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 carve [View Full Entry]

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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 to [View Full Entry]

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First stop: wet landing, no dock Snorkling was all right, at this atoll: colapsed volcano surrounded by coral reef sunscreen in my eyes mixed with salty sea water, I hung onto Terry to get out of the sharp coral, no more snorkling with sunscreen! then we found one of the most beautiful beach on earth: no need for masks, we could observe he coral from the top of the water and the temperature was heavenly, I bobbed while Terry walked the town( 5 houses...) [View Full Entry]

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Boarded our home for the next 11 days Looking forward to lolling around for the next few days at the 10 degree south parallel before we stop over at Wednesday Feb 11th Fakarava in the Tuamotu day 2 As we rest in our cabin on the lowest deck, the sea is sometimes submerging our porthole; I asked Terry to move towards the center of the cabin so the boat would tilt the other way to see the light! Very exciting, we have never done this. Our suite friends think this is very funny! Our cabin was changed at the last minute [View Full Entry]

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Lovely Island just off Tahiti Heard about it from Celine, lives in Kingston, she was on the World Cruise of 2006 with us, took a year off and cruises every year now Morea Did not get there 17 km west of Tahiti, ferry ride was 80$ Cdn for both of us allez-retour, why tour, when we can enjoy an expensive hotel room and pool right here in Tahiti People who went there said that the snorkeling was great And the streets were much less congested than Tahiti We will see enough islands [View Full Entry]

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Landed late at night, after a 8 and a half hour flight Hot and tropical Nice to be away from the cold Staying at the Sheraton/ Hilton, till Tuesday morning 400$ Cnd a night, Tahiti is expensive as it is the gateway to French Polynesiaand everybody has to come through here Venez voyager en Polynésie La Polynésie française est un ensemble de 5 archipels français, situés dans le sud de l'Océan Pacifique, environ 6 000 km à l’est de l’Australie. Elle comprend plusieurs iles dont l’archipel des Marquises. À Tahiti, la plus grande île, les vestiges des deux volcans contin [View Full Entry]

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Terry and I left this morning from Ottawa, flew to Los Angeles. We hoped a beach bus and walked Manhattan beach, lovely, also purchased shampoo because Terry heard there was none on the Aranui. We will be here 24 hours before our Air tahiti flight to Papeete [View Full Entry]

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New Zealand and Australian Aboriginal and Modern Arts and Crafts The arrival of the Maori people to New Zealand is deemed as somewhat of a mystery. It is estimated that the first Polynesians arrived over 1000 years ago. For 38 years, students from tribes across New Zealand have converged on the New Zealand Maori Arts & Crafts Institute (NZMACI) at Te Puia to learn traditions in danger of being lost forever. So significant was the threat, an Act of Parliament was passed in 1963 to ensure the ancient arts and crafts would never be forgotten. That Act set up the schools [View Full Entry]

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July 23rd, 2007 54 nautical miles from Denmark, in the North Atlantic Last night was our last formal, I ate much too much, but was it good food. This morning, the ladies of our group were to walk 5 km having paid 15$ for a t-shirt and pink plastic bracelet, all for the cure(cancer), Vicky is still under the weather, but 3 of us walked for an hour, with the captain, about 12 laps of the lower promenade deck; Terry and I used to do 8 laps in am and 8 laps in pm on sea days during the world [View Full Entry]

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July 22st, 2007 Oslo, Norway Well as luck would have it, the last port was almost the best. The ship stops minutes from the main castle and the hop on, hop off bus was one great loop of the town and we saw it all. First stop was at tante Carmen’s suggestion the Vigeland outdoor park and museum with 225 brass sculptures of life from birth to death through naked bodies: absolutely spectacular. Hop back on and we rode to the Viking ship museum, again a good suggestion, just beautiful. We then rode the loop and stepped off to see [View Full Entry]

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