Weekend in Paradise

Saturday morning early we were in Raiatea birthed alone again in the bay.   Following another rainfall, the sun broke through and we were off the ship to explore the island.  There were many local people selling arts and crafts and tour operators explaining the tours they wanted the passengers to go on.   One of the things we wanted to do on this trip was to snorkel, and had been told this was the island to do it on, so we found a tour operator that was offering a snorkel trip to a small nearby island surrounded by a coral reef.  And what an amazing afternoon we had – we saw so many different kinds of beautiful fish and coral pieces.   We didn’t see any stingrays, but we were told there were over 700 varieties of fish in those waters and it felt like we saw most of them. 

At the end of the afternoon, our ship was visited by a Polynesian children dance group – The Children of Raiatea --- kids 5 years old to 17 danced for the passengers on deck – it was really great – the dances each showing a story with their movements.  And they all had local costumes with beautiful fresh flower leis and crowns.  

After dinner, we had another group of adult dancers from Raiatea entertaining us out on the deck.  They really rocked the place!!!

Sunday morning we again were moored in the bay and tendered into Moorea.   I think this has been my favorite island so far.   After getting off the tender we were welcomed by dancers and an amazingly beautiful island.   We rented a car and drove around the island at our own pace.  We stopped at beautiful white beaches – in fact, many of the scenes in the movie South Pacific were actually filmed on Moorea.   We ran across community festivals along the beach complete with local musicians.   And we stopped at the Green Pearl Golf Course – if I would have known it was as nice as it was – and a public course, I would have liked to have played a round in the morning!   We also drove to the top of Le Belvedere Look Out with it’s many switch backs and saw breathtaking views of the island.   They were views that will be remembered for a long time.

After getting back to the ship it was time to repack our bags as the clock was ticking down on our most excellent adventure.

Cruising with Herm