This morning the ship arrived in Raiatea. Raiatea shares a lagoon with Taha’a.
I had some cereal in the buffet for breakfast and watched the sail into the island of Raiatea.
The channel through the reef was a little south of the port, which required the ship to enter the lagoon and then turn and cruise a short distance to the port.
My first tour was supposed to be a cultural one, Taputapuatea and Opoa.
There was local musicians at the port to greet us and I was on a normal bus today.
The tour first stopped at a pearl farm. It was interesting learning how the pearls are created – it requires a lot of human intervention and there are no wild pearls.
The next stop was at a house of a vanilla farmer. There were a few vanilla plants , which are actually vines that attach to other “host” trees. The other interesting thing was that the bees on the island can not pollinate the flowers, so humans have to do it manually.
Finally we arrived at the Taputapuatea Marae which is an UNESCO world heritage site.
We were told we had about 30 minutes to explore the site, but the guide talked for all 30 minutes. Eventually we were released to explore a bit. There were a few marae very close to each other. Most of the other marae on the island were destroyed or the Protestant churches were build on top of them. What I understood from the guide’s explanation was that the local people envied what Captain Cook had (metal nails, silverware, etc.) because the island didn’t have any metals. I guess maybe they thought they were worshipping the wrong god and thought they could get the things the Europeans had if they worshipped their god.
I took a few photos on the ride back.
The tour made it back right at 1 PM in time for the meeting time for my next tour – Vanilla Flavor and Motu Picnic.
I got on a small high speed boat that took us to the Motu nearby Taha’a. Raiatea has no beaches – one of the main reasons why the over the water bungalows were created, in fact this was the first island in the world to have them.
The water around the Motu was a beautiful blue and crystal clear.
Shortly after arriving they had a small picnic lunch, I think they had conch salad, BBQ pork and fish as well as coconut bread, taro and some fruit.
After eating I went into the water. Unfortunately I didn’t have my mask and snorkel to fully enjoy the experience. I dragged everything else with me, I suppose I should have taken it with me as well in the morning.
After swimming for a while I walked around the island a bit, it wasn’t very big and part of the island was still unimproved.
As we waited for the boat to take us to the vanilla farm they showed us how to open the coconut.
I got back on the small boat which took us to Taha’a. It was a short walk to the Valley of the Vanilla. They gave a much better explanation of the vanilla process, including telling us that the flowers only bloom once, and if you don’t pollinate them that day you won’t get a vanilla bean. They also showed the different stages of the bean and told us that they have to harvest them before they become completely ripe or the birds will eat them.
I took the little fast boat back.
There wasn’t much time to explore the little town center by the pier by the time I got back.
I enjoyed the sunset and sailaway from Raiatea. The ship continues through the lagoon between Raiatea and Taha’a on it’s way to Bora Bora.
I had dinner in one of the main dining rooms, Taste. I had the French onion soup, the bruschetta and the NY Strip steak.
For dessert I had the brownie s’more.
I didn’t finish dinner before the start of the show and the entrance to the theater is weird – you enter by the stage. I decided to just relax for the rest of the evening.
Today’s timeline:
