March 23, 2019

Just for curiosity, someone on the Cruise Critic roll call for this voyage posted the February 19, 2019 entry from the blog of the Captain of the Holland America Amsterdam.http://captainjonathan.com/papeete-moorea-and-bora-bora/

He described the less than perfect weather his voyage encountered visiting Bora Bora, Tahiti and Mo’orea a month earlier.

We arrived at our first destination in French Polynesia, also known as The Islands of Tahiti, that we will visit on this cruise. It was the first day of a two day visit to Bora Bora, Society Islands. French Polynesia consists of six island groups: Austral Islands, Bass Islands, Gambier Islands, Marquesas Islands, Society Islands and the Tuamotu Archipelago.The Society Islands are divided into two groups – the Windward Islandsand the Leeward islands.

In the next few days, we visited a sister Leeward Island, Raiatea; two of the Windward Islands– Mo’orea and Tahiti; Fakarava in the Tuamotu Archipelago and finished the week visiting Nuku Hiva, part of the Marquesas Islands, before returning to San Diego.

All the Society Islands local times are the same as in Papeete, Tahiti, the capital of French Polynesia. French and Tahitian are the official languages of French Polynesia.

Our ship approached the islandof Bora Bora as the sun rose while we walked around the Promenade Deck taking some pictures before the Lido Market on Deck 9 opened for buffet breakfast at 6:30. There was a cap of cloud on Mount Otemanu as the ship glided through the Teavanui Pass to reach its anchoring point. The nearby shorter Mount Pahia was clear of cloud. The ship is anchored just off shore by the town of Vaitape. The water had a small ripple to it from the wind. We had to wait about five minutes for our cameras to warm up from air-conditioned temperature of 22°C in the stateroom to 29°C and humidity of 89% on the outside deck. The sun was shining above the fluffy white and grey clouds that lined the horizon this morning, which was typical of the past few days.

We met in the Mainstage Theater for our morning excursion to Bora Bora’s Pofai Bay to view the coral reef in a glass bottom boat. The groups were directed to the tender platform on Deck A, which is below Deck 1. Once the tender boat was loaded it was a 6-minute ride to the pier at Vaitape. There was a Polynesian band, playing their ukuleles and drums, singing songs. The glass bottom boats were less than 50 meters away. Each roofed boat took 22 passengers. We had a skipper,

Martin and a guide, Dyee. In the center of the boat was a one-meter railing surrounding the glass panels, which give everyone a place on one of two benches lining the railing to watch the seabed. The boat was open air but had a roof to shade passengers. The trip to the coral reef took about 20 minutes and Dyee explained what the buildings were on shore. There were other boats in the vicinity with passengers, scuba diving, snorkelling or in glass bottom boats. The white sand bottom was between three and five meters below, but sometimes the coral was just one meter below the bottom of the boat. There were many varieties of fish including small blue neon damsels, black & white striped damselfish, butterfly fish as well as an ugly brown eel. There were some pretty yellow fish and many dark coloured fish. The white fish blended into the white sand seafloor. Dyee explained that the coral in Pofai Bay has purple, yellow and white algae growing on it giving it some colour. We saw jagged lines in the coral (www) which were the “mouths” of clams. After a while, Martin put on his fins and snorkel and some latex gloves and dove overboard to feed the fish which caused a frenzy of different kinds of fish darting about below us. To finish the boat tour, we motored within sight of the Louis Conrad resort which has thatched roof bungalows on stilts over the water. One night at the resort costs over $1,000 US per night, not counting food and beverages. On the ride back to the pier we were serenaded by Dyee playing the ukulele and singing Polynesian songs.

We had two hours to look around Vaitape before our afternoon excursion. We ventured to the left (clockwise - westerly) from exiting the gift shop by the pier. A few blocks away, there was a volleyball tournament being played on two courts, in the punishing sun. Officials, and some spectators, had umbrellas for shade. We browsed in the souvenir stores and looked into a jewelry store which featured the black pearls for which Bora Bora is famous. A single pearl pendant set in sterling silver started at $135 US. We found the grocery store and bought sandwiches and iced tea for lunch then walked back to the pier area to sit on a bench in the shade. Steps 7,863

While waiting for the excursion signs to appear, there was a five-minute cloud burst, but we had seen the rain clouds coming and managed seek shelter and stay dry. The humidity remained high in the 30°C heat. The afternoon excursion was taken seated in an open-air truck bus for a panoramic 37 kilometer drive around the island. There were four truck buses that held 40 people each.

