Day 75

       

It is our last sea day and last day aboard the Amsterdam for some time. We have signed up to do the last half of the world cruise in March 2015 so we thought we wouldn't be on another ship for another year. Today, the last day on board, we decided to sign up for the Voyage of the Vikings in July 2014. We have wanted to do that cruise at some point but knowing that our port lecturer signed a contract to do it in '14 cinched it. She is excellent in giving us the information we need for a successful port day. The trip will take us round trip Boston, stopping in Iceland and Greenland, etc, turnaround in Amsterdam. It should be an excellent one. It is only 35 days. :) We had been planning to drive to Alaska next summer. Guess that will wait until another year. 

The energy on the ship changed once we left our last port. People are almost giddy! I guess it is from anticipation of what comes next along with anxiety of not knowing if everything will fit into our luggage! (Or it could be the abundance of free alcohol we have been given in the last few days!) We have been collecting addresses of friends we have met, hoping to see them on a future cruise. With HAL it is highly likely. We are on this ship with at least a dozen people we met on the world cruise in 2009 plus more that we recognize. It becomes almost like family after being together for so long. Some people have to go from our wonderful days in Polynesia to snow! I am very glad we are not in their shoes. Many on the ship have packed their bags and are having them shipped directly to the world cruise which leaves in January. I can't imagine taking a 75 day cruise then less than a month later getting back on for 4 1/2 months! A lot of people do it though. 

During this cruise 2 men have methodically refinished every railing on the 3 double stairways on the ship. That is 8 or 9 floors of railings! They look really nice now with a natural luster rather than the shiny finish they had before. They are refinishing the benches on deck also. While walking for my last time today I had to wear a jacket the entire 3 miles! That is a first. I started with a jacket several other times but had to remove it after a lap or 2. I guess that part of our welcome home. The ocean is a dark slate grey and looks cold. During the voyage many times the water was warmer than the air!  We saw it change colors too. In the islands it is either many shades of blue or turquoise. In Japan it was many shades of green, very pretty and different. 

HAL has about 2500 Filipino employees fleet wide. We have many on our ship. When the typhoon hit the Philippines many were personally affected. The ship immediately created a fund so we could make financial donations on our shipboard account. They held a silent auction with items done in the water color and craft classes. People were fighting over some of the craft jewelry! You could also bid on a night in a suite including dinner and breakfast. That went for several hundred dollars. The 5k which usually goes to a breast cancer fund went to the typhoon relief this year. Mel and I both participated. In all our ship with 900 passengers raised $27,000! That was amazing. 

Our bags are pretty much packed. We still have a few incidentals to put in before we go to bed tonight. We have already put 12 bags/boxes out to be taken. It was a lot of packing! It will be interesting getting off the ship as we have 3 carry on size bags, Mel's model boat from Majuro and 2 large baskets from Manila. We also have the storyboard from Papua New Guinea which has to be carried pretty much by itself. It is large and heavy. Our steward can help us to the gangway, we are on our own after that. Wish us luck! Good thing we are driving home. 

I know that several of my friends and a couple of family members have been reading this blog. Other than that I have no idea who is "out there". If you have been reading would you please drop me an email letting me know what you think?! I would be very interested in hearing from you. My email is kchew3 @ aol .com. Thanks!

 

Taiohae, Nuku Hiva, Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia

       

Whew, our last port! It has been an outstanding cruise but I think they saved the best for last giving us 5 days on various islands in French Polynesia. It was really fun to snorkel every day for 4 days in a row seeing different things each day. It is definitely an area we would return to. 

We had to go thru immigration showing we had indeed returned to the ship after Moorea, so we weren't on one of the first tenders. We had made arrangements with another couple to grab a cab to see the island. There are not many vehicles on Nuku Hiva so we were hoping they were successful. When we arrived at the pier, they were no where in sight. I looked for a driver and was able to find one. The man said his wife would drive us. They had a small sign with info about their tour. He was going to drive someone to the airport. We had 3 medical evacuations there! Two of them would fly out via medivac, the other was mobil. Wonder what the problem was? They would have to fly back to Papeete before heading to the states. Scary to think one more day we would have been in the middle of the Pacific with no evacuation possible. There had been people getting off the ship for medical reasons at most ports but thankfully no deaths this trip. 

