March 28 & 29 At sea and Bora Bora

March 28 At Sea

We leave the Austral Island archipelago and head north about 400 miles to Bora Bora, our next destination.  We anticipate arriving the morning of the 29th so we will have a day of relaxing at sea. 

I took the day to get a haircut in the morning.  I must admit to some anxiety as I have had the same person cut my hair for the last 37 years!  I guess it came out ok, no one screamed, particularly me.  We attended several lectures today, on whales, fish and knots. And tea!

Tea time.

One of the goals of travel is not only learning about new places but meeting new and interesting people from all over the world.  We are certainly grateful for the wonderful people we have met so far on this trip.  Especially those we first met at the Explora on Rapa Nui and continued on with the voyage to Tahiti.  They made the trip much more fun.

March 29 Bora Bora

In the western part of the Society Islands is the island of Bora Bora.  Located about 140 miles northwest of Papeete, Tahiti. it is surrounded by a lagoon and a barrier reef.  One of the challenges in writing about these islands is you run out of superlatives to describe the beauty that is, and is all around, these island paradises.  All I can do is hope that my pictures can convey some of the feeling of awe-striking beauty. 

On Bora Bora, I abandoned the Gilligan’s Island reference and instead could not get the music of South Pacific out my head.  Could not find the location of the boar’s tooth ceremony but we did pass by Bloody Mary’s.

We rose early in the morning to see the sunrise over the island.  We were lucky that our suite was on the correct side of the ship to get these fabulous views!  As with most of the other landings this was by Zodiac, but, as we were much closer to the port and inside the protected lagoon, the ride was smooth, and the landing was dry.  The port town is much like other cruise ship towns, lots of jewelry stores and other souvenir shops.  There was also an artisan shop where local crafts were on sales. 

In the morning we boarded some Land Rover 4×4’s to take a ride into the mountains to get views of the island from various high points.  We were told that the ride would be bumpy, which scared some people off, but not us.  Bumpy was an understatement!  There were times I thought we would be thrown from the trucks!  And there were places that were so muddy the 4×4 got stuck and people had to abandon them to lighten the load so they could move the 4×4.  But the ride was worth it!  The views were spectacular. 

There was a restored Marae at one of the places we stopped.  Here, along with the fabulous views, there was also an artist doing fabric painting. We also has some snacks and the lead driver serenaded Cathy and me with a love song.

Our last stop was at the site of some cannon placed by the US during WWII.  The Japanese never came down this far south in the Pacific, but the US forces were here and built some infrastructure on the island, including the first airstrip in the Polynesian islands. 

Ready for action.

 After our trip to the hills, we went back to the ship for lunch and then we walked around the “town” looking into the various stores.  Then back to the ship. 

The crew practicing drills, or abandoning ship?

Tomorrow we should be in Tahiti, our last stop on this part of our journey. 

4 thoughts on “March 28 & 29 At sea and Bora Bora”

  1. Howard & Tricia & Emily

    Looks like an awesome trip so far!! We are visiting Evan now, and will go to his recital tonite!
    Travel safely!

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