Tahiti Tahiti

Thursday, 23 October – Bora Bora

Official Ruling was Rendered

I saw the retired judge this morning and he “ruled” that the passport stamp was adequate "proof" that I had visited the island given that it is almost impossible to land any ship's tender there. Also two thirds of the island's population came onboard via their specially designed longboat and I bought a T-shirt and some other stuff and hosted half of the island's kids. I am a little dubious about counting Easter Island, though, since I didn't meet any of the people and of course I didn't get any 'documentation' of the visit. So, my official count will have to be 122 as of this cruise rather than 123. The three French Polynesian islands in the Society Island grouping (Moorea, Bora Bora, and Papeete) is commonly called Tahiti although that's really just the biggest one--just like the Hawaiian Islands are called Hawaii--is my last “country” for this trip.

Report on yesterday’s “Four Wheel Drive Safari” in Moorea

Yesterday’s afternoon excursion in Moorea was remarkably good. We went up and down various very steep roads, took pictures of the ship from the mountains whose pictures I had taken from the ship, and stopped at an agricultural school where a whole lot of high school kids watched us sampling various island fruit jam that they had prepared and then a gift shop where we sampled various island fruit flavored rum with no one watching until everyone was in a very good mood. The guide kept referring to the distinctive mountain that dominates the Moorean landscape as “Bali Hai”. It did look oddly familiar. It was matted and superimposed on the ocean on the beach in Kauai where the film Hawaii was filmed and then used frequently in other movies that were actually shot in Moorea. It also appears on the French Polynesian coinage. I took lots more pictures of the mountain and scenery as well as the coin. No need to get a coin when you can take its picture. Every French Polynesian franc saved is a French Polynesian franc earned so to speak.

Today’s excursion in Bora Bora

I wanted to take a tuk tuk or a Wiki Wiki double decked bus to the Bora Bora Hilton Hilton with some friends’ friends from Walla Walla to have pu pu’s and then mahi mahi, but no one seconded my prepared plans. Instead after taking my self portrait from the mirror image on the ship I took Tender #2 paradoxically to one of the two docks at one of the two anchorages on Bora Bora.

After waiting on the warf looking needy since I hadn't book a tour on this last official day of the cruise, I was able to join six others from the ship for a complete circuit of Bora Bora in a minivan with a very competent local guide/driver. The others were the 35 year old lovely "Cruise Staff" Manuella who speaks at least 4 languages very fluently, a retired Air Canada pilot and his very lovely but more than twice as old wife, and three of the Polish Quartet from the ship. Paid $30 instead of the $66 the ship was charging to do it in an official excursion in a bus. My trip had a lot more fun group. I came back to the ship to find that they had put my suitcases on the bed. See ya.

Actually, I'm very ready to come home. I believe they will let my stay on the ship tomorrow until mid-afternoon and be able to shower and change before heading to the airport in Papeete, Tahiti for my 10 pm flight to LA.