Trip Reports

	CRUISE 2005 - Tahiti!
	CRUISE 2003 - Scandinavian Capitals and St. Petersburg

Cruise 2005 - Tahiti!

RAFINO Cruise 2005

Friday & Saturday, 21 & 22 October 2005 – Daily report #6

From: Pipette to Kilgore

We sailed from Bora Bora promptly at 5:00 PM, right on schedule.  Our captain was an Englishman with 35 years service with Princess.  He was punctual and did not vary from the posted arrival or departure times.  After dinner we went through the normal cruise drill of picking items to wear off the ship tomorrow or to go in the carry-on bags, packing & tagging the bags to be shipped & having them outside the cabin between 8:00 and 10:00 PM.  The ship crew picked up and took these bags to the Papeete airport.

After the bags were gone we found that the kit that contained scissors and my pocket  knife had been left out.  It is a big no-no to have these items inside the plane.  So, as we stood in the line at the Papeete Airport I transferred the kit from carry-on to the big bag. 

Virginia went to bed and I went to the Casino to tell my favorite poker machine goodby.  At this point we were joint owners in the Wallace fortune.

The ship docked in Papeete at 8:00 AM, we had to be out of our cabin by 10:00 AM.  However we had access and use of the rest of the ship until time for us to depart for the airport.  We walked through the shopping area of town in the morning and went on a tour of the Island of Tahiti after lunch.

Tahiti is actually 2 islands shaped in a figure eight.  The larger is Tahiti Nui (big) and the smaller Tahiti Iti (little) with a combined size of 386 square miles.  Population is 100,000, mostly located in and around the capital Papeete.  The highest mountain, volcanic, is 7,353 feet tall. 

We boarded a large, air-conditioned bus for a tour of the high spots of Tahiti.  The guide was from California and did a very good job.  As we started out of town he pointed out various buildings and told the usual stories and jokes.  There were traffic circles and lights on the main highway we were on.  Our first stop was at the home/museum of James Norman Hall, an American writer and co-author of the “Bounty Trilogy”.  Hall had lived an interesting life, serving in the military of France, England and America.  The museum shelved over 3,000 books containing seven generations of American literature as well as many photographs and paintings. 

Our guide wove “The Mutiny on the Bounty” into about everything we passed or saw.  For instance he said the Marlon Brando movie of the Mutiny was actually filmed on the Island, but that the latest version could not be filmed there because of the building of many homes on the hillsides.  And, there were a lot of expensive homes ($350,000 and up) overlooking the city.  There was also a large Chinese cemetery on the slope that shown up like a white sheet due to the buildings containing graves.  We also got the straight story about Captain Bligh.  It now seems that he was really a good guy and his sailors were parolees and gangsters.  However our guide gave the crew an alibi, “Who would not pick paradise with lovely ladies over a ship full of men.”  Another ship was sent from England to get the bread fruit to feed the slaves, and it was a successful.  However, the slaves would not eat the bread fruit when it was given to them.

At Point Venus on Matavai Bay where Captain Cook first landed we saw the 110 foot tall lighthouse built in 1867 by the grandfather of Robert Lewis Stevenson.  It is still in operation today.  (picture) There was a memorial park dedicated to the missionaries.  The guide commented that it seemed strange that the beach near the memorial had gone nude on weekends.  The beach was of black sand which he explained was from thousands of years of erosion of the volcanic rocks.  He also pointed out that the black sand held the heat from the sun much more than white sand so that it would actually burn the bottom of your feet.  Tahiti is right on the equator. 

An interesting rest stop was at the Arahoho Blowhole.  When the volcano was active it created underground channels as it carried lava to the sea.  These channels in the volcanic basalt rock still exist.  The ocean waves force water into the openings, it builds up pressure and creates a waterspout.  This blowhole had two openings, one on the mountain side of the road and one on the ocean side.  We first went to the mountain side where the effect was a loud rushing of air from the build-up of pressure with a loud report.  On the ocean side the effect was a tall spray of water as the pressure was released.  (Picture attached)  At this point there was a large shelf of volcanic rock that rose about six feet above the water.  Two surfers holding their surf boards were posed on the edge watching the waves build up.  Soon they jumped into the water and began to paddle out to catch and ride an incoming wave.

