DAY 28---BORA BORA, FRENCH POLYNESIA

                                                                     BORA BORA

We arrived and sailed into the protected lagoon this morning at 7am.  We will overnight here so spending two days anchored in the calm lagoon.

Historical/Background Info:

        Bora Bora is an island in the leeward group of the Society Islands of French Polynesia.  The island is surrounded by a lagoon and barrier reef. 

Photo of Bora Bora and its lagoon taken from the international space station.

         In the center of the island there are two peaks from an extinct volcano and the highest point is 2400 feet.  It is a small island only 6 miles long and 2 ½ miles wide.

        Bora Bora is 150 miles northwest of Tahiti and has a population of 9,000.  It is a major international tourist destination know for its luxury resorts, most of them feature water bungalows built on stilts in the lagoon.  The island’s economy is driver almost entirely by tourism.  Snorkeling and scuba diving are very popular activities.  French and Tahitian are spoken here but due to the high tourism population, many of the natives have learned English.       

        Without doubt this is most beautiful island we have visited on this and many other cruises.  The Hawaiian Islands cannot come close to this FANTASTIC island.  The many colors of the lagoon water are amazing, breath taking, and mesmerizing.  We were here in 2010 & 2017.

LAST EVENING

        At 5:15 we had to do a compulsory emergency lifeboat drill as a refresher.  They say we need to do one every 30 days.

                                                         Our meeting place is in the theater.

   New flowers arrived in Papeete and placed in public rooms/bars.  None in our suite however.

Terry Bishop and his wife, Julie, saying good bye to Nickie, our outgoing General Manager.  Paul, Cruise Director is with her.  Nickie is going on vacation but will return later on during this WC.

L to R:  Harvey, Richard, and Marcia with us for dinner in Prime 7.  Lots of fun and laughs with them.

This piece of art behind Richard is VERY weird for a dining venue.  Harvey & Richard do NOT like it so I seated them with their backs to it.

TODAY

                                                   Sailing into the lagoon at Bora Bora.

This cruise ship is the Amadea.  Under charter by a German company she was built in Japan back in 1991.  604 passengers and crew of 292.

I met in the theater at 9am for my today's tour, "Bora Bora Island by Le Truck".  Then had to take the tender ashore for it.

         Tenders are being used again today as there is not dock for cruise ships on Bora Bora.

This is my Le Truck.  I managed to get a window seat for this 2 1/2 hour tour.  There is a road around the coast line of the island and all the people live along it.  Inland is mountainous from extinct volcanos and not habitable.  The road was built by the United States during WWII as they had a big naval base here.  Sea planes were also use during the war.  So today's Le Truck ride was much better than the last one as it was cloudy with an occasional light rain.  Much cooler today.

                                                             Several road side stands.

                 Not sure what king of sandwich these were but certainly big and looked good.

Our first short stop was at Mama Ruta's.  A family run cloth dying business.  She demonstrated how they were dyed.

                                 Coconut meat, pineapple, and cantaloupe was available.

On a small island across the lagoon was the Four Seasons Resort with bungalows over the water.  You can stay in one for $2000 per night.  Other similar resorts were Intercontinental, Le Meridian, etc.  The airport was built out on a one of the barrier reefs.  So you would have to take a boat to and from the airport to the island.  The resorts had their own boat service that was included in the room price.  If traveling independently the boat transfer cost approximately $100 per person.

These were used to suspend islander's little boats out of the water so algae would not grow on the bottoms.  I must have seen 1000 dogs today.  Dogs everywhere!!!

                                                               Old banana plantation

Bread fruit tree loaded with bread fruits.  The put them on a fire for an hour to burn the outside.  Then they remove the inside.  They say it tastes like potatoes.  

                                                          Intercontinental 5 star resort

                                   We stopped at the little white sand beach for photos.

                                                                       Matira Beach

                             I thought this interesting with roots coming our of the rock.

The world famous "Bloody Marys".  I was here on previous cruises.  There is a bar and restaurant here.  Many, many stars have visited here.

                                                                          Bar

                                                    Restaurant.  It smelled very good here.

                                          Names of all the famous people who have been here.

                                                   Across the road I could see our ship.

                                                                       Mariner

        Back on the ship by 12:30 and we headed down to Compass Rose for a bite of lunch.  I had the honey mustard glazed salmon with fried rice and asparagus.  During lunch most of my photos were downloaded.  Still have about ten to go and they were not going in the suite so went down to Coffee Connection where internet was better.  While there Massimo, our new General Manager, came by so we had a nice chat.  We have know him for many years.

