Day 10-11-12 The French Polynesia Islands

Day 10 - Day 11 - Day 12 – The French Polynesia Islands

Day 10, Friday April 13, 2012

Slept in until 9:45 AM, which is very unusual for me, but such a delight to do once in awhile. After a late breakfast we spent time on the deck sitting in the warm sunshine while watching for our first signs of land after four days at sea.

Yesterday, while we were still at sea, everyone had to turn in their passports. We will not get them back until after we depart from Bora Bora.

Many people were out on the decks with their camera’s to record our first sight of the French Polynesia Islands. Once sighted and photos taken we were off to the Windjammer Café for a good lunch. It will be late when we return to the ship so we
ate a little bit larger lunch then usual.

Then we were off to our cabin to gather our things needed for our 4 hour excursion trip on the island of Papeete in Tahiti. They asked everyone with excursions to come to the theatre where we were assigned numbers according to what tour we had signed up for.
Once the ship was docked each group was taken out thru security and onto the docks where we found our vehicles lined up for the different tours.

We had signed up for a 4 x 4 Safari truck tour of the island’s back roads. We were fortunate as our truck was the last one and we only had 5 people instead of 7 so we had lots of room to bounce around in … good thing we had seat belts.

As we drove out of town and down along the coastline it was fun to watch all the young people out with their surfboards enjoying the beach. It would have been fun to stop and be able to walk out on these beaches, but alas that was not on our schedule today. But
what a delight it was to see the beauty of Tahiti with the brilliant blue lagoons, jagged cliffs and many waterfalls running down the cliffs into a beautiful stream.

We were having a really great time until Philip slipped and fell on some rocks, as he was tying to help me. Scraped a large portion of skin off of several places on his right leg, not deep but with his thin skin he was bleeding really bad. Thank goodness our driver had a first aid kit and fixed him right up. This ended any thoughts of Phil getting into the water at the area where we would turn around and head back. At this point the river water made a deep pool and all were invited to go swimming, our drivers did, but most, like me just waded in and then watched all the boys (a boy scout camp out was being held at this spot along the river) climbing up on the rocks and jumping from the side of the hill into the water.

We made our way back using the same route as before but it went a lot faster as we did not make any stops going back. By 7:00 we arrived back at our ship, happy campers, but tired and hungry….but first, before getting on the ship we just had to stop and look at the tourist tables to find something that would remind us of Papeete, remember it needed to be small and not to high in price. No key chains (we collect these) so settled on a small wooden tiki man about 6 inches tall.

Back on board we went up to the Windjammer Café for a late dinner before heading to the early evening show of Hei Tahiti, a performance of local Tahitian song and dance done by a very talented group of local performers.

Oh dear, we have found the past few nights that it’s easy and fun to pick up a late night snack of chocolate milk and cookies which we then carried into the cinema to watch the movie “Green Lantern”. This was one that we had not seen before and enjoyed it very much. By midnight all were due to be back aboard the Radiance as we then set sail for our next island, Moorea


Day 11, Saturday, April 14, 2012
Today we have been advised to surrender ourselves to Moorea’s picture-perfect beauty. Not quite the thought that I had in my head as at I was woke up at 7 AM this morning by the anchors being dropped to secure our ship in the bay of Moorea. Our cabin is located in the bow of the ship on 3rd deck which means, the anchors are right nearby. Because this is not a deep water port and is surrounded by lots of corral reefs. They lowered quite a few large lifeboats and used them as Tender Ships to ferry everybody into port.

As we were up and ready to go, we got on one of the early trips into port. Actually just behind us was the line of people waiting to go on excursion tours. After our boat it looked like every Tender was full to the brim. We had elected not to take a tour but instead enjoy having a nearly empty ship. So after looking around at the tourist tables in port we were ready to take an empty Tender ship back. We did find a pretty hula girl on a chain & a coaster to purchase but left the ukulele that Phil thought about buying on the dock. A note to Martha, I think the basic language here is French as most of the signs and the people talking between themselves is in French.

Back to our ship in time for the morning Team Trivia game in the Schooner Bar. We joined a couple from San Francisco California and came in second place. Found this a fun thing to do.

It was nice to be able to swim in a nearly empty salt water pool and then it was easy to find lots of empty padded lounge chairs to lay in the canopied adult pool area for a couple of hours of sun. Later in the afternoon we found a lovely area to sit, play cards and watch the ever changing shoreline as our ship drifted around in the bay. Got ready for dinner a bit early and then enjoyed listening to music while sharing a very good beer, Michelob Miller Ultra Light and nuts.

By evening most all the people were back for our 6 PM dinner meal. Then off to the Colony Club for Saturday evening Mass (where I did the readings). Father David has gotten quite use to me doing the reading for his masses. He told me on Monday morning that at the Sunday Mass he asked for a volunteer to read and could get no one to do it, so ended up doing all the readings himself.

After Mass we headed for the Aurora Theatre for our evening headline showtime starring Tony Pace, “The man with the voice who just happens to be funny”. Right out of Las Vegas he was and good enough that we hurried out to purchase one of his videos so we can share it with others at home. End of a great day, I headed for home and Phil was off to the casino for a bit of gambling.

Day 14 - Sunday, April 15,2012

Again yes, “Beauty is Boundless in the Pacific Island of Bora Bora” but not at 7 AM in the morning as we drop anchor in another shallow water port surrounded by many corral reefs. We again were very smart to catch one of the first Tenders to make the run into the Port of Bora Bora. This time we were in the small town of Vaitape and were able to walk about the town on our own. Of course, if you wanted to really tour the island it would take an excursion trip, but again we elected to just spend an hour or so in the town before going back to our ship. This time we did find a key chain at one of the tourist tables they have all along the dock area. We did see the black sand and the beaches do look lovely but with Phil’s leg, going in the water is out of the question. But, the views are to die for and especially from the ship.

We found another bar with tables to play our game of cards while watching the shoreline
as it changes with the drifting of the ship in the bay. I was happy when I checked again, with Guest Service and found that my gray jacket that I had lost in the café several days ago was turned in.

Going to the Schooner Bar area we joined 2 others couples to play team trivia and wow..
Our team won. The Prizes change all the time and today we each received a magnetic photo frame. Fun to play and a great way to meet new people. We are still getting comments from people about our appearance on the Love and Marriage Show. I think they played it on the TV for 3 days straight.

After lunch Phil took a nap and I headed for the pool and some more sunbathing . When I went down to the room he was gone….he went up to the 13th deck to play miniature golf.
I asked if he would like to go back again, In one word, no, it was way to humid and hot.

All had to be back at the ship by 4:30 PM as we set sail at 5 PM on our way to the Hawaiian Islands after 5 nights at sea. Phil watched the sun set over the bow of the ship. Me, I took a picture of it on the TV and then was off for a 5 PM Mass before dinner. It was so nice that I was missed yesterday by Father David.

Enjoyed another wonderful dinner before heading out to play more team trivia, this time we sat with a couple from Sydney. Had fun but questions were a bit tougher tonight.
The show tonight was comedy & Mime with Yacov Noy. First show that we were really disappointed in. After 20 minutes we left and went home to our cabin for an early night.
On the way down we stopped off on level 5 to enjoy a bit of sea air out on the walking deck before heading in for the evening.