 As we drove along the shore we passed an off-shore drilling rig.  Our guide did not have any information about this rig.  At one point he mentioned that they did not have natural gas, bur used propane, so this rig may change their energy habits if they make a good well. 

We drove off the main road several hundred feet and walked a short distance to see a beautiful waterfall.  The water was coming from a crater lake high in the mountain and fell for 100 or so feet down the sheer face of the mountain. (picture) As we left the bus the guide commented, “don’t take any wooden nickels”.  I always carry a pocket full of wooden nickels from the Oil Museum where I am a docent on Thursday mornings, so as I got off the bus I handed him one of them.  He was stumped! 

We retraced our route with our guide pointing out houses and businesses like the Mercedes dealership.  His comment about automobile cost was that their duty just about doubled the price of the car.  There were a lot of cars, trucks and busses on the road.  I saw several city type busses along the route. 

As we got back to the dock a light rain began to fall.  We went into the tent where Princess was processing a new load of passengers to wait about 15 minutes for the rain to stop.  Back on board ship the six of us met in the Buffet on deck 9 to snack and wait for the call to depart the ship for the airport.  I had 4 pieces of thin crust pepperoni pizza, and enjoyed every bite.  About 6:00 PM we were told to load the bus for the short, about 20 minute, ride to the airport. 

The Tahiti Nui airport is a case study in inefficiency and delays.  We first lined up to identify and collect our bags that had been brought from the ship.  As we came to the gate we were assigned a man with a cart who helped us move the baggage to the next station.  Next we lined up to check in at Air Tahiti Nui, then we took our bags over for the security inspection.  Since we were not leaving until 10:00 PM we did some shopping for souvenirs and then got into another line to get through the security check of our hand carried and personal items.  After a short walk to the waiting room we waited until the plane to New York left then lined up to get on the plane.  This plane was configured with 2 seats on each side and 5 in the middle, and was pretty fully loaded.  We were fortunate to get in the side seats.  The food was good and drinks were free.  Movies were also free but I decided to sleep as much as I could.

At Los Angeles (LAX) airport we breezed through immigration and customs and walked to the American Terminal for a 5 hour wait.  When I sat down I saw that there was an earlier flight to Dallas so we went on stand-by for it.  We made the flight, called Carol for an earlier pickup and boarded the plane for a relatively short trip to DFW.  Of course our bags came in about 3 hours later, so on the way to dinner we went to the airport and picked up the bags.

This completes this year’s travel log except to report that Hector Perez and I talked about the 2007 Cruise.  We are going to propose a River Cruise in Europe or one in South America.  We will get with you later Bob, Cruise Master.  All of you who did not get to go on this cruise really missed a great one.  J. Claud

RAFINO Cruise 2005
Wednesday & Thursday, 19 & 20 October 2005 – Daily report #5
From: Raiatea & Bora Bora

As we sailed into Raiatea we were impressed with the beauty of the water. The colors ran from emerald green to a beautiful blue, depending on the depth of the water. As the water takes on different colors when a cloud comes bu there would be spots of brown, gray or black. The harbor was deep enough in Raiatea for us to tie up at the pier and walk ashore. The pier was right down town.

One interesting event that I had not thought about happened as we approached the harbor. I saw my first sea tern (bird). Normally we have had birds all around the ship on other cruises.

Our morning shore tour was a trip around the Island. We were on a big bus and the air conditioner was not putting out cool air. Our guide was a lady who had been a school teacher in California. She traveled during the summers, visited Raiatea, fell in love with a native and had been on the island for 7 years. It was good to hear things explained in English for a change. We went through a privately owned garden that was almost left in its natural state that was billed as a Botanical Garden. There was a variety of flowers and trees. One tree was the Nonu (sp) the fruit of which has, according to our guide, great medicine powers. She said that it will cure or prevent almost anything. This fruit is the main export of the island. We then went to the rim of the dormant volcano and viewed lush growth below in what was described as the crater—whoopee! We went by a low rent housing settlement that had been vacant for about a year due to some mix up.

