Myra and Gerry South Pacific 2018

This morning we met at 8:00 am for an outrigger canoe ride at the resort, went to breakfast and packed for our long journey home which consisted of an afternoon/evening flight from Maui to Los Angeles, a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to Orlando and a four-hour drive home from there – all of which we survived.  We arrived home around 1:30 pm on Friday. One of the things we will always remember about this trip is the beautiful and spectacular sunrises and sunsets.

This morning we planned to get up around 4:00 am and drive to see the sunrise at Haleakala.  The weather did not cooperate. Therefore, we slept in, enjoyed the resort, did a little shopping (Myra bought a Hawaiian made ukulele) and left early for Lahaina.  In Lahaina we were treated to the wonderful magic show at the night club "Warren & Annabelle's".    Myra and I brought our daughters here in 2003 and loved coming back. We started the evening with a light dinner and drinks before going into a small theatre (seating approximately 50).   There we were entertained by for almost two hours by two performers who were excellent magicians and comedians.   It was a wonderful show and a must see for anybody visiting Maui.

This morning we left around 7:00 am for a day-long adventure of driving the Hana Highway.    Hāna is only about 52 miles (84 km) from Kahului, but it takes about 2.5 hours to drive when no stops are made as the highway is very winding and narrow and passes over 59 bridges, 46 of which are only one lane wide. There are approximately 620 curves along Route 360 from just east of Kahului to Hāna, almost all of it through lush, tropical rainforest. Many of the concrete and steel bridges date back to 1910 and all but one are still in use. When we first came to Maui in 1983, rental car companies would not allow their cars to be driven on the Hana Highway.   Now, thanks to tourist demand and improvements to the highway have been made, the estimate is that well over 1/2 of the cars that you see on the Hana HIghway are rental cars. We were approximately 45 minutes from the start of the Hana Highway when we left our hotel.   As we approach...

We began the day with a very nice buffet breakfast at the hotel and then drove about 20 minutes to Maʻalaea to board a catamaran operated by the Pacific Whale Foundation.  The warm and shallow waters surrounding the Hawaiian Islands are a favorite destination for kohola, or humpback whales. Scientists estimate that two-thirds of the entire North Pacific humpback whale population return to Hawaii from Alaska to breed, calve and nurse their young. They come more than 3,000 miles from the Gulf of Alaska to Hawaii, give birth, stay for six months and train their young to prepare for the return trip.   February is the perfect month to observe these creatures. Mothers are often teaching their young how to breach and dive properly, while many young males love to show off their diving techniques.  It is an amazing sight to see when a full-sized whale comes completely out of the water and performs a slow roll before reentering.  Many times they are followed by th...

In the South Pacific many non-residents have become familiar with the term the Indonesians use called "Rubber Time"  Rubber time refers to that culture's rather laid-back attitude about appointments, schedules and deadlines.  While not as wide spread in many of the other South Pacific Islands, we can vouch that the Tahitians have adopted at least their own version of Rubber Time. We first encountered it in the Intercontinental Hotel where there really appeared to be no real effort to speed up the check-in/check-out process.   But we did face it head on in the airport. Fa'a'ā International Airport requires that passengers arrive at the airport three hours in advance of international flights.   We now know why.   The check-in process is Rubber Time.   Simple tasks like checking luggage takes at least twice as long for an attendant to perform than on any airline we have ever seen (except maybe Bolivia).   If a passenger needs a wheel chair, the de...

We docked in Papeete early in the evening. Papeete is the capital of French Polynesia, and primary center of Tahitian and French Polynesian  commercial, industrial and financial services.    The urban area of Papeete had a total population of 136,771 inhabitants at the August 2017 census.    This was a major change from the small islands and villages we visited in the last few days. As predicted by our Catamaran captain in Raiatea, the weather that greeted us in Papeete was different than what we had experienced in the other islands. The other islands weather was mixed but we always got both sunny and rainy portions of the day.    Papeete forgot the sunny part.    If we had not known better, we would have thought we were in a monsoon. The four of us had booked a hotel room at the Intercontinental and had imagined having a lovely day of hanging out by the pool, site-seeing and a leisurely dinner before having to go to the airp...

Friday was the last full day we were on the ship.    We anchored off shore and were tendered to the small port of Raiatea.    Raiatea is the second largest of the Society Islands, after Tahiti in F rench Polynesia . The island is widely regarded as the    center of the eastern islands in ancient Polynesia and it is likely that the organized migrations to Hawaii and other parts of East Polynesia started at Raiatea. A traditional name for the island is Havai'i, homeland of the Maori people who migrated from Raiatea to settle in New Zealand.  Se fisited a Vanilla farm in the pouring rain! Today we really did see the beauty of French Polynesia.    We took a catamaran tour of Moorea   and were treated to a beautiful morning   of clear seas, beautiful landscapes and tropical fish.    We then anchored and were able to swim/snorkel and enjoy the beautiful waters, sailed back to the port and we...

