It’s another morning of coffee and breakfast on our balcony as we near Raiatea. This island is almost as large as Tahiti; but its quiet, rural demeanor is far removed from the hustle and bustle of Papeete. On the way into port, we pass more over-the-water bungalows perched on an island motu. Today we dock instead of tendering. The dock area is clean and fairly new with thatched covered huts housing local craftsmen. Raiatea and it’s twin island, Tahaa, share the same lagoon and there are [View Full Entry]

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We sail from Papeete for Moorea this morning. The journey takes about two hours. When the Voyager sails into Cook’s Bay, I know we are in for a fantastic day. The ship anchors in the water, all around us is a view of dense, green vegetation rising to craggy mountain tops. And, the color of the water…it’s indescribable. Ah, now we’re truly in romantic Polynesia. Our tour today is the Lagoon Discovery with Snorkeling. We tender to shore where we find our snorkeling boat waiting for us. We motor out of Cook’s Bay and sail past Opunohu Bay, the background for [View Full Entry]

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It’s true what they say about Papeete, Tahiti; it is not the tropical paradise one imagines. This large city (by Polynesian standards) has about 20,000 inhabitants and plenty of city sounds and traffic. Sitting on the balcony, drinking our morning coffee as the ship pulls into port after another day at sea, we notice the car-jammed streets. But, it is an exotic place to us and we can’t wait to get out in the very hot and humid weather to explore. After walking down the gangplank and across the dock to a walkway that skirts the water, Alan and I are [View Full Entry]

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We reached our first port today, Nuku Hiva. This is an un-touristy island in the Marquesas, the northernmost island group in French Polynesia. I think the ship stops here to give those craving land a chance to stand on terra firma. There is very little to see except the lush landscape and a very slow-paced way of life. We took the ship’s excursion to the Taipavai Valley. Women residents greeted us with singing and placed leis around our necks as we stepped ashore from the ship’s tender. [View Full Entry]

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We landed in Papeete on the island of Tahiti very late at night and were already sceptical about our arranged pick-up. Needless to say they did'nt turn up and we caught an (expensive) cab to our hostel. Upon arrival there was nobody there and no lights on but we managed to wake someone up and get our room; they knew we were coming and claimed the transfer was waiting for us.... yeah, right! After a hot night in our room we got up and had breakfast. This really is a beautiful place, crystal clear blue waters, just like you see on [View Full Entry]

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We Have Arrived in the South Pacific We have had a wonderful time in Tahiti and Moorea soaking up the sun and coping with the heat day and night. It was amazing to have night time temperatures the same as day time. We only cycled on Moorea really and went round it once over three days between hotels/cabins. We found a Club Med site totally closed off with a lovely beach next to one hotel we found and then we moved to the other side to one we had already booked for Michael's birthday. They were both comfortable hotels of small [View Full Entry]

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This entry is really old news, the internet prices in Tahiti were so high that I couldn't afford to use the computer. Then, Easter Island was so fantastic, that I had to write about that first. Now, we are in the Cook Islands and I am writing about Tahiti. Are you confused yet?? Our parting act as we left LAX for Tahiti was the destruction of the cell phone. It gave Ron great pleasure to disconnect from that aspect of our U.S. life. I wanted to photograph it for the blog, but we didn't want to create a scene in the [View Full Entry]

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We left New Zealand and headed for Tahiti with all the anticipation and excitement you could imagine. Even the anouncement on the plane before landing that it was raining did little to dampen our spirits (excuse the pun), and as soon as we got off the plane we felt that tropical temperature we had been longing for. We jumped into a taxi and arrived at our 'BUDGET´ accomodation (US$90), where we spent one night before heading off to Moorea on the ferry the next morning. On arrival we decided to hire a car for a few hours so we could check [View Full Entry]

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Here's some photo's from all over French Polynesia. enjoy [View Full Entry]

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Day One: Rangiroa is the the second largest atoll in the world. (An atoll is an island of coral that encircles a lagoon. The largest in the world is in the Marshall Islands) Compared to Moorea and Bora Bora, Rangiroa is very flat, but still very pretty. The various blues in the water are gorgeous and the island is closer to the Equator, so it is much more humid. We started our day in Bora Bora, where we watched the sun rise. Then, we got breakfast--yummy pastries and mango juice! We toured the island a bit more before turning in [View Full Entry]

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