In the evening we took a boat to a small island for a Polynesian meal and show. The food was cooked in a pit for 4 hours. They opened the pit, took out all the herbs and branches used to flavor the food as we watched. Whoopee!! The pork and pineapple were very good, the rest went in the trash. The entertainment was by native children. They were cute but not worth the trip. Then the best part, we sat for about an hour waiting for the boat to come get us. Naturally it was dark by now. The boat had a native on the front shining a hand held light on the rocks as the driver picked his way to the rickety dock. We were glad to get back to the ship. The entertainment later that night was, you guessed it, native Polynesian singers and dancers. We watched for a little while and left to find better entertainment.

Bora Bora was great enough to erase the bad experiences in Raiatea. In the morning we took the wildest ride you can imagine in a 4WD Land Rover. Eight of us loaded in the back and the driver took off down the paved street headed out of town at the maximum speed of 40 to 60 kilometers per hour. There were 6 vehicles in the convoy. Then all of a sudden she whipped off the road and started to climb on a twisting, steep and rocky trail. From the heights we saw the great beauty of the mountains and sea of Bora Bora. One stop was to see the two huge cannons that had been placed by the US troops in WWII as protection of the harbor. One of the drivers gave an explanation of the importance of Bora Bora as a supply and sea control point during WWII. I will add a picture of the guns. We climbed three small mountains in order to view the beauty. The largest mountain, which we did not scale, name translated as bird place. But there were no birds. The explanation was that some ship brought in cats that went to the mountain and ate the birds. Form our lofty perch we saw the thatched cabins of the major hotels and a pearl farm was pointed out to us.

Virginia then brightened up because we went down the hill to the farm and toured it. The picture is of the oysters the way they are kept for 4 years until they produce a pearl. We ended up in the sales room where Virginia found a Peacock (the rarest color) “Black pearl” pendant for her Omega and ear rings to match, “that I could not live without.” They are beautiful and she wore them for dinner that evening.

In the afternoon we boated out to the submarine and six passengers went down 100 feet along the coral reefs to see beautifully colored fish. We had about 180 degree viewing area. There were small sharks, about a foot or two long swimming by. This made two winners on the last day of the cruise.

Dinner was festive as we told out waiter, his assistant and the head waiter good-by. I gave each of them a set of the Lewis and Clark nickels, in addition to their extra tip for top scale service.

J.Claud

RAFINO Cruise 2005
Monday & Tuesday, 17 & 18 October 2005 – Daily report #4
From: At Sea & Rangiroa

As I write this message we are sailing into the lagoon of Raiatea. For about half an hour we have been sailing through huge coral reefs on both sides of the ship. The water over the reefs is a beautiful light green as contrasted to the blue of the channel we are in. There are islands all around with what appears to be dormant volcanic mountains on most of them.

Our day at sea was mostly uneventful with the normal things they plan to entertain us. The sad part was the announcement that the one large event of the day had to be cancelled because of rough seas. It was the water skiing behind the ship. Lol

The new event at 5:00 pm was the “It’s a Small World” gathering to meet with “neighbors” that you may not know were on the ship. (It is actually possible to go for ten days on board the ship and not see the people that you met as you boarded.) We from Texas were to meet with N. & S. Dakota, OK, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois, Arkansas, Michigan & Indiana. Virginia and I, as we always do on cruises, wore our Texas shirts. Bob Baker, there does not seem to be anyone from N. Dakota. In fact there were only 6 of us that came together and the other 4 were from Indiana. (Hector & Norma Perez were two of them.) The other Indiana couple won the prize that night for being married the longest (68 years). Our 53 years stayed in the running right down to the end.

The evening show was it’s usual smash. The theme was “Ports of Call” and they had fantastic costumes for each country they visited in song and dance. These performers are the most talented group that I have seen. They do a wide virety of songs and dances without ever missing a step or note.

Rangiroa is the second biggest atoll in the world. (Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands is first.) All the shore tours were water related so we just went ashore. The lagoon was huge, large enough to contain the whole Island of Tahiti. Virginia wanted to visit a pearl farm but we could not work out the details so she could get back aboard ship for her 1:00 pm hair appointment. This was extra necessary since the evening meal was formal.

The island was very primitive however the interesting thing is that they have TV, cell phones & microwaves in their grass huts. Food and petrol are brought in by ship weekly to re-supply the small population. If I understand correctly they only grow coconuts and pearls. The whole island is coral with virtually no top soil.
 

