Doubtful Sound, Fjiordland, South Island, New Zealand February 25th, 2009 We had a relaxing morning as our tour started only at 12:30 this afternoon. We had pre-ordered lunches so that when we showed up at the first boat to cross Lake Manapouri, our lunch boxes were waiting for us. We were booked on a 7 ½ hours tour so the lunch was a God send. We crossed the huge lake in front of our motel; it feeds a big hydro electric plant as its waters tumble down 170 m to the ocean in Deep Cove. Deep Cove is where our second [View Full Entry]

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Auckland to Queenstown to Te Anau to Milford Sound Feb 23rd & 24th , 2009 The flight from Auckland to Queenstown was painless because our plane had GPS navigation instruments; we landed in cloudy fog which is typical around here. The Qantas flight could not take off and another flight could not land and had to be diverted to Invercargill; Qantas is cancelling its contract with Queenstown which is the portal airport for the wild west coast of the south Island. We hired a medium size car and Terry drove on the “wrong” side of the road from the airport to [View Full Entry]

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Flew from the North Island to the South Island today and stayed at a camp ground in a cabin. [View Full Entry]

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Rangiroa Atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago Feb 20th, 2009 Again the Aranui crew was absolutely capable at their respective duties. We were hauled off the boat at anchor in the lagoon, brought to shore and disembarked on a beach. Some went on a glass bottom boat and some of these went snorkeling, others went scuba diving. Terry and I swam a bit on the rocky, coral strewn beach; not conducive to snorkeling as there was a heavy sea and the water had too much turbulence. Then we were brought by air-conditioned bus to the Gauguin Pearl Farm; after an explanation and [View Full Entry]

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Nuku Hiva and Ua Pou Feb 18th 2009 Terry and I are still struggling with the computer camera thing. We spent a few hours this morning with Bernard at his computer in Ottawa, Canon on their customer help line, Terry on our machine and moi on the ship’s Internet trying to get help, still nada! We skipped the 2 hour archeological site visit situated at the middle of the bay and stayed on board: these islands are very humid and people came back completely drenched- good call in our part. This afternoon, we stop at Mila’s home island, a second stop [View Full Entry]

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Ua-Huka February 17th, 2009 Alarm set for 5:30 so that we could see a 180 turn of the boat within 2 rock cliffs in the bay of Vaipaee. The sun was coming over the rock cliffs, one side was grey while the other was Grand Canyon red, almost on fire, and changing every moment as time progressed. Sailors were sent to each side where cleats had been cemented to the rock floor; for the photo opportunity, the men wore white t-shirts and white hard hats and to make the maneuver more dramatic, there was a (staged?) pirogue that came flying by [View Full Entry]

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nice Saturday Feb 14th Nuku Hiva- T he biggest island Disembarqued at Taiohae, ride to town to see many arts and crafts and clothes Long cherry wood or sandal wood log instrument with ornamental carvings on the outside and a slice hollowed out in the middle- with drum sticks, hit at different places is a lovely percussion instrument. We visited the Cathedral with all 14 stations of the cross sculpted from one tree, the stations are semicircles about 3 feet high, just lovely except when the carver asked the bishop what an olive tree looked like for #1, the bishop said [View Full Entry]

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Hiva Oa et Tahuata Le 16 février 2009 La Polynésie française (les Marquises en particulier furent découvertes en 1575 par les Espagnols) est annexée à la France depuis les 1850 isme. La publicité en France amène beaucoup de voyageurs français, et quelques allemands. Ils y a aussi des américains dont nous avons faits de bons amis (Pat & Bruce) et quelques canadiens, nous sommes 5(amie Dominique). Donc nous parlons souvent français. Les guides sont forts en français et en marquisien mais ont quelques fois difficultés en anglais. Nou, les bilingues, devons traduire pur eux. Durant une escalade [View Full Entry]

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Lovely Ua Pou, Marquesas, Feb 13th Our hybrid freighter/cruise ship started working (doing freight exchange) today, fascinating. We pulled into a dock on the island of Ua Pou, and they started unloading onions, refrigerated crates, other crates (6 feet by 6 feet by 6 feet) full of boxes which seemed to be destined for grocery stores- water, coke, beer, insect repellent, etc. Terry and I walked to a lovely church with fantastic carvings; we also walked up a 450 m hill, Terry turned back and I continued to the top, about half way up the mountain and I could see over [View Full Entry]

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Fatu Hiva Feb 15th 2009 Small island known for wet weather, wood carvings and engravings and tapa. We stopped at Omoa and at Hanavave between 9 am and 4 pm; I like 2 stops as between visits to different parts of the island, we get back on board and I use the pool to uncook myself. Yesterday somebody said it was 34 degrees Celsius and to that add humidity, even my legs are sweating. Today we saw tapa being made from the bark of banyan tree and flower bouquet made with ylang-ylang, mint, basil, tiare, etc and tied with a string [View Full Entry]

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