Day 21, Wednesday, January 24, 2018- Vaitape, Bora Bora, French Polynesia

The Amsterdam sailed in about 6:30, and yes I was awake. Morning is beginning to be my best hour! How boring, my dad used to say,,, “ wouldn’t it be awful, if you were a tea totaler and know that when you woke up, that was as good as you would feel all day”!  Well it’s beginning to look that way for me. LOL

It was a beautiful sail in. 

We have been here, several times in the past, but the very fact that it was Bora Bora, makes it magical, and it aways is. There were the musicians playing island music and ladies making Lae Pouos and the venders selling there shell necklaces and of coarse black pearls! 

We are here until 10:30 PM it was a good day on shore, we looked at some of the crafts, but didn’t find anything we really wanted, so we walked down the street to see if the church was open, it never has been, in the past, and it wasn’t open today either.  So we went to the small cafe, that has free WiFi if you buy something and ordered 2 cokes and a cheese pizza to shear. And I sent some emails and so did Ed. After our lunch, we went in the gift shop next door and Ed bought a carved wooden stingray, and I might have bought a magnet or two, but changed my mind, cost $15 for a magnet!

Then walking back to the tender, we came across a man selling some black pearl rings, and I really liked them and so did Ed sooooo, yup, he bought me one.  

So now it’s time to get ready for dinner, the sun is setting, and we aren’t going to Bloody Mary’s, wow!  I guess we have been there done that!

 

Day 20- Tuesday, January 23, 2018 Cooks Bay, Moorea French Polynesia

Moorea, oh how I love this island, it is so beautiful. I believe they used it for the scenery in the movie South Pacific. This island is the best shopping for black pearls of gift quality. The prices are much better then Papeete or Bora Bora, tomorrow’s stop. 

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The high today is 83*F and a strong breeze, so we weren’t going to get to hot.  We tender here, so we had coffee in the room, and then went up and got our tender tickets. We we tender 29 and they had only called tender 8. So Ed decided to have an omelet while we waited up by the pool. 

About a 45 minute wait our number was called, and we were on our way. 

This was a wee shopping day, no tours. There were lots of little tables set up with mostly jewelry, but some tea shirts a bit in the back they had pineapples and coconuts. So after a bit we sheared a coconut fo the water in it, nice. 

I fell in love with this necklace on the right, but at $600 decided to pass. LOL 

So, it was back to the ship, and lunch, and a swim in the pool, sail away was at 4:30 

Looks like I can’t get the photos out :(

 

 

Day 19, Monday, January 22, 2018- Papeete, Tahiti

It certainly feels like we are in French Polynesia. The weather has been glorious, today sunny and about 86* F, it felt much hotter, I think because of the humidity. 

We had an all day tour, 71/2 hours around the island. We visited the home of James Norman Hall, the co author of Mutiny on the Bounty and many more novels. His home reminded me of the home of, Hemingway, In Key West. 

Then we saw the Venus Light House, so named because Captain Cook used that spot to determine where they were using Venus, to position the island. 

Now believe it or not, Tahiti is big, very pretty, but very much like Hawaii, and Hawaii is a lot closer. The people that were entertainers leaving the ship in Papeete to fly home to Hawaii, were going to have to fly to LA, and then fly to Hawaii, 20 hours ugh. As there are only a few fights to Hawaii a week! 

Next we had a stop for lunch, at a lovely restaurant that served us a traditional meal with lots of coconut in the foods, not for GD Sally. Or anyone else that can’t eat coconut, but we liked it a lot. 

 

Then we went to the Museum of Tahiti and the island, that, had we visited it earlier in the day we would have enjoyed it more. Next  stop was the botanical garden, by then it was too hot and muggy, to even venture in. Any gift shopping in Tahiti is very expensive, we did buy some vanilla beans,, but at 30$ for about 6 oz!  Like I said expensive!

We returned to the ship and it truly was coming home, nice, cool AC. Showered and got ready for an early diner, so we could see the special Tahitian dance show, that was only going to be on once! It was fantastic, but we were exhausted after watching those kids dance! 

I have tried to send photos, and they won’t go out. 

(Backup) Day 18 Sunday January 21, 2018

Avatoru, Rangiroa French Polynesia 🇵🇫 weather 85 F. This is a very interesting place. It is a large atoll, you can’t see from one side to the other, and there is only one inlet that a ship can get in the center where she needs to anchor. There is not a lot to do here other then scuba and snorkel, or go to the pearl farm. We skipped all that and just walked around in the warm sunshine. Again the sun was very hot, so after taking the tender over, we shopped a bit, and split a beer. I will post some picture to give you the 

 

Here we are coming in, and the nex shot is a picture of a picture of the Atoll. 

Even on Sunday the local people treated us. 

 

Looking back at the ship. 

Tomorrow we are in Tahiti and we have an all day tour of the island, so I best close and go to bed, as it is 11:30 pm here. Good night. 💤 

(Backup) Day 18 Sunday January 21, 2018

Avatoru, Rangiroa French Polynesia 🇵🇫 weather 85 F. This is a very interesting place. It is a large atoll, you can’t see from one side to the other, and there is only one inlet that a ship can get in the center where she needs to anchor. There is not a lot to do here other then scuba and snorkel, or go to the pearl farm. We skipped all that and just walked around in the warm sunshine. Again the sun was very hot, so after taking the tender over, we shopped a bit, and split a beer. I will post some picture to give you the 

 

Here we are coming in, and the nex shot is a picture of a picture of the Atoll. 

Even on Sunday the local people treated us. 

 

Looking back at the ship. 

Tomorrow we are in Tahiti and we have an all day tour of the island, so I best close and go to bed, as it is 11:30 pm here. Good night. 💤