The wife ended up driving to the airport so we had the man. He spoke little English which was a disappointment. Hers had been very good. But one of our friends, who are from Canada, spoke passable French, so we did ok. Nuku Hiva is very mountainous. There is not a lot to see other than beautiful views. We started up the mountain stopping to take pictures at a couple of spots, then headed down the other side. There was a small village on a river there with a large park type area that had many tikis. It had been some sort of ceremonial area with 3 buildings and raised areas. 

               

We headed out from there just as about 10 vehicles carrying a HAL tour group arrived, good timing. We were again climbing a mountain, this one on the other side of the bay. We went about 10 minutes when we came upon trees across the road. They were trimming them back for some reason. You would think they might have waited for a day that a ship wasn't in! We turned around. We missed 2 archeological sites, one with a pit where they used to keep victims before they were sacrificed. Our friends had heard that a German tourist had been killed and possibly canabelized just 2 years ago! He had gone off boar hunting with a guide and never returned. Since we were unable to see those sites our tour was now 2 hours instead of 3. Our last stop was the beach on the nearby bay. The sand on this island was an unattractive brown unlike the beautiful white sand beaches we had seen elsewhere. There was a small market set up there for all the tours that would arrive there that day. The carving on this island was very fine and rather expensive. They had a lot of jewelry made of seeds. 

Back in town our driver dropped us off at the craft market, just next to the pier. There was also a market on the pier. We ended up buying a carved paddle which is quite large so headed back to the ship to drop it off. We had lunch on the ship since we were there then took the tender back to shore. 

        

 

There were only 2 sights to see in town, the cathedral and museum. The museum was all the way on the other side of the bay. We decided to walk. Nuku Hiva is the island closest to the equator which we had visited on this trip. It was HOT! We walked slow, crossing back and forth across the street to find the most shade. Along the shore were many tikis, some very old, many quite new. It was an interesting walk. The cathedral was off the main road a couple of blocks. It was built in the 70's, so quite new. There was an almost medieval gate near the entrance. The church was a quite modern building filled with beautiful carvings. It was worth the walk to see it. There was a statue of the pope in the garden with tikis on each side of it which I found interesting. The carved pulpit was especially beautiful. 

                                                                          

We continued on to the museum. It had been started by an American woman who sailed to Nuku Hiva with her husband several times before they stayed 32 years ago. It was in a small building behind a restaurant so kind of hard to find. It had only one room with another room full of carvings for sale. We met the woman who founded it telling her she was a legend. We had been told about her on board. 

                                

We headed back to the pier this time walking along the beach. We passed by 3 small children playing in the water naked - nude beach! We were hotter than we'd been before which was amazing. It was incredibly hot in a lot of the ports! We made it back to the pier in about 30 minutes stopping to take a few pictures along the way. We went thru both craft markets very slowly to decide what we were going to buy. We settled on an intricately carved tiki, he is very cute. We were back on the tender headed to the ship at about 4:00. It had been a very hot day!

Later, around dinner time I started feeling nauseous. We ate in the Lido since I didn't feel well. I then went to bed. I ended up in bed all day the next day, which happened to be Thanksgiving. I think the sun just did me in. I did have Thanksgiving dinner, cranberry sauce, turkey and stuffing, just like at home (only not as good), then went back to bed. I was fine later but wow, that was some reaction to the heat. Now we just have to pack and be ready to get off the ship soon. 

Avatoru, Rangiroa, West French Polynesia

It took us almost the entire 60+ days of this trip to remember how to say the name of this place! Avatoru is the name of a town on one of the islands. Rangiroa is the name of the atoll. An atoll, from what I understand, is the old rim of a volcano. It has filled with water which makes up a lagoon in the middle. Rangiroa is one of the largest in the world. There are just 2 cuts in the ring which ships can pass thru. They are not very wide so it was interesting seeing how we maneuvered thru one. 

