) and zipped over to the reef. I think Dave and I were the only people who didn’t have our own masks and snorkels, but the ones they provided worked fine. We got off the boat and put our heads in the water and it was instant magic. The water was so clear and there were more fish than I’ve ever seen, and they would swim really close. There can be tricky currents, so we stayed close to our guide and had an amazing time. My favorite were the blue-lipped clams (Tridacna maxima, also known as the small giant clam or curly blue lips - pahua in Tahitian).

 

Our snorkel was only about an hour, and then we took a stroll through the small vendor space. There was a line for the tenders back to the ship, so by the time we got back and showered it was almost 1:30 and we were starving. We had a tasty lunch on the lido, and then went back to our room where I had a huge nap. Dave discovered that a beer and a small ice cream cone have the same calories, so he had an afternoon cone. When I woke up I went up to the gym and did the Nia Soul routine, and then it was already time for dinner.

Our servers were allowed to dress more casually or wear clothes from their culture. Adi was dressed in a collared short sleeve shirt, but after dinner he dressed in his Balinese finery, including making a hat from a small tablecloth which was impressive. Leo is Filipino, so he was just in casual dress, but after Adi made the hat Leo stole it and was wearing it and a huge grin. I learned at dinner that I got the last of the walnuts – they were gone by the time Ilene got there. I know we’re all fascinated by the walnut report.

The big show tonight was Elliott Finkel, pianist & son of Fyvush. He is 89 years old and put on a terrific show ranging from Disney  to Broadway to Vaudeville to movies, including a rendition of Beethoven’s Fur Elise that made me forget the many painful times I heard it during piano recitals.

After the show we took a break, then headed up to the Ocean Bar to listen to the Dam band. They started the set with their usual couples dance songs, but then a man in a blue t-shirt got up and started dancing, and pretty soon some other women had gotten up, so I got up, and then a bunch of us pretty much danced for the rest of the set, even though it wasn’t my favorite kind of dance music. 

Meanwhile, we were sitting next to Texas and Mrs. Bix Bender, and Dave overheard them talking about their history, which is that he is from New Jersey originally and was a dance instructor and that’s how they met. His jewelry collection is amazing, and they both are always wearing a hat. When we can figure out how to do it we will take their picture. Mrs. Bix got up and danced with us by herself, which was fun.

Dave had a coughing night leftover from his cold, so we didn't sleep very well.

  

These are two views of the atoll islands of Rangiroa and Tikehau so you can see how they're really more like outlines around their lagoons. Rangiroa is the largest of the French Polynesian atolls. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to find out how atolls form.