Today, we enjoyed a wonderful day in Tahiti.
We have now completed the first of eight segments of our World Cruise Adventure. We traveled from Los Angeles, California to Papeete, Tahiti and we sailed a total of 4,804 nautical miles or the equivalency of 5,524 land miles. With the end of the first segment, some passengers departed the cuise ship this morning while a new group of passengers boarded the ship this afternoon.
This morning we woke up early and enjoyed a terrific workout in the Fitness Center. As we have done since the beginning of the cruise, Keith worked out on the elliptical machine while Anne Marie worked out on the treadmill. The fitness center was not very busy since some passengers were leaving the ship today while others who are staying for this segment of the cruise had tours of Tahiti planned for today. Also, several passengers who we know were playing golf today, which was arranged by the golf pro. We were told that they would need to carry their bags on this particular course.
After our workout, we enjoyed a very nice breakfast in the Lido Café. We ate with one of our fellow passengers who usually joins us in the morning for breakfast. We spoke with some passengers who will be remaining on the ship and we also gave our best wishes to a few passengers who are leaving the ship today. We hope that we will have the opportunity to sail with them again on a future cruise.
This is our first visit to Papeete, Tahiti, Society Islands, French Polynesia. Papeete is the capital of French Polynesia. We were very impressed with the beauty of Tahiti. Papeete is a gateway to many of the Pacific Ocean Islands. With its international airport, it provides regular flights to and from the continental United States.
During this segment of the World Cruise we will travel from Papeete to Auckland, New Zealand. Papeete is the capital of French Polynesia.
This morning we took our first shore excursion of the World Cruise, which was a tour that provided us with a nice overview of Tahiti. The tour was outstanding and we were very pleased with our tour guide. Our excursion included a stop at a museum that honored the life and achievements of James Norman Hall who is most famous for authoring the Mutiny on the Bounty trilogy. As part of this tour, we met his daughter who spoke with us for a while. She read one of several poems that her father had written to her on her birthday. We made several other stops including a visit to the tomb of the last King of Tahiti, a visit to a magnificent waterfall, a visit to a beautiful beach with black sand, a visit to One Tree Hill where Captain James Cook sailed the Endeavor into Thaiti’s Matavai Bay in 1769. The drive to these sites was magnificent and provided lots of wonderful views of Tahiti. As we drove around we saw many breathtaking views. The foliage is beautiful. We saw more coconut trees than we have ever seen along with another tree called a bread tree that has breadfruit on them. The breadfruit can be baked or smoked and after one hour can be eaten. They are big enough to serve about seven people.
On our way back the ship we ran into a bit of a traffic jam a we returned to Papeete so didn’t get back to the ship until around 1:00 PM. We then enjoyed a nice lunch in the main dining room. Many of the passengers who embarked the cruise today in Papeete were eating lunch while they were waiting for their staterooms to be ready.
After lunch we walked around the area near the harbor and then on the Promenade Deck for about an hour. There was another passenger cruise ship in port; the Pacific Princess along with several ferries.
Later in the afternoon we attended Friday night services, which was held earlier than normal because of the mandatory lifeboat drill for all passengers boarding the ship in Papeete. We were not required to attend this drill since we had already attended this drill during the first segment of the cruise.
We dined in Silk Road this evening. We enjoyed sushi and then a wonderful entrée and a fruit plate for desert. We had our favorite waiter who we came to know very well when we ate at Silk Road on last years world cruise. He is very knowledgeable and has a great sense of humor and is very professional.
Today has been a wonderful day and we are very happy to have visited this beautiful island of Tahiti for the very first time.
.
Keith & Anne Marie