After dinner we went to the main staircase amid ship and had a group picture made. Then we all went to the final extravaganza “The Century Sings”. The opening featured a piano that the lead singer pretended to play as he sang, then later on they broke the piano down and built a classy little ford car. The two lead singers got in the car and sang about Henry Ford as they bumped along on their ride. This was the final of 5 big productions. When the cast is not practicing or performing they have duties assigned around the ship. Therefore we get to visit with them from time to time. I think that most of the cast is from Australia and New Zeland

We are docked now in Raiatea and it looks much more modern that we have seen before. I will try to get this off then we will eat and go ashore.

J. Claud

RAFINO Cruise 2005

Saturday & Sunday, 15 & 16 October 2005 – Daily report #3

From: Nuku Hiva & Hiva Oa

We had a wonderful time on Nuku Hiva.  This is the largest island in the archipelago and is the administrative and economic capital of the Marquesas.  But disregarding these benefits, it is for my money a beautiful place of natural beauty.  This island was formed by two volcanoes stacked one on top of the other to form two concentric calderas.  The top of the main caldera forms a jagged framework that surrounds the Toovii plateau.  The highest point at Mt. Muake outlines a huge natural amphitheater.

Because of the coral reefs around each island the captain causes two of the lifeboats to be lowered so they can be used to “tender” passengers from the mooring in the bay to the dock.  On shore we paired up with a very nice couple from Great Brittan and loaded into a Jeep type vehicle.  Christain, a native lady, was our driver.  She was most personable and accommodating.  She would stop on que and even backed up once for a better photo shot.  I took 96 pictures this day.  We started to climb as soon as we cleared the little town and I don’t think she ever got out of second gear, either pulling up or breaking down hill.

Along the way we saw and photographed coconut trees, mangos, bananas, papaya,

Mahogany & plants used to weave baskets.  We saw horses& bandy roosters along the road.  The beaches had black sand and the rocks were mostly black.  Bougainvillea flowers of all colors were everywhere.  We visited two Catholic churches that were beautiful.  Both of them were filled with large carvings.  The pulpit in both churches was carved from a huge tree

The view of the bay from the summit was breathtaking.

Back on board ship we were the first in line for lunch in the dinning room.  We each ordered a Rubin sandwich which was the best I have ever had.  Next time we will order one and share because it as huge.  The menu has 4 to 6 choices of entrees as well as choices for soup, salad & desert, and you can choose as many as you wish.  Unfortunately my choices are showing up in the pictures. 

In the afternoon I got on line and worked my e-mails and sent the messages that we had set up as “send later”.  I am now 8 minutes into my third 30 minute card.  Time on wireless is $10.50 for 30 minutes or 21 cents a minute.  The ship’s computers cost 50 cents a minute. Erin tells me that she has posted report #1 to the web site and she will try to keep up with me, as her other job permits.

I was out on deck enjoying the breeze and view when I noticed that schools of minnows were boiling up to the surface like something was after them.  I expected to see an Orca Whale any minute since that is the way they herd fish, but none appeared.  Then I saw two black spots near the fish.  It was a couple Manta Rays so I guess they were on a fishing expedition.  I got several pictures of the Rays as about a dozen of them swam around less than 50 feet from the ship.

The singers and dancers were superb with colorful costumes.  I have to tell you this, between dinner and the show I amassed 290 quarters from an investment of only 80.  If I can keep this record up for a few more days I will get even. Lol

We sailed for Hiva Oa at 4:30 and moored in the bay at 8:00 am.  The wind has picked up and they are having a heck of a time getting the tenders along side to be loaded.  It is Sunday and these Islands shut down, there were no scheduled shore tours for Hiva Oa.  We intended to go ashore and stood in line for a long time before changing our minds and going back to the room.

I will now go down to the open area on deck 4 to send this message and check the incoming ones. J. Claud

RAFINO Cruise 2005
Thursday & Friday, 13 & 14 October 2005 – Daily report #2
From: At Sea

We are at sea for the second day, headed from Moorea to Nuku Hiva island in the Marquesas archipelago. When we toured Moorea our guide told us that they only had one doctor on the whole island of 6,000. On Nuku Hiva we will tour the Taipival valley in a Jeep 4WD vehicle. This Island was made famous by the author Herman Melville. He lived in the valley for several weeks with the natives in the 1800's after he deserted his ship. His novel Typee was about his experience there.

