French Polynesia - end of cruise

 

Bora Bora

This is the last fun port for Jeff and I since when we get to the next one we will leave the ship.  We have been to Bora Bora before and enjoyed snorkeling when we were here 3 1/2 years ago.  One of the people we met on this ship knows of a guy with a snorkeling excursion, so we and 12 others book it which means he and another guy are bringing boats for us.  So, the "friend" is Patrick and yes, he knows these people as do several other people when we get off the tenders in Bora Bora (all ships have to anchor offshore here).  We get off the tender and Charlie the husband of the lady who booked the excursion is welcomed by Patrick and at least 2 other people.  I think they come here more often than she let on!

Motu as you enter inside the reefs that surround most of the island

First close up view

Anyway since it is drizzling Patrick walks all of us over to a covered pavilion so he can get paid and we work out who is on which boat.  The other boat is being operated by Tuo who is Patrick's son and Patrick's teen age daughter is with him too.  We are on the boat with Patrick and Jackie, Jennifer and Charlie the planners plus Stephanie and David - all friends of ours.  Jackie said she wanted to see a reef manta ray so Patrick took us to a couple of spots but between the clouds and the light rain we have no luck.  We all agree to move on to the sharks and happily the skies start to clear up.  

Tuo's boat, identical to ours

Patrick

We get to the area for the sharks and find some plus a ray that knows Patrick.  While we put on our snorkel and goggles, you can stand up here as the water is quite shallow.  Last time we saw the sharks we just stood there looking at them from above the water, it was better floating and looking at them some.  Now relax these are black tipped reef sharks and they have no interest in hurting us.  Happy to say that even Charlie got out of the boat (Charlie is 92).  It was a great start.

Ray directly behind Carol

Fun day on the water

We then went to the coral garden to snorkel there for a while.  It was really nice.  The water was a good temperature and wonderfully clear with no current or waves.  When Jeff got in the water, Patrick handed him a chunk of bread to feed the fish with so he held out his hand for several minutes while fish came and nibbled on it and him some.  I floated next to him for most of the time.  Then we floated around more and saw lots and lots of clams in addition to other fish and coral.  At first, I thought I saw a clam (brightly colored squiggly line) then I questioned it because I saw so many.  When I was back on the boat, both Patrick and Jeff said yes they were all indeed clams.  The fish here were somewhat different from what we had seen elsewhere on this trip - I saw some copper-colored ones and a bright green one plus lots of multi-colored fish.  Too soon it was time to get back in the boat so we could go to the motu for lunch.

Motu is a small island, well not small as that in the foreground, but not as big as that in the background.

Here there was a covered eating and a separate cooking and bar areas.  We had drinks and then we went to the oven area to see our lunch.  It was a suckling pig that had been placed on hot lava rocks and then covered in layers and layers of banana leaves.  The pig was quite good as was all of the food on the motu.  Next Patrick and his son perform a Polynesian Fire dance.  Then it was time for Patrick to get us back to the dock.

Lunch on left, right Jeff getting artsy with his beer

Click here to watch the fire dance.

Rather than head straight back to the ship, since we had an hour or so Jeff and I went shopping.  Bora Bora became an expensive stop for us since we each bought a pearl "souvenir".   

So the day before Bora Bora, was a sea day and it was the day of the ship building competition sail away.  Jeff and I with Stephanie and David built a boat and competed.  We were proud of our boat.  The ship will not give you anything to build your boat, but you can use whatever you find (no plates, etc from the ship).  Ours was built on wine and water bottles plus coat hangers and wine corks.  We also used chop sticks and an old shirt of David's.  We did not win but it did stay afloat even as the pool was hit by a big wave since the ship was in some waves.

Our proud vessel

Tahiti

End of the line for Jeff and I and over half of the other passengers on the ship - the ship was continuing on through French Polynesia up to Hawaii.  For one of the first times in a while on this trip we got hot waiting in line for a taxi to get us to the hotel.  Not sure why there was no taxis at first since there were 2 cruise ships disembarking, but they did show up and we got to our hotel as did probably a 1/3 of our ship so no room for a while.  We hung around inside and cooled off and then enjoyed the pool in the afternoon.  I should add that the hotel has a mascot - a bird.  The bird is NoNo - maybe a Brown Noddy?  Anyway, he was on an employee's hand and then when my bagged fell over and I leaned over to pick it up, he decided to land on my back.  Not my idea of a great welcoming!  Then he decided to stand on my bag!

