Another (wet) day in Paradise

 Moorea from our veranda 

Today we arrived in Moorea, French Polynesia. This island is a little larger than Bora Bora and has a larger population.  Again our morning started off with the sun trying to peek through the clouds but not as successful as we’d like it to be.  Looks like Al has friends on this island.. everywhere we look we see this:

After asking around, we found out that Albert Herring was a Swedish immigrant who came to the island in 1920 and married a Polynesian woman and had 12 children.. The family still own the company ( and lots of other businesses on the island) . My Al was a happy guy as there is never anyone with his name anywhere! Our tour today begins with a Jeep Safari along the coast and up into the mountains. We are six to a Jeep and were told to expect lots of bouncing.  This was listed as a demanding tour…frankly it was just like driving around in the outer lands of Arizona with poor gravel roads, one lane traffic and the color green. 

Our first stop was at a black sand lagoon

The black sand from the volcano makes the famous black pearls found here. 

Do those Palm trees look familiar? They should.. they have been filmed in all the movies made about Mutiny on the Bounty. Our guide’s sister played an extra on the last one made.. She just wanted to see Mel Gibson! Our next stop was in a botanical garden where we were able to see vanilla plants. Below are the hanging green pods.

In his hand is the bloom. Vanilla is an orchid plant and the flower was a very light green

The plant itself

The garden had a nice observation spot where we could look out over the area.

And there we see our ship anchored!

And shortly later the torrential rains came and the view was gone but not our smiles!

Next we headed to the pineapple fields.

The pineapples here are used in the neighboring distillery to make a pineapple liquor. There are 200 hectares here owned by the government and each family can lease one hectare for their use.

The fields were full of pineapples at various stages of ripeness. You can see a picture of the jeeps we were in. Six people in the back and the driver set in the cab by himself.

Our driver/guide. He made sure we were safe and entertained!part of our entertainment was a stop at the distillery to try the spirits.  The coconut pineapple spirit was 20% alcohol and I thought it burned my throat. The ginger flavor wasn’t much better…but the juice samples were awesome!

The sky is looking angry yet see the beautiful line of blue water

We stopped along the road to see a breadfruit tree. 

Amazing to think this tree is the cause of the greatest known mutiny…If Bly had taken less good care of these trees and given more water to his men there might not have been any story at all!

As we returned to the port terminal you can see the water hitting the ground above.  The rain was torrential and we immediately were soaked through!  After a brief moment of discussion, we bagged our next excursion, a cruise around the island for the comfort of our ship and a hot shower.  

 Since we are very close to Papeete Tahiti, the ship will leave tonight and sail into the port, dock for the night and tomorrow will begin our last day in paradise.

Our last look at Moorea

Hello Papeete! Hello Tahiti! Good night All

Entering Paradise Lost

After five days at sea this sight was welcomed today…Bora Bora

Slowly we headed closer to the island (s). Today we will explore the coast of Bora Bora, tomorrow we head to Moorea,and the next day Tahiti. French Polynesia

At its best..just looking at the island in the distance makes you realize how, after sailing for days, the crew of the Bounty would think they had made it to paradise and didn’t want to leave. As we get closer and closer the blue of the water intensive then turns a beautiful aqua turquoise   

 

Our day started with a tender ride to port. After seeing the barrier reef and the rocky formations above the water,I can only imagine what’s under! 

The tour we are going on today is a cruse around the island of Bora Bora

And we have liquid sunshine for our tour. ( this is taken while on the tender heading into port)

No matter, Ive told people that since we are from Tucson, we dance in the rain and will embrace it!

Our rigger for the cruise

Our captain

Smiling on the boat! Then the rain came back and we stayed smiling..

The boats all pulled up in a ring around this guide who was making sure we all saw the sting ray. This area of the lagoon is frequented by the rays. We also saw black tip sharks in the water. This variety of shark is not really interested in biting humans. 

Aqua blue water we are siting inside the caldera of a long extinct volcano that forms the lagoon. Because the water is shallow, there were various colors of beautiful shades of turquoise blues. 

Look at the water! And the three bedroom thatched hut!