As we sailed from Moorea the wind kicked up and the Captain has been playing doge ball with rain squalls. For 2 days we have not seen another ship or a living thing that did not sail with us. There has been a lot of things to do on ship. To list a few:

We went to a seminar about the South Sea pearls which concentrated on the “black pearl”. I was surprised to find out that there are some 1,600 shades of color in the “black pearl” and that the color black is the 3rd rarest color.

Also there was Ceramics at sea, Art Auction, Ping Pong, Card & Board games, Shuffleboard, Veterans get together, Service Clubs Get Together, Vegetable Carving, Bingo, Golf Putting, Bridge, Arts & Crafts, Line Dance class, Ballroom dancing, Wine Tasting, Water Volleyball, Movie (Batman Begins), Jewish Sabbath Services and the Casino was open all day. The show tonight was a Britisg tenor who was very good. Last night was a French Extravaganza with beautiful costumes to include the monstrous hats like they wear at the Lido. These girls were fully clothed however, and could they dance.

In between all this activity I managed to clear over 130 e-mail messages and prepare 8 messages, including this one, that I will send off tomorrow. I cannot access the Princess Wireless satellite from our cabin due to the iron frames around the cabin, so I prepare messages to “send later”. This saves on line time since it costs $21.00 an hour for on line time. At present I am about 45 minutes into the first hour.

There are about 8 places to chow down on board. Meals are open seating except for Dinner when the 6 of us are assigned table 21. Food is good and there is a wide variety of it. All the entrees were French tonight, with a lead off of snails. I passed. We have the same waiter and assistant water every evening. Antonio is from Mexico City (that is south Texas), the assistant waiter is from Romania.

Goodnight for now, tomorrow we will cover the Nuku Hiva shore tour. J. Claud

RAFINO Cruise 2005

Wednesday, 12 October 2005 – Daily report #1

From: Tahiti then Moorea

Hello All,

It is my intent to send a message about the cruise every day, however when I went to the “Internet Café” to get my new laptop computer logged on to the ship’s system I found the café closed due to, “trouble with the wireless connection”.  I later found that the trouble was in Los Angeles.  I will try…

Virginia and I left Kilgore Monday, 10 October to see Benjamin’s seventh grade football game.  They won and are still undefeated.  Ben took us to DFW airport Tuesday 11 October for a 10:05 flight to LAX where we transferred to Air Tahiti Nui and landed in Papeete, Tahiti at 20:25 (17 hours after we left Dallas).  In the LAX airport we married up with Hector & Norma Perez and Pat Tracy with her new husband (as of 20 Jul), Ben Fench.  After landing in Papeete we took a short bus ride and boarded the Tahitian Princess Cruise Ship.  We sailed at 04:30 for the short 3 hour trip to Moorea.

This morning we left the ship at 07:45 via ship’s tender for the Island of Moorea.  The weather was beautiful, warm and sunny.  Moorea is an Island frequented by Captain Cook in the early days.  The prominent terrain feature is the Mountain “Bali Hi”.  Hopefully I have a picture of Bali Hi attached to this message.  The shore tour was a bus trip of about 17 miles around the Island on the only road.  The road was full of little European cars, gasoline is $5 a gallon.  We saw lush growth of trees and foliage, lovely blue and blue-green sea, many houses with solar power units on the roof, boats of all kinds & beautiful flowers all along the road and in the yards.

Our main stop was at the Tiki Village where we saw souvenirs of shells, wood and cloth.  The native show in the theater was centered around the hula dance, and they were very good.  The picture attached is of one of the dancers as requested by my brother in law Gary Howard.  This is the best I could do Gary, she still had a lot of fight left in her.  We returned to the ship just in time for lunch.  Tonight after dinner we will take in the show with the Princess dancers and orchestra.  Then I may try my luck in the casino for awhile.

The Tahitian Princess was built in 1999, net tonnage 11,481, she is 594 feet long and has 11 decks.  There are 680 passengers and a crew of 373.  You can track our trip on the

web cam from the ship’s bridge on www.princess.com.

Thursday and Friday will be at sea with no shore tours.  I will try to stir up a few things to report.  All you RAFINO members are sure missing out on a good cruise.