We had chosen this hotel because there was a small shopping mall across the street where there was an elevated walkway.  We decided to go explore it and found a grocery store so we said while in a French based country, eat like a Frenchman.  We got a baguette, prosciutto, cheese, a Cesar salad and wine for a dinner on our balcony, It was so good we did a variation for dinner our second night.

Our table at breakfast was over the water and looked upon this coral teaming with fish

In addition to checking out the shopping mall, we headed to the municipal market and some shopping in the downtown area by the cruise port.  Now I should add that while we are in Papeete, Tahiti easily the largest city in all of French Polynesia, it is not a big place.  We enjoyed wandering around the market and bought monkey bananas as Cierra calls them - nice, sweet small bananas.  We also bought tee shirts from a shop that designs them there.  Some more shopping and a beer and fries at a pub and we were ready to head back to our hotel for some pool time.  No, we did not visit any museums or anything like that.  I think we were done exploring for a couple of days.

The Twilight Zone

It is Sunday July 13, 2025, and we are in Apia, Samoa.  Then 24 hours later, it is Sunday July 13, 2025, and we are in Pago Pago, American Samoa.  No there is not a typo there and yes you read it correctly.  While sailing from Samoa to American Samoa we crossed the international dateline, so we had the same calendar date 2 days in a row.  It proved to be a challenge for some of the ship's computers.  Reservations for the specialty restaurants had to be done manually and at one-point American Samoa dropped off our itinerary.  Unfortunately, both countries are very religious so many things were closed at both stops since it was Sunday to both islands - no shopping and we had to be conscientious of the times as we passed churches.

Vanuatu and Fiji

I got my revenge from Jeff putting me in danger on these trips!

Mystery Island, Vanuatu

Vanuatu is an island nation that was under both British and French control (together believe it or not) until the 1970s.  Now it is a popular tourism spot for Australians.  Originally, we had 2 ports in the country, but the other island is still rebuilding after a one two punch of earthquake and cyclone both in December.  We did visit Mystery Island so named during WWII.  The US built an airstrip on the island in such a way that the Japanese could not figure out where the planes were going and coming from.  Now this is a little island as in you can walk around the whole thing in 30 minutes so it is kind of amazing that A there is an airstrip here and B that it could be so well hidden!  Also no one lives on this island.  The locals believe it is inhabited by spirits so it is taboo to live here.  All the recreation we will be offered is brought over from the main island.

Cruising around Northern Australia

secret WW II tunnels under Darwin

Darwin

You might remember that Jeff and I spent a couple of days in Darwin before our Kimberley Coast cruise and Darwin is on the small size.  We have decided to skip the couple of excursions the ship offered - nah we don't need to see more crocodiles and not dying to go on the WWII tour around town.  We docked in the middle of the afternoon so after we went through immigration we headed on a pedestrian passage to the other side of the harbor to a different dock where the Royal Flying Doctors and the Darwin WWII Museum is located.  We were told the museum was good from our earlier cruise's fellow passengers.  We also have a sunset cruise booked for the evening; thus, we had less time than ideal for the museum.  Having said that 1 1/2 hours would have been more than enough since it is not big.

Hunting Dragons

 

Our first port stop on this cruise is to Komodo Island, Indonesia as in the home of the Komodo Dragon.  This island is the only place in the world you will find them.  We booked an excursion with 18 other people that took us to see the dragons and then to the pink beach on the island.  This is a small place; there is a small town on the other side of the island, but most if not all of the island is a national park.  As such, entry is closely controlled and if you did not have a prebooked tour, you could not get off the ship!

Munduk, Bali, Indonesia

Floating Temple

 On the road to Munduk

We leave our resort by 7 in the morning to catch the ferry back to the island of Bali where we have a driver/guide waiting for us to drive us up in the mountains to Munduk and will stop at some tourist places along the way.  I should point out that driving through Denpasar, Benoa, Ubud and all the southeast parts of Bali is slow because of the traffic.  They cannot widen the roads due to so many family shrines right at the road and there is too much traffic for two lane roads.  Once we get out of the touristy areas and into the country traffic is much easier.

South Pacific Paradise - Bali & Lombok Indonesia

Ubud

We get in around 10pm after a trying flight experience, but we are here as is all of our luggage (gate agent in Broome messed up our luggage) and the screaming family is gone.  We are pleasantly surprised at the hotel and our room.  Our room has its own private patio with a small pool.  We unpack and hit the bed - we're tired