June 1, 2015, Monday, Raiatea, French Polynesia

Warm sea breezes.  Distant palm tree covered islands.  We are in French Polynesia, i.e. paradise.  We feel like we are home.

People are Kiteboarding from this tiny island

Our tour started from a boat ride to a vanilla farm island, Taha'a.

We met the vanilla farmer who explained the vanilla business to us.  He had a huge pile of beans that were laid out in the sun to dry.  

A vanilla plant winds its way around this acacia tree.  A piece was planted at the base of the tree and covered with coconut husks where it then grew up the tree.

He showed us the orchid family vanilla plants growing up and down an acacia tree trunk on the side of a hill.  It is very steep to gather the beans which fall to the ground when ripe.  It takes a year or two before the plant produces flowers.  They have to be hand pollinated.  Vanilla beans do not smell or taste like vanilla until they are dried.  During the process a worker has to massage the bean to release the flavor.  The beans are graded by size and shape.  Broken ones are used to make ground vanilla.  Polynesian vanilla is only one percent of the world market, but it is a different species than the vanilla grown in Madagascar, Mexico and Indonesia.

This is the special flower from Polynesia called Tiare apetahi.

This is the pearl farm stop.  We had a lackluster demo of how the oyster is seeded.  He finally found the correct tools, instead of the kitchen knife.  We were supposed to have a demonstration of copra and pareo, but didn't.  The pearls in the small gift shop were jumbled and the designs were unappealing to me.  The pearls were all the same dark color.  In our boutique there are many beautifull colors of Tahitian pearls.

After lunch here we took the boat to a small island where we found a beach lounge and sat in the sand looking out at the coral reefs and atol.  I went snorkling in the warm, clear, aqua water.  The current was a little strong, but I didn't have to go far to see the fish.  I saw a couple  sea cucumbers as well as several fish.  They were not as colorful as other waters, but I saw a couple yellow tang together.  David saw a trigger fish like the humuhumunukunukuapua'a.

Tahitian humuhumunukunukuapua'a

Sea cucumber

Tahitian fish

Nick Nikolas entertained us again that evening with juggling and jokes.  I really enjoyed his show.  David stayed in the room.

Our boat

Our island paradise snorkling beach

Returning to the ship.  We wandered around the town a bit because we didn't have to be back on board until 7:30pm, but it seemed that all the stores closed at 4:00, at least hardly anything was open.

This was our first stop of many in French Polynesia, also referred to as Tahiti.  The currency is the CFP, 100 of which is equivalent to $1.00.  There were not many things sold for only 100CFP.  This is where you buy black pearls, beautiful colorful pareos, polynesian or aloha shirts and shell jewelry.

Enjoying the ride back to the ship

Deanna Jones once again taking great photos.  This time leaving Moorea.

The sunset we were all on the top deck to see..