Viatape’s population is about 3,500 and Bora Bora’s population is around 10,000. The term “Polynesian Triangle,” includes Hawaii to the north, Easter Island to the southeast and New Zealand to the southwest. These islands were all populated by sea travellers starting about 4,000 BC. In 1789, Captain James Cook was the first Europesn to discover Bora Bora, originally named Pora Pora, meaning first born as it was the first of the Polynesian islands to emerge , geologically and by legend, thousands of years ago. The main income for the residents is tourism. We started a clockwise circuit going west past the active volleyball courts and out of the town. Bora Bora is an island at the center of a five-million year old collapsed volcano caldera. The mountain sides are full of lush vegetation that was brought to the island by many settlers over the centuries, beginning with the Polynesians, then the Europeans. We saw groves of coconut trees and pretty white fragrant tiare flower bushes. The tiare flower, or Tahitian Gardinia, is used in floral decorations and lotions. Hibiscus trees are the most noticeable with their bright flowers. The pineapple plants were brought to the island by William Bligh of the HMS Bounty in exchange for some of the breadfruit that he bought to take to the slaves in the Caribbean.

The first stop was at Mama Edna’s Pareo shop where we were shown how the white material (from China) for the sarongs and shirts is tie-dyed with natural colours exacted from flowers, leaves and plant roots, then the cloth is laid out flat on corrugated metal platforms and stencils are placed on top of the cloth, partly to keep the cloth from blowing away in the wind. The material dries in the sun, in about 10 minutes. We also sampled breadfruit, sweet grapefruit and mango, which were all delicious. Back on the truck bus, we stopped in the shade of trees where nearby the ground is home to small land crabs, nocturnal tupa crabs. Staying in the truck bus, the guide tossed some flowers onto the ground and out from the ground holes, scampered the tupa crabs to gather the flowers for food.

As the road hugged the coast, we could see the varying colours of clear blue water in the lagoon. Occasionally, an outrigger canoe could be spotted in the water. We stopped for a quick glance at one of the few remaining spiritual temples, Marae Fare-Opu. The large coral rocks are all that remains. Archeologists believe that this was the temple reserved for the kings of Bora Bora. Our guide pointed out that there are no cemeteries on Bora Bora and people are buried on their property, usually their front yard in an above ground tomb, like in Argentinian cemeteries. We saw the World War 2 American Naval base, occupied between 1942 and 1946, and stopped nearby at the location of two canons, on private property, that were strategically situated at one of the four corners of the lagoon, but never were fired in defence of the island. We passed the thatched condominium bungalows on property once owned by Marlon Brando and other movie stars. At Motu Mete, on a peninsula, is the island’s airport which has an extended runway, added to the short runway built by the American forces during the war. The mountain sides were covered in green leaves of all kinds of tropical trees. Another stop was at place to get pictures of a bay and paragliders were noticed sailing off the mountain. We passed one of many former pearl farms. There are plenty of pearls to choose in the stores in Vaitape. We stopped at Matira Point, the only sand beach on the main Bora Bora island where people can go to snorkel and swim. The final stop was at Bloody Mary’s restaurant for cold drinks. They had local beer on tap, just $5 US. The location was used in the movie South Pacific as the Bali High resort. There are two wooden signs with names of famous people who have been to Bloody Mary’s restaurant including Bill Gates & his wife, Warren Buffet, Mickey Dolenz, Ringo Starr, Marlon Brando, Pierce Bronson and author, Clive Cussler.

Back at the pier we were hot and sweaty, but found the tender boat was loading so we had no wait to get back to the ship. There was plenty of time to shower and change for dinner.

We had dinner with Carol and Dennis. Susan and Jeff had said they would probably miss dinner with us. We joined them for Trivia at 7 and they compared notes with Dennis and Carol on their different snorkelling trips during the day. The team scored the same point count as yesterday. We all moved to the Lincoln Center Stage lounge, which had no performances tonight, to play Five Crowns. Susan won today. Total steps 12,885