I don't believe I have talked about the actual locations of the islands. They are situated halfway between Los Angeles, California and Sydney, Australia. They are in the same time zone as Hawaii and located just as far south of the equator as Hawaii is north. Since the word often conjures up visions of a distant, unspoiled paradise, many assume them to be far away; but in reality, Tahiti is only eight hours from Los Angeles.
This is our second trip to Tahiti. In 2015 we did a great small group (6 people) 4x4 tour deep in the rainforest to a central volcano crater. We saw dozens and dozens of waterfalls and almost became stranded by a rising river crossing. We are passing on that excitement this time.
When I woke up at a little after six, I looked off our veranda and could see this landmass to our east.
After checking our location on the Geotracker app, I found this to be the atoll of Taterao. This Windward group of the Society Islands of French Polynesia was once the vacation spot for Tahitian royalty. Today one of the islands is under a 99 year lease by Marlon Brando. He discovered it during the filming of Mutiny on the Bounty in the early 1960's.
About 30 minutes later, I spotted Moorea through the haze on the west side of the ship
Arriving in port on a Saturday found the dock closed and quiet. There were quite a few recreation boaters about, on kayak, canoes, and small watercraft.
I spotted this ferry from Moorea as it was coming at full speed toward the protected lagoon. Note the kayak rushing to cross in front of the ferry.
Row Harder....ROW HARDER...
(by the way, he did make it across, but just barely)
We docked just across from this beautiful yacht. I took this photo from our veranda.
I Googled the yacht's name, Bliss Bikini. This boat is owned by Evan Spiegal, the founder of Snapchat. It cost an estimated $200 million and has an operating cost of $20 million per year. Nice...
We were finally able to debark a little after 10:00 AM. We assume the delay from our docking time was the removal of the medical emergency. We had not planned any excursions in Papeete, since this was a return trip for all of us, but we were pleased to learn the ship was making available ferry tickets to Moorea for those who wanted to go. This was nice since Moorea was being skipped because we were having to do Tahiti twice. We picked up our ferry passes on the pier and headed to the ferry terminal. I noted that the tickets were valid until the end of November. We found the designated ferry line (there are several operating out of the terminal), but it was almost 2 hours until the next ferry left for Moorea because it was Saturday. After studying the ferry schedule, we decided to postpone our trip to Moorea until Monday, on our second visit. This would allow us to depart earlier and have more time on the island, as well as more opportunities to catch a return ferry and not miss our sailing. It is a long way to New Zealand!
We left the ferry terminal and decided to just walk to the market in town and then along the shoreline.
The market looked pretty much like it did 10 years ago. We all did note that the town itself seemed to have grown and developed since our last trip.
Fresh fish anyone? 1000F is approximately $8.60 USD. Not a bad price. I noted that the fish was less expensive that much of the fruit for sale.
This was the first opportunity I have had to get a good photo of our ship.
Here is another with a view of the stern.
Yes, there is Burger King and many other chain fast foods we see in the US. I take it that you can get two Whoppers for 2000F or about $19. It was not clear if this was a "full meal deal" or just the burger.
Everyone is taking a heat break. Although the temperature is only in the low 80's the sun is intense. We were continually warned to use sun protection and it was advise well heeded.
The Soleil Hotties or rather the hot people from Soleil. Carl soon gave into the heat and returned to the ship.
We walked down to the Paofai Gardens near the pier and on the water. It is a nice little park with walkways, benches, playgrounds and lots of lush trees. They even had some beach volley ball courts. We had visited this park on our previous trip.
Some type of ceremony or event was taking place. At first we though it was a wedding, but we were never quite sure what the occasion was.
While taking a break in the park, we saw a perfect demonstration of the phrase "pecking order". Someone had tossed a piece of bread onto a walkway. While we were observing it some small birds came along and began to eat. Along came a pigeon and run the smaller birds off. After a few minutes some birds appeared which were smaller than the pigeons, but obviously more fierce. They reminded me of mockingbirds. I tried to identify them with the Merlin Bird app and Google Lens, but both failed. They quick dispersed the pigeons. After a while a rooster appear and walked up to the bread and the other birds didn't even bother to fight for it. They just backed off! This shows that size isn't everything, but if you are big enough you get what you want!
After returning to the ship, I just wanted a beer and to cool off. We went to the World Cafe, enjoyed lunch and had a beer. There is some "local dancers" coming onboard the ship this evening for a performance in addition to all the other things going on. I have to credit Viking for trying to make up for the schedule change (ferry tickets!). Also, I noted at lunch that we again have tops for our carry-out coffee. Small things, but they do matter.
We elected to catch the "local entertainment" which had been brought onboard before having dinner this evening. To my surprise, it was the best performance of this type I have seen (and we have seen a few).
After the program, we proceeded to dinner where we had a great view of Papeete at sunset from our regular table. Surprisingly our area of the dining room was pretty quiet.
Overall the dinner was excellent. I took a chance and order the hanger steak. After discussing the problems I have had getting my steak cooked properly with Danu, one of our servers, I got some answers. He said the chefs were not allowed to serve rare beef. I assume this is why it is often overcooked for me. He made a note on my order to make it as rare as possible, to not overcook. I received an excellent steak cooked this time to a lovely medium-rare.
I find it strange regarding the rule about cooking rare beef. They have no problem serving raw fish and shell fish on a daily basis.
Anyway, we got to bed early tonight and reach Bora Bora in the morning.
This blog is actually being posted Sunday morning (local) due to internet difficulties yesterday afternoon and evening. Hopefully this gets better. I hate to get behind.... Please excuse grammar and spelling errors, spelling and punctuation were never my strong suite.
No comments:
Post a Comment