First look at Raiatea this morning just after sunrise.
Heading in to dock at the pier. That's the "robe lady" there on the deck. We never see her without the robe!
Sailed into Raiatea Harbor this morning around 7:00. For the first time we would not need to take a tender as we docked right against the pier in Uturoa the cultural and commercial center of the island. A big city with a population of 9,000.
So big we saw a roundabout as we were docking.
Gangplanks at the ready.
Musicians setting up.
Playing for first people off the ship.
As we were able to walk right off the boat we left a few minutes later than usual. We found the boats from Le Excursion Bleu and their day tour director Bruno. Then the fun started! Bruno told us we had to get in a queue and pay the balance due for our day. Rich had already paid in full for the tour and had to go back to the ship to get a copy of his receipt. In the main time Gayle and Connie worked their way through the line and were told they had no reservation for us at all. We had gotten on one boat with 8 others (our enemies from the first day). Bruno told us we had to get off because that boat could not hold 16. Quite the discussion between Rich and Toma - eventually we got another boat to come and take the 8 of us out of the harbor. It was pretty hot - to say the least and a bit unsettling until all was settled.
A lot of empty pearl clam shells at the pier at the pearl farm!
Eventually a hired boat appeared and we were driven to the pearl farm. Toma started telling us stories about pearl farming and Polynesia in general zinging Rich a bit each time! The women did some shopping but decided not to buy anything.
Docking at the vanilla farm.
Walking to the vanilla farm greenhouse.
Vanilla plants in the greenhouse.
Vanilla seed pods
Owner's wife at the store on the vanilla plantation.
Got on a second boat (nice young couple on board) and headed to the vanilla farm. Here we walked around a lane to where we saw a vanilla greenhouse. Screened in area with vanilla vines planted in ground up coconut husks. The owner showed us the vanilla bean stalks and why in vanilla size matters! Up until 5 years ago the vanilla was planted on the steep hillsides - these greenhouses made the process a lot easier.
Told about the major producers of vanilla - Mexico, Madagascar and of course Tahitian (although grown on Raitea). Connie bought some vanilla bean pods and a mother-of-pearl bracelet.
Closeup of coral on the beach at lunch.
Same boat took us to a motu where we had our lunch. The mayor of the island blessed our food and we dug in buffet style. Most of the usual foods were present again, the raw fish was especially good.
Island we were going to swim at after lunch in the sun.
Sitting on a lounge chair IN the water in the pouring rain! May be the only image taken during rain storm.
Sitting in a bar hoping to see end of NCAA tourney (not on).
Shortly after Bobi realized that she did not have her eyeglasses and the adventure began. Richie headed back to the pier and luckily found Toma again. He made calls to the boat people on his cell and remarkably her glasses were found at our last stop before we headed back to the boat. They began their long journey back to Bobi.
In the mean time Cary Lisa and I went into a bar on the pier. Cary thought he saw basketball on the tv and we hoped it was the NCAA hoops. By the time we got there the games were almost over and we realized that it was a NBA game he saw when we walked past. I bought a beer for Cary and a couple of mango drinks for Lisa and me. If you bought drinks you got to use their internet for 30 minutes. Sweet - I checked my emails and updated this blog a little bit.
Richie and Toma on the dock after the glasses were returned.
Bobi has her glasses back! This lady found them on the beach. She was the wife of one of the boat drivers.
We waited on the pier talking with Toma some more and generally just staying with Richie (Dr Blood). After about an hour the boat returned to the pier with Bobi’s glasses to much celebration. Richie has been famous for asking Saint Anthony to find things in the past and did so again.
Looking thru the cruise ship mooring lines.
After that a Windjammer like sailboat went by looking pretty majestic! Back to the boat - the personnel were actually concerned that some of us had not returned to the ship. We were approaching last call to board when we got back on.
The ship sailed from Raiatea at 7:00 toward Huiahine which was in sight from the pier. Toma said their speedboats can go the 55km in an hour or so. We don’t drop anchor tomorrow until 8:00 so they must just sail around the islands all night.
Tomorrow will be our LAST excursion - hard to believe this amazing trip is almost over.
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