        Rebecca not having much luck streaming her soaps this afternoon so she's taking a nap while I work on this blog post.

        As I mentioned the food and beverage team is having a Grand Deck Barbeque from 7 to 9pm up on the pool deck.  I had photos of it in an earlier post as there was one last segment too.  The pool deck is closed now (2pm) so they can clear it and start setting up the tables, chairs, and buffet tables.  It is 83 degrees now at 2pm but it will cool off by 7pm.  Of course, we will be dining in airconditioned comfort down in Compass Rose, not the BBQ.  We have requested special entrees of chicken parmesan for dinner tonight, but here is the menu for today.

        Some island singers and dancers are coming on tonight and doing a cultural Polynesian show up on pool deck after the BBQ.

DAY 27---PAPEETE, FRENCH POLYNESIA

                                                              PAPEETE, TAHITI

We are docked today at Papeete on the island of Tahiti in French Polynesia.  It is sunny with a chance of some passing rain showers later this afternoon.  Temperature is a warm 86 degrees.

Historical/Background Info:

        Tahiti is the largest of the French Polynesian islands with a population of nearly 190,000.  It was also formed by volcanic activity and is high and mountainous with surrounding coral reefs.  Most of the people lives along the coast, especially near the capital city, Papeete.  The interior is almost completely uninhabited.

       Tahiti was originally settled by Polynesians between 300 and 800 AD.  They represent about 70% of the population, with the rest made up of European, Chinese, and mixed heritage.  It was annexed by France in 1880 and proclaimed a colony of France making the people here French citizens.  French is the sole language here.

        Tourism is a significant industry here.  Its main trading partner is France with others being the US, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.  Tahitian black pearls farming is a substantial source of revenues, with most being exported to the US, Japan, and Europe.  Tahiti also exports vanilla, fruits, flowers, monoi (a scented oil), fish, and coconut oil.

        We were here in 2010, 2014, & 2017 on other Regent cruises.

RAIATEA PHOTOS CONTINUED

It appears this was some kind of an altar with shells from the ocean placed on it.

Our tatooed guide.

                                    These two dogs followed us at every stop while at this site.

Different colors of the water from the shallow shoreline out  to ocean.  Coral causes the differences.

The other tour bus at the archaeological site stop were served these fruits.  We were not.

                                             Getting off our Le Truck at the end of the tour.

LAST EVENING

Melissa is our wine sommelier with Dara and Komang as our wait staff.  We always try to dine at their station in Compass Rose for dinner.  They are a fantastic team.

I had made a special request for our appetizer and entree for tonight's dinner.  We started with the fried calamari.  YUMMY!

I also asked for these panko coated fried shrimp.  I had asked for 12 pieces but they thought I meant 12 pieces for each of us.  We laughed when they brought out two huge plates of the shrimp.  We asked Dara to share one with Komang after the dining room closed.
 

We call this the "Christmas tree".  It comes after they clear the table and before dessert.  Sweets!  No dessert for me last night.

         No real entertainment last night.  Our two cultural ambassadors, Heidi & Crystal, hosted a Polynesian dance party in the theater.  I don't dance so I got a Happy Happy drink and headed to our suite.  I wanted to try and upload photos but no luck.  Internet was still almost nonexistent.  They better get it fixed soon or there will be a mutiny.  Many, many very unhappy passengers as they need to pay bills online as is end of month.

TODAY  (THURSDAY)

                                                         Some views of Papeete.

                    This Wind Star cruise ship is docked with view of her from our balcony.
        

                                                                Very nice motor yacht.

        This is the end of the first segment of the world cruise.  Not all passengers are doing the full world cruise so today approximately 60 got off and another 60 will be boarding for this upcoming segment.  The second segment begins here in Tahiti and will end in Bali on February 27th.  The new folks will be boarding at noon and they will be greeted with some champagne.

        I decided not to go on my booked tour this morning.  It was an hour bus ride to and from a garden.  I had enough of gardens yesterday.  So we headed to the fitness center for our treadmill time.  We were only passengers but there was a couple ship's dancers there.

        My photos were not uploading this morning until around 10am.  I thought I was going to have to go off and try to find a place with internet.  There is a McDonalds not far from the dock but not sure they have free internet like in States.  Thankfully the photos finally uploaded so I could get them on this blog post.

