We went on a Tahitian cruise last week! I feel very blessed since my husband has never been attracted to the idea of a cruise (he's not fond of water or nature) and I didn't think I would get that experience. Tahiti is truly an island paradise and experiencing a cruise ship to five of the islands was a dream come true for me. I will post pictures, but they cannot come close to the true beauty we saw. It was lovely to be with my husband, have no responsibilities and experience another part of this amazing earth God created for us. Rich was able to finish writing a book he's been working on in our air-conditioned stateroom with the diet coke flowing. I was able to snorkel, soak up the sun and swim with stingrays and reef sharks. A great time was had by all!
This is our cruise ship, the Paul Gauguin, named after the famous French Post-impressionist artist who spent years in Tahiti. As Rich put it: "He left his wife and five children to paint half-naked women in Tahiti, clearly he should have a boat named after him."
Our stateroom was on Deck 7 (8 is the top) and four balconies from the back of the ship.
The cruise ship has smaller boats called "tenders" that take passengers into the pier on the main islands or to smaller islands, called "motus" to spend some time on the beach or snorkel. These native Tahitians would wait in their kayaks to get into the wake of the tender and "ride" it. It was fun to watch them ~ beats having a real job.
This is one of the motus I went to ~ perfect white sandy beaches with warm water for swimming and coral and tropical fish to see when snorkeling. You can see our cruise ship in the background. This was near the island of Bora Bora.
One of the amazing things about Tahiti is the many colors of the waters, from turquoise and aqua to deep navy blue ~ of course I was in paradise - just shades of BLUE!
This is the island of Moorea ~ our pick for most beautiful.
On one of the motus I took a picture of these hermit crabs. You don't often get to see the inhabitants of seashells walking around on the beach.
We took a tour on a glass-bottomed boat ~ Rich's form of snorkeling (you don't have to get wet) This is the same view I saw of coral and tropical fish when snorkeling but I didn't have a waterproof camera.
On the way to a motu we stopped in shallow water and our guide got in the water with the tame sting rays and reef sharks.
I don't have pictures of me, but I was in the water with these fish!
Every night there was a beautiful sunset. I loved how all the clouds around picked up the pretty pink colors of the sunset.
In this one you can see there was a storm just to the left of the setting sun.
One of my favorite things was the night we had a star party from the top deck of the ship. I got to see the sky in the southern hemisphere, which I have never done before! Notably, I saw the "southern cross" which is the "north star" to the southern hemisphere pointing the way to due south. I also saw "alpha centauri," the star closest to the earth, which can only be seen from the southern hemisphere. It was also fun to see the zodiac constellations along the ecliptic that I know, from a different perspective.
We both enjoyed the guest lecturerers they had on the ship. We heard from a marine biologist about the dolphin populations in the islands. And we learned about Tahitians lived 200 years ago, when they were discovered by Europeans, and the real story of "Mutiny on the Bounty," from an archaelogist/anthropologist.
The last day I just took pictures of flowers around the hotel where we stayed before catching the flight home.
Red hibiscus
White plumeria ~ my favorite, the smell is heavenly!
I don't know the name of these blue flowers but I love the periwinkle color.
This is a baby noni fruit growing in the wild ~ the reason for the company and the cruise!
In case you're interested, here are some facts about Tahiti. It is in the same time zone as Honolulu, just fours hours earlier than Utah. It is the same distance south of the equator as Hawaii is north of the equator. The flight from Los Angeles to Papeete is eight hours. We went to the five of the islands in the archipelago of the "Society Islands:" Tahiti, Moorea, Raiatea, Bora Bora, and Taha'a
7 comments:
Thought about you all week. So glad you and Rich had a good time doing your thing!!!! Lets cruise together someday!!!!
Great post, Mom. It's amazingly beautiful. I can't believe you got to do that. So cool.
Great pictures! What fun! Glad you could go and enjoy yourselves in your own environments.
I've been waiting for this post. Glad you had a good time and enjoyed another part of the world, including the stars.
So fun! I'm glad you were able to experience a cruise. Tahiti is absolutely beautiful! We were all jealous but you definitely deserve it more than anyone:) Glad you're home safe.
So many beautiful pictures. I'm sold. I have to go someday.
(p.s. I think my friend was on the same cruise with you!)
I am so happy you enjoyed your trip. The photos and explanations are beautiful. Wasn't the world created in the most phenomenal way? I LOVE the beauty of the earth and am amazed all the time by spectacular photos of other areas of the world, plus the beautiful areas that we have lived in. I am so grateful that I have had the opportunity to live in different parts of God's creations.
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