Tahiti Cruise--Day 3 (Huahine)

Day 3—Huahine (January 29, 2015)

From the Navigator:  “During the night Ocean Princess made her way to the North West through the Tahitian waters to our first port of call, Huahine….”

Ah, to be gently rocked to sleep last night as we made our way to Huahine (pronounced wha-hee-nee).  Although I was asleep early, I managed to sleep in and woke up to cloudy skies at 5:30am.  The nice thing about taking showers before dinner and not bothering with makeup (because it’s really humid) is that I can get ready quickly in the morning. 

I spent the early morning out on deck with coffee from the buffet watching the ship approach the island and pass through the narrow channel into the bay where we dropped anchor.  We had some light early morning showers, but that had stopped shortly after we anchored, although it remained cloudy.  The water inside the reef was the smoothest waters I’ve ever seen.  It was so still, it was more like a lake than a bay with the ocean breaking on the coral reef not far away.  There wasn’t even a breeze to disturb the still waters. 

I met my parents for breakfast, then we got ready for the excursion we had booked by spraying liberally with insect repellent due to the mosquito issue Princess had warned us about (and backed up by the CDC and State Department warnings). 

Most of the French Polynesian islands were tender ports and Huahine was no exception.  Boarding the tender was exceptionally easy for two reasons:  the first is that this is a small ship, so getting only 680 passengers to shore is much faster than trying to do this on a ship that holds over 3,000 passengers; and the second is the glass smooth water since we didn’t have to try to “time” stepping on board a bobbing tender—it was as steady next to the ship as if it were firmly attached.

Once ashore, we met our tour group and boarded the bus for the Island Drive tour.  Our first stop was at a marae.  This marae was an archaeological site that is still considered somewhat sacred among the locals.  It had the usual black stones arranged in a square with a few standing stones as well.  There was also a museum of sorts with a woven bamboo floor (which required everyone to take off their shoes before entering). 

We then visited a small vanilla farm.  Our tour guide explained that the vanilla plant would not produce vanilla beans without individual hand pollination.  Apparently, the flowers only bloom for a few hours, so as soon as the flowers bloom (early in the morning), then have to be hand-pollinated before the flower dies around 10:30 in the morning.  Each hand-pollinated flower will produce one vanilla bean.  Growing vanilla beans is definitely labor intensive and explains why vanilla beans are so expensive.

We passed by ancient stone fish traps that are still used today, and then stopped to visit the famous blue-eyed eels.  These fresh-water eels live in a stream near the coast, are 3-5 feet in length, and are considered sacred by the locals.  Legend has it the first eel crawled onto land and fell in love with a Tahitian princess and the local population of Huahine are the descendents.  Since the locals all feed the eels, the eels all swim to the surface whenever people approach expecting to be fed.  Our guide had a container of rock fish and fed the eels while we watched them practically crawl out of the water to catch the fish slices she threw just at the water’s edge.  I can say for sure they really do have blue eyes! 

Our last stop was Belvedere Lookout high up a mountain where we looked down into the bay where our ship was anchored.  After making our way back to the pier, we boarded the tender and was on the ship in time to watch the “Mamas of Huahine Folkloric show” on the Lido deck, poolside.  Several women and one young child performed local dances accompanied by traditional drummers.

Since we hadn’t had lunch, we were all hungry and decided to have the Princess Pizza—the best pizza at sea!  It sounds strange, but one of the things I look forward to on a Princess cruise is pizza on the lido deck—it’s the little things that make life enjoyable.

I spent some time reading on deck, and watched the ship pass through the reef as we headed toward Rangiroa.  Then it was time to head back to the cabin to take a shower and get ready for dinner. 

We were assigned Table 12, a table for 4, so we weren’t sharing with anyone.  I had the spaghetti carbonara for an appetizer, followed by the roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, so a bit of Italian and English.  I had overheard a guy at the table next to us order all three appetizers simply because he said he couldn’t decide.  The nice thing about being on a ship is that you really can order as much as you want, and even order seconds.  Some people consider a cruise a food fest with the object being to eat as much as possible—this is especially true in the buffet, but then a lot of people think that’s the point of a buffet.  While I don’t do that, I do admit to eating much more on board than I usually do since I tend to eat all three meals—that probably explains why I tend to gain a couple of pounds on board, although I like to think of is as a side-affect of the sea air—all that salt tending to shrink the clothes just a bit.  Luckily, the clothes do loosen up a bit once taken out of the influence of the sea.

After dinner, we spent some time in the casino—of course we lost. 

I was back in the cabin by a little after 9 and asleep before 10:00pm.  Tomorrow is a sea day and also formal night.