        We had lunch in Compass Rose.  I enjoyed a leek tart with gruyere cheese to start with.  Then I had the VERY good pan fried veal scaloppini marsala mushroom sauce, buttered potatoes, and veggies.  The potatoes were so good I asked for more.

        Our internet packages expired at noon so I subscribed to the package for the new segment during lunch on my phone.  I did my laptop and Rebecca's phone when we got back to the suite.  Rebecca is happy now because she is streaming her Bold & Beautiful soaps.  She is behind 4 episodes as has not been able to get internet.

        I talked to Kus, internet manager, at 1pm.  He said it would probably be Fiji on February 11th before the internet repair parts and technicians would arrive to fix the internet issues.  Luckily we are are getting pretty good signal today.  Just be aware that future blog posts may be delayed.

        Rebecca is also doing some laundry today as she does not trust the ship's laundry service.  I do.  There are 3 self serve (free) laundry rooms and they are very nice.

        Plan for this evening is cocktail hour in Mariner Lounge.  We are meeting Marcia and the two NY doctors, Richard & Harvey, there for cocktails.  Then the five of us has a reservation in Prime 7 for dinner.  Again there is basically no entertainment tonight.  They are having a "Sailaway Under the Stars" up on pool deck with music and petit fours being served.  Not our cup of tea!!

        We are sailing at 9pm for our next destination, Bora Bora.  We will be anchoring there by 8am tomorrow and will be there over night.  So two days at Bora Bora.

DAY 26---RAIATEA, FRENCH POLYNESIA

 

We are actually docked, no tendering, today on the island of Raiatea.  Another mostly sunny and hot day for my tour.

Historical/Background Info:

        Raiatea is the second largest of the Society Islands (Tahiti is the largest) with a population of around 16,500.  This mountainous, volcanic formed island is has a maximum altitude of over 3000 feet.  It is 12 miles north to south and 10 miles wide in places for a total of 65 square miles. 

        The island’s economy is based mainly on agriculture with exports of vanilla, pineapple, and coconut.  Pearl farming is also an important industry.  There is less tourism here compared to the other islands in the archipelago making it a quieter and less developed in tourism compared to Bora Bora and Tahiti.  It does have some hotels and an airport.  There are several yacht charter companies and is visited by cruise ships from time to time.

TODAY, FEBRUARY 1ST

                                                                        Sailing in 

                                                         Several of these sand bars on sail in.

                                                           Our welcoming committee.

      This is the guide on our "Sacred Island by Le Truck" tour.  He was pretty much worthless.

There were two Le Trucks on out tour.  This is the guide on the other bus who did all the talking at the two stops on our tour.  

                                                             Faaroa River on the island

Our first stop after a very long, hour, drive was at a, what was supposed to be a botanical garden.  Not much of a garden and you had to walk down over 30 steps to the garden.  Many on our bus did not go down the steps.  Marcia was on my tour truck and I sat next to her.  I took her camera down the steps with me and got some photos for her too.  It was REALLY hot with no breeze so I was sweat wet and very hot.

                                                Above are some flowers I photographed.

                                                             Picture of my finger too.

                           This is actually a huge extinct volcano with the rims all around us.

After another long drive we arrived at our second stop.  It was the Marae Taputapuatea archaeological site.  It is a Unesco World Heritage Site

                                                                           Marcia

This was where the islanders worshipped back in the 1600's.  There was no building as they worshipped in the open air.  Worshipping the sun, wind, water, and rain.

                                                      Let me know if you can read this.

            Looks like a pile of volcanic rocks to me.  It had sea shells and other things on it.

        Ok, it is 9:30 pm and I have not been able to upload the last 16 photos that I took today.  The ship's internet is REALLY bad.  They are working to repair it and I believe the parts and technicians will be flown to make the repairs.  Not sure when that will be.  In the mean time everyone on the ship is NOT happy, included yours truly. 

        I am going to publish this now and head to bed.  I'll put the rest on tomorrow's blog.  If I can't do it on board I will do it at a wifi place on shore in Papeete.  We sailed at 9pm tonight and will be docked in Papeete tomorrow morning.  This is the end of the first segment of our world cruise.  I think 60 segment folks will be disembarking and another new 60 will be embarking tomorrow.

        I had a tour scheduled for tomorrow but cancelled it after today's "tour from hell".  We had a nice evening with cocktails as usual and dinner in Compass Rose.  There is basically no entertainment night so we retired and I am working on getting this posted.  Really getting tired of this no internet crap!!