Mel made reservations for us to snorkel here in early Sept. He emailed to confirm and see how many they could take about 2 weeks before we were to arrive. No reply. There were several people who wanted to go with us but not hearing from the operator we hesitated confirming with anyone else. Finally with less than a week before our arrival Mel received an email. The guys computer had been broken and he'd had to go to Papeete to get it fixed! He could take 7 in one boat plus 8 more in another. Mel started leaving messages for people but the timing was bad---we would be off the ship for over 24 hrs in Moorea. It ended up working out fine and on the morning of our arrival we had 16 ready to go on the pier at 8:30, with another guy just showing up hoping he could go too. We got in the boat for 6 the other 11 piled into the other boat. Each boat had a driver and a helper. 

As soon as we took off they put all our bags up front to keep them dry. That should have told us something! It was an hour ride to the other side of the lagoon in very rough water. We were sprayed with water while we bounced around for that hour, not very enjoyable. Once there they dropped us close to shore then took us between 2 islands to snorkel. At first it looked so barren compared to Moorea. There was no foliage like Moorea had had. It was very Brice Canyon like, all browns and things sticking up. But all those things were living coral, a lot more than any other place we'd been. And all the coral was full of clams, we had never seen that many. A lot of fish too, it was very nice snorkeling. This was the first snorkeling experience for one of our friends. She floated on a noodle while one of the guys pushed her around, it was quite funny. I did tell her that she started at the top in the snorkeling world, not to expect it to be like this at other places! 

             

               There were many types of coral in various formations and colors. 

       

                                     The different colored clams fascinated me!

After about an hour in that location we walked along the shore to the reef. The shore was a mixture of sand and volcanic rock. The reef was very dramatic lava shapes. The guys told us we were going to the jacuzzi. There was a pool next to the reef with very warm water. It was enjoyable. We found some sea creatures, namely 2 different types of urchins, which we took turns holding. There was also a sea snail which is this long, ugly thing with a bunch of tentacles up front. We had seen them in Moorea also, but never before that. 

       

We then headed to another island for lunch. We walked quite a distance thru water. It was a good thing we all had water shoes on as some of the rocks and coral were jagged. We were quite the group slugging thru the water which at times was chest deep. I had collected some shells so had to keep my hands above water. To took a good 20 to 30 minutes to cross. 

Once on the island the guys had brought all our bags onshore which was a relief. I needed my sunglasses! There were 2 long tables set up for lunch. We were served family style. Maybe we were just hungry after so much activity in the morning, but that food was delicious! They served a type of dirty rice, mahi mahi, chicken and coconut milk ceviche. The best was the coconut bread, I could have eaten a lot of that. They had a grill there as well as a couple of small buildings where they kept their stuff. It was nicely set up. 

After lunch they fed the leftovers to the sharks! There had been about a dozen small black tip sharks circling around just off the beach. One was only a foot long, very cute. They attacked the food putting up a splash right in front of us. I decided to sit down in the water to watch. At one point 2 came and took a bite of my feet at the same time. I barely felt it but it sure surprised me! Another lady in our group thought it looked like fun so she joined me. 

We boarded our boats for the hour ride back. Once on the other side we went thru the pass to find the dolphins. We saw 4 or 5 of them but for only a short time. Because of the current running thru the pass, in or out depending on the tide, the waves were huge! Interesting being out there in a small boat like that. We headed back to what they call the aquarium. There is a sand bar/island just past the pass in the lagoon. We got out of the boats to snorkel again. They were feeding the fish so there were hundreds. Mel threw some food right on my legs so I had dozens of fish all around me as well as on top of my legs. They were so close it was hard to get a good picture. 

The aquarium was beautiful with huge coral and hundreds of fish. We could see why they called it that! 

              

We finally returned to the pier. It was 4:00, all aboard was at 4:30. We had no time to see anything on the island but we sure had seen a lot in the water! This atoll has the only south sea winery as well as the largest black pearl farm in the world. Guess we will have to go back. 

       

           The pass we went thru with the sand bar in front. The aquarium was just in front of that.