Monday April 4th. 2011

RAIATEA/TAHAA F.P.

The  Royal Princess docked early this morning at the Raiatea, the2nd. largest Island in F.P.

Tahiti being the largest. There are plenty of dogs in these parts, more dogs than people we're told, they sleep a lot too, all over you see sleeping dogs and you know what they say so we "let the sleeping dogs lie".

.

An undeniable mystique hangs over Raiatea, Polynesians came great distances by canoe to hold tribal meetings and ceremonies at Marae Taputapuatea in Opoa on the south side of the Island. It is said that human sacrifices were carried out here, and in 1969 when thousands of skulls were discovered during an excavation, it gave credence to such claims. The locals are much friendlier these days and are coming aboard to night to perform for us.

.

We had not planned on doing much today, then as we were looking around the visitors center we met the other Tony and his wife Bev from NZ and who are our table mates  we booked an afternoon tour by out rigger canoe with them which took us up the only navigable river on the Island, then to a pearl farm and then to Marae Taputapuuatea where the meetings and ceremonies took place, it was extremely interesting, our guide, contagiously enthusiastic and proud of her Polynesian heritage. Our last stop was at a motu where we could swim or walk the beaches. Time came for us to go

back to the ship with everyone  back on time for a change

.                                                          

                                                                       BUT THEN

.

 the motor on the out rigger refused to start! Good job we don't sale till 10.30pm. The battery turned out to be the problem so after much "mucking about" they were able to take the battery out of another boat and after fabricating some jump cables, were able to get it started. Had we been sailing at the usual time of 5pm. we'd have missed the ship and 30 of us would have had to make our own way to the next port. (I can see Meg squirming) at that.

.

Orange Roughy  was on the menu tonight, we haven't seen that in years as the species has been over fished, but there is was so we had it, it was cooked to perfection too, they've been over cooking the fish up to now so we pleaded with Armando our waiter to tell the chef to be gentle with it and he was. They are very concerned about under cooked meat and fish aboard, understandable but they don't have to murder it. I'm told that if anyone orders a rare cooked hamburger up on the pool deck, they must sign a waiver.

.

Tomorrow we arrive in Moorea, we are joining a group of fellow CC ers and taking a 4x4 trip up the volcano. It's a tender port so we'll need to be up early :( I shall tell you all about it when we get back