Day 18 March 24 – Raiatea, Society Islands

Day 18 Tuesday March 24th (102 days left) — We arrived into Raiatea and the skies decided to open up on us. Despite the rain, we both went on excursions, our first excursions without one another. Jackie was tired of the water and I am allergic to shopping 🙂

Jackie’s excursion RFP-015 Opoa & Toputapuatea left in the morning and returned a little after 12 noon. Lane’s excursion was RFP-008 Tahaa Coral Garden Snorkeling and left at 1:00pm and got back to the ship around 5pm.

View of the cruise terminal when we first arrived

Below is Jackie’s description of her day with photographs.

This low key excursion delivered on its promise to visit a botanical garden, sacred temple site and a pearl farm.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature DID NOT deliver the sunshine needed to fully enjoy this excursion.

Check out the rain falling!!!

When Jackie left to go on her excursion, I got busy with the GoPro. Our butler Ketan got me a cup of rice which I used to bury to GoPro in hopes that the rice will soak up the moisture in the camera. Check out the shoes picking up dust first in Hawaii and now French Polynesia.

Jackie said her tour guide was also the deputy mayor of the town we ported in. She was very funny and personable and also barefoot for the entire excursion. As I walked around the town looking for vinegar and rice (until Ketan delivered), probably 75% of the citizens were barefoot.

Picture of the bus Jackie took on her excursion

A couple of photos from the botanical garden

Her barefoot guide 🙂

Jackie and a couple of other passengers skipped getting off the bus at the sacred temple as it was just too wet and slippery.

The final stop on the excursion was The Vairua Pearl Farm.

Natural Polynesian pearls are very rare, so the vast majority are “cultured”. The owner explained the process of helping the oysters make the specific pearl colors. It takes 18 months for the oyster to deliver a finished pearl. One oyster can make three pearls in its lifetime (54 months). After 54 months the oyster is cooked, literally.

This farm produces 50,000 pearls annually and most of the pearls are exported to China and Japan.

A picture of the trinket that Jackie picked up at the farm.

Lane went on a snorkeling excursion which was fantastic. I am very bummed out that I was unable to photograph or video the underwater scenery as it was outstanding!!! The coral garden was magical. Below are a few photos I was able to pick up from stock photos of The Coral Garden.

The coral garden is the most renowned snorkeling spot of Tahaa. This crystal clear water channel, which separates two motus, is located in an idyllic setting in the middle of one of the largest lagoons of Polynesia. While let yourself drift over colorful and preserved corals, you will observe alternately school of butterflyfish, lionfish, brightly colored wrasse, clownfish huddled in their anemones and great giant clams sunbathing right under the surface of the sea.

Map showing how we did the two snorkeling trips. We would start at the top and drift with the current which was quite strong, so it was a battle getting back to shore at the end.

Jackie captured me returning from my excursion at the end of the day.