Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 13

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melsea
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Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 13

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Post by melsea »

Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 13

Day 41. Moorea, Polynesia. 8am - 5.30 Evening casual
17th February. Shrove Tuesday

Very very hot.

Maiden port for Aurora.

We had left Tahiti early this morning at around 5am, I found this out later. We arrive at about 7.45 in Opunohu Bay. We went outside to take photos of us with the most beautiful and breathtaking backdrop. Moorea is every bit a Paradise Island with the heat to match just as it was in Tahiti yesterday. This was a tender port and I got my ticket from Masquerades when I had had my breakfast in The Horizon. No sooner had I got back to the cabin to get my things my ticket range numbers came up and so I headed to the tender station on deck four. It was a quick transfer, a lot quicker than they had said it would be, the sea was calm which probably made a difference. As soon as you got off you were met by locals who had set up various stalls with all things to entice you buy ranging from, hand made bags, sarongs, jewellery, fridge magnets, you get the picture.. I had a quick look but moved on and you were met by the various locals with their taxis & others offering tours around the island or short trips. I went pass some but then spotted one that was offering 2 hour short tour of part of the Island and to a view point. Can't remember if I paid 30 or 40 dollars for it. I was taken to a small mini bus whereby there was already two people in it. We were soon joined by a few others and then we were off. The lady who took me to the bus handed to us those on the bus a small bottle of water as it was rather hot. I did have my own one but soon realised I would need more so thanked the lady. We went on our way and we were taken to a number of locations where we stopped for photos and everywhere was a picture postcard view. One of my highlights was when we were taken up to Belvedere Point, Mt Tohlea the view was just breathtaking with clear views and the odd fluffy clouds just magical. This is a view point that virtually all tours. We were lucky for it not to be too crowded. There was a small platform you could take your photos and here there was a metal meshed railing that had love padlocks just like the ones we saw in Valparaiso. It seems to be a trend that had evolved around the world. We were taken to a place called Marae Ti'i-rua. There was a ruin where a build once was and I vaguely remembered it was a sacred place, the inscription on a board says 'Chant of Praise of the marae' 'Marae were the sanctity and glory of the land. They were the pride of the people of these islands. The were the palaces presented to the Gods. It was a quiet place set in a beautiful settings that is now a forest. What was unusual was the fact there were about half a dozen or so chickens around the place. The tour lady picked something from the ground and used a stone to crack it open and then used what came from this to feed the chickens. It appears they roam free. Another view point we were taken to was to see our ship out in the Bay in the very clear seas and a fab back drop. She helped to take photos of us with our cameras, ipads with the view of Aurora behind us. Our last stop was a shop called 'Jus de Fruits de Moorea, selling juice drinks, wines and souvenirs. We were given a small glass of local fruit juices, very nice it was too. The first one she gave us had alcohol in it and the second was pure fruit juices. As nice as they were, to buy a carton of it was an arm and a leg about $10/14 each! We arrived back an hour and a half for what was a nice relaxing way to see some of the island this time round. We got back to where we started and I didn't want to leave just yet so off I went on a wander, as I do. I walked towards the right as we hadn't gone that way and I was grateful for the extra bottle of water I given earlier as the temperatures were high and the sun was blazing down. I walked as best as I could on the side that had some shade but I did have my long sleeved white shirt and a hat. I also carried with me an umbrella as you never know if you would be caught in a sudden down pour but at this point it would have doubled up as a sunshade. I would have walked on this side of the road anyway as I would be facing the traffic instead of it being behind me. So many people do not do this and they have no idea how dangerous it is not to do this. Like railway crossings you really cannot hear the traffic approaching and its so easy to loose your footing. This was particular so here as there were no pavement. At times I would stop until the cars went by, they were travelling quite fast. On my little wanderings I came across a few interesting things. Out of nowhere there were three stalls decked out with the most marvellous colourful fruits and they were decorated around the small marquees by large palm leaves with stark red flowers entwined in it. They were quite simply wonderful. Moving further on there were areas where you could pop your feet into the magical clear sea which I did. Every now and then you would see that some parts were used by the locals and you could see they lived in some not well built buildings but then they did most of their living outside. I saw something that made me chuckle. Out in the waters not too far from the shore and from where I was looking, there was a makeshift table and chairs in the sea and there was a family sitting there have their lunch. That's one way of keeping cool and it seems this is the thing to do as I saw a few more of these tables along the way, had I not seen this family I would not have paid much attention to it.
I looked at my watch and thought I had better start to make my way back. I did have a better look at the stalls there but nothing really caught my eye to want to buy anything. They had various pieces of jewellery made by locals and other ornaments. I was back at the tender at 4pm and back on board at 4.25pm
At dinner tonight we had pancakes for dessert, very yummy. We didn't leave the beautiful Island of Moorea until just after 9pm, this was because a tender boat not being able to go up.

Day 42. At sea.
18th February. Smart, jacket required.

Cooler day at sea but the sun is still strong where there is no breeze.

Breakfast at The Glass House
I sat out on deck 7 going through my photos.
Having gone through the photos I then went to the photography department to put them in for the competition. I ended up going through them on my own using their Apple Mac as the team were busy with other passengers. I managed to remember the short cut to only click on what I wanted to view. I have put in 18 photos. I just could not decide what to leave out. But with the help of one of the photographers I got it down to 18, think we dropped about 4 photos. While I was going through them a couple of passengers saw my photos and said they liked them & one actually commented that mine looked better than the photos done by the on board photographers.
I did say however that I have been doing it a long time, 35 years!
It was soon time to go back to the cabin and meet up with Bill so that we could go to lunch. I didn't stay for dessert to tea as I had my art class to go to. Which in some ways I wish I hadn't bothered as my effort wasn't really very good at all but Bill seemed to think it was.
In the cooler heat of the day I went outside at the back of the ship on deck 10 which always seems to have loungers free late in the afternoon.

Our next port is another Maiden Port but only just....

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