Blogs from French Polynesia, Oceania - page 12

La orana & what a trek! Over a whole day of traveling to get to some of the most spectacular scenery I've EVER seen! It's our honeymoon and our AMAZING wedding took us on this journey to a far away land. Bali-hai had called us! Right now we are here on an island, FAR in the middle of the South Pacific, one known by the name of Tahiti! Technically, we are in Tahiti-iti (little Tahiti), which is a connecting portion of the island know as the home to the world class, world renowned, world's MOST DANGEROUS wave, Teahupoo. We are staying at The Vanira Lodge, in the town of Teahupoo, in their tallest tree house. Immersed in nature, we are surrounded by trees, flowers, and animals of all kinds. We've had birds, geckos, roosters (by the ... read more

French Polynesia stretches over an area roughly the size of Europe (which we certainly couldn’t have guessed before coming here), and contains god knows how many islands, so obviously we cannot cover it all within three weeks, but we tried to include some different islands on our itinerary. Thus, after the mountainous, green Leeward islands, we hopped on yet another flight to reach the Tuamotu atoll islands, Tikehau to be the first destination. Seen from the plane, the atolls look kind of like sandy rings with palm trees on them, filled with turquois water in the middle. But once you are on them, you can’t really tell the shape anymore, as at least TIkehau is so big that you cannot see the opposite edge of the atoll when you are standing on the beach. So, the ... read more

January 26, 2014 Comments – Oceania Marina Cruise Ship. It would be hard to find a more enjoyable ship to cruise on. Oceania specializes in “ Mature” guests ( that’s what us old people call ourselves ) and there were almost no real young people or children on board. This is not a family cruise line. There were many young couples but mostly retired ( or close to retired ) couples from all over the world. About 1250 capacity, with 800 crew. Oceania has smaller ships, 650 capacity, with the same great food and service but no show lounge. The Marina is beautiful. Lots of space relative to other ships we have been on. There is a nice Show Lounge where various shows are available in the late evening every day. Lots of bars and lounges ... read more

January 23, 2014 Arrived this morning and on looking out of our stateroom window the first thing that came to mind was; “ Where the Fakarava ?? “ Yes we had arrived in Fakarava, The Island of Dreams. This an atoll about a block or 2 wide but about 60 KM long with only about 800 people total. It appears about 700 are not working as the major hotel is closed for annual maintenance. This turned out to be a great stop, in lieu of the place we were unable to get to. We took a long walk down the main ( almost the only ) road along the beaches. Some good sandy beaches but a lot with coral and rock. Swim shoes, with good soles, are a must here, and most places in Polynesia. We ... read more

January 18,19, 2014 Overnight we cruised to Bora Bora for a 2 day stop. No dock here so we had to “ tender” out and back to the ship. This is a very beautiful place with only about 5600 residents primarily supporting the tourist business. As this was a USA supply base in the 1940’s they built a runway that is still used today for inter- island flights. Most of the big names in hotels and resorts have facilities here. Some rooms as much as 10,000.00 US per night. A lot of over-water bungalows. There are a few big hotels that closed in the recent recession and as yet have not reopened. Hope is they will open soon as it is important work for the locals. Also a few that were severely damaged in a storm ... read more