Day 14-15-16, October 11-12-13

Friday, Oct 11: We were already docked when we woke up this morning. We watched ferries come and go and saw a local, small cruise ship enter port as well. Today our ship excursion included the following places, not necessarily in this order: Mara'a Fern Grotto, which was a pretty little stop. Vaipahi Gardens & Waterfall, which was my favorite spot with all the lovely flowers. Blowhole Arahoho, that was really just a "dry" blowhole to our surprise. It did make an interesting sound but all other ones we have been to shoot water into the air! Point Venus, which is Tahiti's northernmost extremity, Venus Point was the site from which Captain James Cook's astronomer tracked the transit of Venus across the sun in the 18th century, amazing to think about. The stately white lighthouse, which was built in 1868, was closed, not that we would have gone up that many steps. Tahara'a "One Tree Hill" where the old tree has long since disappeared, but the lookout remains and offers panoramic views of the Island of Moorea, the Sea of Moons and the surrounding coral reefs and lagoons. We saw lovely areas along the way. Our refreshment stop was at Gauguin Restaurant, where were were served your choice juice, soda, or bottled water. They had fish nets holding fish to view as well 

By the time we got back I was exhausted with over 10K steps on my Fitbit. Oddly enough my Fitbit had Anchorage AK time for multiple days, now it has French Polynesia time BUT it is 14 hours off. Once I get to Australia I will use my phone locally and be back at the right local time (I assume). Anyway, we had a quick bite at the grill and back to our cabin where I fell asleep. We missed the local dancers that came on board to perform a show for us. By the time I got up we were leaving Tahiti. It is a big island compared to Bora Bora but small compared to the Big Island of Hawaii. Hawaii is at least 15 times bigger than Tahiti. We had a beautiful sunset over Moorea as we departed Tahiti. Just a quick bite from the Horizon court buffet. Yes, we are actually getting weary of fancy food. I had chicken and broccoli for dinner! We did have a fancy drink today. We haven't finished the wine we embarked with yet either, though we brought a few bottles for dinner time. After posting 3 days of my blog we headed back to our cabin. Believe it or not, I still feel tired!

The Grotto 

Sunset over Moorea 

The Moon

Saturday, Oct 12: Today we spent the day recovering from yesterday! Seriously, we were tired so we slept in. I scrapbooked, we went to lunch, and then watched a movie. We did walk around a little bit but avoided the multiple sales on board. Lunch in the dining room and dinner at the Horizon Buffet. So yes, it was a quiet day. I expect the same for tomorrow. We enjoyed some Limoncello. 

Limoncello 

Sunday, Oct 13: Another lazy day at sea, which is actually quite nice. I am getting a bit of scrapbooking done (not as much as I thought) and we are having a good time relaxing. We secured a lounge by the pool to watch the morning movie "Under the Stars" and eventually a search for a towel was successful. Pool towels seem hard to come by. Watching Mama Mia was fun because I love the music. John was not keen to wait a couple hours for Mama Mia 2, he had enough warm weather.

Movie Under the Stars (Sun!)