I have now visited five very different French Polynesian islands. I have been coughing and my nose has been running since Nuku Hiva. I think I may have an allergy to a tree or a flower growing on all of these islands. It would be terrible to be allergic to "paradise." On the other hand, I may have a very light cold.
All of these islands are beautiful and well worth the discomfort, runny nose and all. The day we crossed the equator we caught up with hot and humid weather. We are enjoying the contrast with the cold of Colorado and even the cool of Los Angeles. Michael and I have not been following the news much but have been glad to avoid a really cold spell back home.
Nuku Hiva is a mostly brown rocky outcropping eight sea days away from Los Angeles. It rises solitary from the ocean and has no protecting coral reef. Just south of the equator, it is far, far from anywhere. There is one small bay, a remnant of a collapsed volcanic cone that permits a small ship to anchor. The very small town of Taiohae is the only settlement of any size. Nuku Hiva is relatively undeveloped and is ruggedly beautiful.
Michael and I took the ship's tender to the small town pier. We arrived on Saturday and not much was happening. A line of perhaps twenty 4 x 4 vehicles awaited passengers who had signed up for the only tour Silversea offered. Four people were loaded in each and they took off in a caravan that oddly filled the single main street with traffic. They stopped at the local sights, a park and a church, and then set off for a three hour tour of the interior of the island. There is no road around this island; however, there is an interior plateau where pineapple, taro and sugar cane are grown. The plateau's claim to fame and tour worthiness is that Herman Melville jumped ship here in the nineteenth century and wrote the novel "Typee" about his experiences hiding from cannibals in the interior. This is before he wrote "Moby Dick." Needless to say the cannibals are long gone; converted by missionaries to gentler pursuits. The tour consisted mainly of stops for scenic photographs.
Michael and I took in the sights in town and walked along the beach. We photographed the reproduction "marae" or religious site with lots of stone "tiki," the Catholic cathedral, an open air church built on the real marae site, the Presbyterian Church and the walked by a closed bank and a number of government offices.
The cathedral was decorated with wooden carvings of saints. We noticed that the figures appeared to be armed with spears and clad in grass skirts. The Presbyterian Church, on a hill overlooking the anchorage, was beautifully simple and had wonderful views. Flowers bloomed everywhere in Taihoe. Families picnicked on the beach and children swam in great numbers. Oddest of all, horses were tethered in yards, on the stream banks, and on the beach. There must be a story there but what?
At the pier there were a few tents where native Polynesians were selling handicrafts and a small band serenaded the Silver Whisper's tender each time it arrived with more tourists. This cannot happen all that often so I don't know how these people make a living. They all seem healthy and drive around in relatively new pickup trucks. Michael and I stayed on shore about two of the four hours of the Whisper's visit to the Marquesas Islands.
The ship's sunset departure was a real highlight of the Nuku Hiva visit. As the island disappeared in the dusk there were no visible lights anywhere beyond the village. The craggy coast disappearing in the mist was beautiful.
Saturday evening we dined on the pool deck and had wonderful steaks grilled on "hot rocks." These are lava rocks heated to 700 degrees F brought to each diner on a wooden platter. Everyone cooks his or her own meat until it is done to individual preference. The steaks were served with grilled veggies and baked potatoes. This is a very popular dining option on clear, warm nights and because of the casual dress code also on formal nights. After dinner we looked at the stars of the southern sky. Orion was sideways, we could see Canopus, the False Cross and the Greater Magellenic Cloud. At any rate, Michael pointed them out to me. I would not have known what I was seeing.
Sunday was a sea day. I started a Kindle book, attended two lectures and napped in the afternoon. Michael and I spotted a pod of dolphins as we were walking laps on the jogging track on deck nine. There appeared to be more than fifty leaping out of the water. Whisper passed through them and we could hear the individual splashes. The dolphins seemed quite large, maybe eight feet long. Not many other passengers saw them. They were mostly inside playing "Trivia," a most popular activity that tends to be more important to the participants than anything else going on aboard ship.
Monday we arrived at Rangiroa. Rangiroa is the world's second largest atoll. It is a ring of small coral islands with a lagoon in the middle. None of the small islands, called "motu", is more than 5 feet above sea level. The main attractions are water sports.
Michael and I planned to visit a local beach instead of taking an overpriced tour. Everything in French Polynesia is expensive. We couldn't see spending more than $200 apiece to spend thirty minutes snorkeling or nearly $300 each for the same snorkeling and picnic on a tiny private island.
We took the ship's tender to a tiny pier at the end of the largest island. There were some souvenir shops and tents along with five or six vans ready to take ship's passengers on various water adventures. We started out along the island's only road toward the public beach reportedly about half a mile away. It started to rain. We discussed turning back. Three young local girls came running by, stopped and told us there was a good beach just down a sandy side road. It would have been a shame not to at least see a beach on the lagoon so we walked to the lagoon side of the island on what turned out to be someone's private driveway. I wonder if the girls were playing a joke on us or maybe on their neighbor.
By now it was raining hard. We took shelter under a cocoanut palm. This was dubious shelter as there were a dozen almost ripe cocoanuts in the tree top. We stood there a while at the edge of the water looking at the Silver Whisper anchored in the lagoon as rain dripped on us from the palm leaves.
A large Polynesian gentleman appeared from the nearby beachfront house whose drive we had just walked in on. He beckoned us to his front porch. Once were there he introduced us to his wife and disappeared inside. He didn't speak English so left the task of entertaining us to his wife who had previously lived in the United States and spoke excellent English. Michael and I spent a very interesting half hour talking to her about life on Rangaroa. She was originally from Papeete but found the city too big, noisy and crowded. She had married a native Rangaroan and they had retired here. I found it remarkable that they had a vacation house on an island on the other side of the same atoll, almost in sight, and had just returned from spending the Christmas holidays there. Their vacation house had no electricity or running water. Both homes collected rainwater; their main house has electricity and pumps water from a cistern, they collect rainwater in barrels at the other house. Our hostess said that everyone on Rangaroa needs a car and a boat. The need for a boat I understand. The need for a car is more obscure. There are no more than six miles of road on the large island. There is an airport on the island so Tahiti is only a few hours away. We heard a plane land. Our hostess said the other islands in the Tuamatou chain send their children to boarding school on Rangaroa. The flight was returning students to school at the end of the Christmas holiday.
Michael and I said farewell and repeated our thanks for shelter from the rain and started back to the pier as the rain eased. We were premature. We soon found ourselves sheltering from thunder and lightning under the porch roof of an abandoned commercial building on the main road. We made it back to the pier after the thunder stopped. We had dressed for the beach with bathing suits under our outerwear. By the time we reboarded the Whisper, everything we had on was soaked except out bathing suits. The rain continued the rest of the day. Michael and I had a memorable adventure while many of the other passengers had their activities rained out.
The island of Moorea was on the horizon as we wakened Wednesday morning. We had traveled 250 miles overnight and had picture post card weather during our morning in Moorea. Michael and I had originally planned to hire a taxi to take us to the Belvedere lookout point. We tendered ashore and took a walk of two miles to the nearest town and back. We stopped at a local patisserie for fresh pineapple smoothies, the more delicious after walking in the high heat and humidity. The view from the ship proved so enchanting that we stayed aboard after our return and didn't make it to the shore again. It is wonderful to be in the Pacific with no requirement to do any particular thing. Sometimes it's O.K. to do nothing. I took many photos of the mountains and bay. Moorea is the original Bali Hai Island. The movie "South Pacific" used a shot of Moorea's spiky central mountain matted behind Hawaii's Kauai Island to represent the mythical island of Bali Hai. The scenery is perhaps the most gorgeous to be found anywhere.
The Silver Whisper sailed from Cook's Bay, Moorea at 4 PM to make the twelve mile crossing to Papeete, Tahiti. Paul Gaugan made nineteenth century Tahiti famous as an island paradise. It was never as lush and romantic as he portrayed it in his paintings. Papeete, the capital, is the only real city in French Polynesia and it is small, run down and very French. The Whisper arrived by dusk but it was raining again so we did not venture out.
When the rain cleared the next morning, Michael and I walked the length of the pier to see the sights. This was the first time the Silver Whisper had actually docked since we left Los Angeles. The weather was, as usual, hot and muggy. We went to the tourist information bureau for a map showing the walking tour of the city. Another cruise ship, the Oceania Marina, was docked at the pier next to us. This meant that in addition to our 300 plus passengers, there were another thousand or so tourists loose in Papeete. Fortunately for us, most of them went on tours. We enjoyed our walk around the city. We visited the market, the cathedral, historical sites and the government buildings. There was a lot of traffic and sometimes the sidewalks were crowded. The highlight, for me, was a visit to the pearl museum at a high end pearl dealer. I wasn't eager to buy Tahitian black pearls at the tourist shops once I saw the really valuable and beautiful items on display there. It appears that good quality black pearls run to thousands of dollars. The stuff being sold in the tourist traps is really low quality. I'm sure Michael is glad I don't want the tourist trash but he may be worried I might want some really good pearls.
We returned to the Silver Whisper intending to go back to Papeete later. As has been the case most everywhere else, it rained again. These South Sea islands are lush for a reason. Papeete was a turnover day. That means some passengers were leaving and others were joining the ship. A new leg of our cruise was beginning.
Bora Bora was our final stop in French Polynesia. It is a mountain surrounded by an atoll. Early morning drizzle cleared enough for Michael and me to hope that we could find a nice beach to go swimming. We tendered ashore and walked along the single street to check things out. We walked for about half an hour through the little town of Viatape. Lots of pearl stores, a few medical clinics (?), a grocery and many souvenir shops. There were no sidewalks and lots of traffic. Again the skis opened up. This time we had an umbrella to stand under. We tendered soggily back to the ship hoping to go back later. All day the storm got worse. We watched the departure from the observation lounge on deck 10 from the inside as rain sheeted across the outside deck.
Even though there has been a lot of rain and even some rough seas, this cruise has been a wonderful experience. We have met some interesting people. The food and service on the ship have been outstanding. We are vacationing in a luxury hotel that frequently moves from place to fascinating place. Life is good.
No comments:
Post a Comment