We didn’t mention in yesterdays Blog that last evening Anne Marie attended a wonderful show, which featured local entertainers. These entertainers wore beautiful costumes and performed authentic dances of the South Pacific Islands. It is always a treat when locals from the various places that we visit perform on the ship.
We awoke very early this morning after enjoying a very good sleep. We find it so easy to sleep on the ship and assume that the rocking motion of the ship puts us to sleep.
We went up to the Fitness Center quite early as we do each morning. Keith was the first one in the Center at around 5:10 AM (ouch) and Anne Marie arrived shortly thereafter at around 5:30 AM. We enjoyed a great workout with Keith working out on the elliptical machine and Anne Marie working out on the treadmill. By the time we finished there were not many people working out. We attributed this to the fact that many of the tours started early in the morning. While we were working out we saw a beautiful sunrise from the Fitness Center. Although this is the rainy season, we have been very fortunate to be enjoying beautiful days as we visit the various Pacific Ocean Islands.
After our workout we enjoyed a nice breakfast in the Lido Café. One other passenger joined us and we also spoke with some of our fellow passengers at two adjacent tables. The fresh fruit continued to be quite good from the strawberries, to the melon, to the wonderful grapefruit.
There are three teams of Lido Deck Stewards who rotate between the three different areas on the Lido Deck on each of three succeeding voyages. Since this is the first full day of the new segment we were greeted in the café by the team that will be working in the café during this segment of our world cruise adventure. We recognized several of them from last year’s world cruise. They all knew our names and they each remembered what type of coffee that each of us enjoys. We find this truly amazing.
Today we anchored off the island of Huahine also of the Society Islands, and better known as the Secret Isle of the Pacific. This island is part of the French Polynesia and is located between Bora Bora (which we will visit tomorrow) and Moorea.
We anchored off this Island at 8:00 AM and tender service began shortly thereafter. The tenders ran from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. The captain gave his morning talk at around 8:00 AM and his thought for the day is “Youth is not a time in life but a state of mind.” This is very true in our opinion. We have met so many people in our lifetime who exemplify this quote and we try to do the same. We believe that if you think young you can easily feel young.
Since we did not have a tour on this island, we spent the first part of the morning taking care of errands such as doing our laundry. The laundry room can be quite entertaining in its own way and we think some of the happenings and goings in the laundry room could make for a great comedy sitcom. ☺
We took a tender over to the Island at around 9:00 AM and we were the only two passengers on the tender. We then took a shuttle bus from the tender drop off point over to the town of Fare. The drive over to the town was very scenic and in many ways we felt like we were on Gilligan’s Island. When we arrived at the town of Fare we go off the shuttle bus for about a minute. However, the town looked so small with just a few stores that we decided to get back on the shuttle to go back to the tender pier. When we arrived back at the pier there was some type of recital taking place that was being performed primarily by school-aged children along with some adults. They were all singing and dancing to local music being played by a band. We watched the performance for about thirty minutes.
When we got back to the ship we had lunch with a very nice couple that we first met on last years World Cruise. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch and great conversation. One of the waiters remember us from last years world cruise as at that time she was being trained as a stewardess by the stewardess who we had fro the entire cruise. Now, she works in the restaurant.
Later in the afternoon, we took a very nice and long walk on the Promenade Deck. We ended walking with a few passengers during the course of this walk, all of whom we first met on last years cruise. As we walked around the ship all around us was spectacular scenery of this beautiful island in the Pacific Ocean. The weather was picture perfect. Towards the end of our walk, there were many passengers out and about walking around the Promenade Deck.
We enjoyed yet another wonderful meal in the main dining room. The food and service continue to be great.
Today we visited yet another picture perfect island. It is nice to see that there are still places in the world that have not lost their natural beauty and overall charm. Yes, it is true that the main town is quite small and there is really not much to the town in the way of shops or other venues. However, in many ways it is the residents of this lovely island who are the lucky ones because what they lack in their little town is more than made up by the charm and beauty of this Island. It is clear to us that this Island is paradise for the local residents. We are glad to have had the opportunity to visit such s special place with its gorgeous scenery, natural beauty and wonderful views of the sea that surround this magnificent Island.
Tonight we sail to Bora Bora and look forward to another new adventure.
Keith & Anne Marie