These are the huts perched over the water that all the travel brochures show. These belong to the Conrad brand.. an upper level of Hilton hotels.  These rooms were quoted to us anywhere from 800 to 1600 per night, with the three bedroom one that President Obama stayed in at 8000 per night.  Think Ill have to skip this romantic spot for this year!

The blues of the water were just breathtaking and the colors will stay with me forever.

The more it rained, the less clothes the guide wore… (this picture is for all my lady friends) He also played a ukulele and sang us a lovely song..oh and he could steer the boat with his foot! This guy had talent!!

After a fast hour and a half, we headed back to dock and decided to walk around the town. Bora Bora only has 10,000 people on the islands and very little services. We managed to head into the only grocery store and looked around to see what kind of products they carried. The hit item was loaves of French bread .. the people were carrying five at a time under their arms to check out.. you could see the French influence! 

The only road on the island. It circles the island but does not go into the interior.

The only Catholic Church on the island. It was Sunday but we were to late to get inside. 

Look close and see the land crab hiding in the roses around the church! It scurried along as we tried to get a better picture. 

Fresh fruits and vegetables for sale along the road

The Anglican Church

Bora Bora continues to be a sleepy little beach town in a beautiful place.  Everyone we met were kind and friendly. They depend mostly on tourism and very little else for their economy.  We were happy we got to visit and can see why  Bora Bora is considered the most beautiful place in the world. Even on a rainy day!!! 

From Pollywogs to Shellbacks

                      What does a fish,a bottle of Aquavit and a dip in the pool have in common? 

                                                                The Equator

January 19, 2023 The Viking Neptune will cross the Equator and will begin sailing in the Souther Hemisphere.  

The fish! (Socially distanced and masked)

The Aquavit

The Norwegian God Aegir found us sailing in his sea and demanded those not shellbacks need to be judged for their deeds and punished.  On our ship, there were staff who had never crossed the line and a litany of their wrong doings were read aloud for us to make a judgement on. The ship’s captain and first officers were able to over rule our decision but of course when they heard the charges they too found the staff guilty. As a punishment, the staff kissed a fish, drank the aquavit and jumped into the pool ,fully clothed.  

My viewpoint above the pool area

The Captain and senior staff

Staff in the pool

The staff in the pool for their punishment

Albert decided to join the the fun. He jumped in and I was able to see him with his shot of Aquavit

Getting close to the fish

Kissing the fish and becoming a shellback!

When we came back to our rooms after dinner the above certificates were waiting for us. We are now official Shellbacks and can forever more say we’ve crossed the Equator! As of today we continue to sail the South Pacific Ocean heading to Bora Bora and Paradise.

Life at sea …we eat

 Most cruise ships offer “specialty dinning”. Each cruise line seems to have their own definition of what that is. Here on Viking Neptune the specialty restaurants number just two. Manfredi’s and The Chef’s Table. This week we went to the Chef’s Table for their take on Mexican. The format for Chef’s Table is a set five course menu with wine pairings that runs for three days. By using the same menu three days in a row, passengers are able to hopefully get a chance during that time to get a seat.  This restaurant must be reserved ahead of time, although we have had no trouble getting in late notice.  For our meal we are tasting our way through a Mexican Menu: Cuisine from the Inside Out II. Along with the five courses and bread , we will have wines paired by the sommelier to complement each course.. Welcome Bread

This blend includes potatoes and chorizo

Esquires (the amuse Bouche)

A light soup based on the street dish of corn

(This was delightful and I could have eaten a gallon!)

The selection of wines- two whites and a red

First course

Tortilla Soup

A tomato broth,tortilla thickened soup seasoned with epazote and chile (again, I could eat a gallon of this)

A palate cleanser of tangerine and Mezcal. The texture was interesting with the addition of gelatin to the ice

The Main course

Beef Cheek

Marinated and slow cooked for 8 hours with an avocado purée and salsa verde

Such a tender, melt in your mouth dish!

Dessert was Bunuelo De Viento

Derived from a Hanukkah dish, the pastry was light and crispy with a guava ice cream.

 Eating at the Chef’s Table is a delightful tasting experience. We are going to try to sample each of the menus available during our trip.  The good thing is that it takes planning to get our reservations which gives us time to plan our other meals of the day so we don’t end up 25 # overweight on May 9 when we disembark this ship!