Over the past two days we have visited two French Polynesian Islands, Rangiroa and Bora Bora.  Rangiroa is the biggest atoll of French Polynesia – it could contain the entire island of Tahiti in its center.  From the air, the atoll appears to be a large pearl necklace laid upon the water.  It contains 3,467 residents – about four times as many as Fakarava.  Rangiroa is known for the production of Black Pearls (even though they actual are gray).  We toured a Pearl farm where we were told about how cultured pearls are produced, observed the process and of course, went to the shop where the pearls are sold. Cultured pearls are cultivated using a process developed in Japan many years ago.  The process starts most of the time with the slight opening of black lip pearl oyster shells, and the grafting of small pearls into the shell.  They are then put back into the ocean where they are tied together and protected from predators and allowed ...

French Polynesia consists of 118 islands from five Archipelagos, the Society Islands, Tuamotu, Gambier, the Australes and the Marquesas.  It is what France calls an "overseas country" which allows for it to have a great deal of autonomy but not independence.  It does have its own government but it has been somewhat ineffectual - they have had 14 presidents in the last 14 years and the current president has been in office for four of them.  It is a marvel that he may actually finish his full, five-year term, something his 13 immediate predecessors have not come close to. The primary language is French and the currency is the Polynesian Franc.  The exchange rate is roughly 100 Francs to one US dollar. This part of the Pacific was mostly untouched by World War II.  Bora Bora had a US base that was mostly used for supply purposes but the islands themselves were untouched by war. Seventy percent of the population of French Polynesia is in Tahiti which is also t...

Today is our last full day at sea.  Tomorrow we reach the French Polynesian Islands and will  be getting off of the ship each day to explore a different island. The Pacific Ocean was named by Ferdinand Magellan.  The story goes that when he found it the seas were extremely calm and therefore named it "Pacifico" - which translates into English as "Peaceful".  As we have seen from the waves crashing into South America, Easter Island and Pitcairn, the ocean is a lot of things but peaceful is probably not one of them. The total area of the Pacific is over 169 million square miles.  All of the land masses on the planet could be placed in the Pacific Ocean and there would still be room left over.  The beautiful blue color is just magnificent.  Every time we have sailed before we have always seen and passed other ships and an occasional airplane.  Since we left Pisco, Peru  - 10 days ago, we have not any airplanes nor have we seen another sh...

After two wonderful days at sea we arrived at the Pitcairn Islands. I n 1790, the mutineers of the  Bounty (think “Mutiny on the Bounty”)  arrived on Pitcairn island, an island that is only 1 mile wide by 2 miles long.  The group consisted of Fletcher Christian and eight other mutineers from the Bounty. The islanders (233 in 1937 yet only 42 today) have had quite a history, surviving on an island that had little contact with the outside world.  It is a part of the British Empire which continues to provide financial support.  They also offer 10 acres of land free to anyone who wants to settle on the island.  This offer has been in place for years but so far nobody has taken it.  The island is almost totally dependent on cargo ships that come quarterly from New Zealand with supplies.   While it rarely makes the news, in early 2000 it made it for the wrong reason.  A visitor’s 11 year old daughter was molested and an inve...

Today we left Easter Island and are on our way to Pitcairn Island, the small island approximately 1200 miles west of here that was introduced to most people around the world by the "Mutiny on the Bounty" movies.  It is a beautiful day on the Pacific with wonderful blue seas so we decided to summarize our two days on Easter Island.   While Easter Island belongs to Chile, it does have its own Flag (which looks like the shape of the island). Rapa Nui is the name of the island (also known as Easter Island). Rapa Nui is the language (closely linked to Tahitian and New Zealand Maori). Rapanui is the name of the people of Polynesian descent that settled on the island. As we spend our relaxing day cruising toward the Pitcairn Islands, we tried to capture a few thoughts about Easter Island.  This was on the top of our Bucket List of places to visit.  We feel so incredibly lucky that the winds and swells were tame enough for us to get off the ship a...

We were lucky to be able to get off the ship and have our second day on Easter Island.  Yesterday was dedicated to visiting the most important sites on Easter Island.  Today was dedicated to more of the natural wonders of this beautiful island. Our first stop was Rano Kau.  It is the largest volcanic crater and possibly the most beautiful natural spot on the island.  Part of the wall on the far side of the crater near the ocean has collapsed giving you a beautiful view of the this crater in its entirety with the Pacific Ocean as a backdrop.  Our guide told us that his mother used to wash clothes and obtain water for their home from this crater.  It is difficult to imagine climbing down and back up this huge volcanic crater! Our next stop was Oronga - the far side of the crater where the collapsed wall is located and where the annual Birdman competition was held every year from the 1700’s to 1867.  In a previous blog post, we described this...

T his morning we arrived in Easter Island!  It was great to see land. To get to the island we had to be tendered from the ship as there is no deep port.  We were extremely concerned that we would not be able  to get off of the ship because the swells were bad.  We have read that many times, passengers are not able to get to the island for that reason. Fortunately, we were given the go ahead by the local authorities and our captain to go ashore. The tendering  process went like this:  - arrive at 7:00 to get our Passports to take ashore    - receive our cards that designated our assigned tender  - wait until almost 9:00 to receive clearance to go ashore  - board our tender around 9:20  - arrive on land at approximately 10:00  - hand in our clearance forms to the local agriculture authorities  - purchase our $80 per person Park Passes  - meet our tour group The actual tender boarding was very difficult ...