Day 48: Huahine

We once again did Marc's Huahine-Nautique full day snorkel excursion and motu picnic today and it was even better than last cruise, with only 10 of us and all of us friends. And, this time, I actually met Marc, who was playing in Las Vegas the last time we were here and that's why we never saw him. And he's a really nice guy!

The day was partly cloudy but mostly sunny, and, due to the revised itinerary this cruise, we arrived an hour later in Huahine, at 10am (and sailed at 6pm). Cathy and Ron, Janet and Derek and G and I were all on the very first tender over to the island. We boarded another of Marc's motorized outrigger canoes, this one with actual pairs of seats facing forward (much more comfortable and easier to see all around us) and we made our way under the Maroe bridge and out to the same area in the lagoon on the western side of Huahine Iti. There we snorkeled in fairly shallow water for quite awhile. Our boat captain today was Armando, and he was excellent, providing us informative facts about the island and the things we were seeing as we traveled back past the Pacific Princess and over to the next bay where the pearl farm was located on the water. 

Having just seen this same pearl farm last cruise. I opted to instead snorkel around the pearl farm, which was located on pylons sunk into a huge coral head. This was some of the best snorkeling of the day, and I was excited to see the nets full of pearl-building oysters suspended under the pearl farm. G took advantage of this time to lounge in his float in the water, which was probably around 85 degrees.

Armando then took us to the beach on the southern end of Motu Marimaora where our lunch would be served. That was where I met Marc, already there preparing the grill for our picnic.  Those of us who were interested in more snorkeling could go back on the boat with Armando to do a long drift snorkel between Motu Marimaora and mainland Huahine Iti, and G and I both went, although he just floated in the current. Friend Tracey and her mom and young sons had done the land tour on the island with Marc and were joining us on the motu for our lunch. Tracey and her 8-year old son went with us on the drift snorkel and Kian was a fish in that 20-25 foot deep water. He was happy to inform me that his friend told him that there was a case for an iPhone that made it waterproof AND lava proof (which might come in handy when we visit the Big Island of Hawaii in January, what with its increased volcanic activity of late). I thanked Kian for this valuable information. ;-)

Jenny found shark pillows, live (and heavy) sea creatures

By the time we returned to the motu, lunch was almost ready. All that was left was the demonstration of the preparation of poisson cru, which is raw fish and fresh vegetables marinated in lime juice and coconut milk. I am in love with this local dish, and have to say that Marc's is some of the best I've ever tasted. The bar was opened, grace was said in Tahitian, and along with a wonderful lunch of grilled mahi mahi, tuna, swordfish and chicken, saffron rice and salads, I had about eleventy rum punches. Sitting in that hot sun on a picnic table in the water surrounded by iridescent blue water and eating that lunch...life just doesn't get much better. The entire time on the motu we were entertained by two musicians playing Tahitian music and singing. 

There was more time in the water, after which Armando gave us a lesson on the value of the wild hibiscus tree. The flowers have medicinal value, the leaves make plates and mats and can be used as toilet paper, and the bark of the tree can be used for roping and to make the "grass" skirts worn mostly for folkloric shows. Too soon it was time to re-board the outrigger canoe and return to the Pacific Princess tender pier in Maroe Bay. We took the next tender back to the ship, arriving just after 4:30pm. It had been a wonderful day!!

What followed was the usual routine:  wash and rinse and hang up/set out to dry all our swimwear and gear, shower and then go to the Elite lounge at 5:30pm. We watched from there as the Pacific Princess picked up its tenders and sailed out of Maroe Bay just before 6pm. Dinner was just salads topped with chicken breasts and sorbet for dessert; we were still full of lunch and punch. Comedian Tony Daro is entertaining tonight, and the tropical deck party is starting at 9:15pm. We will have to give both a miss...tomorrow is another busy day and we are worn out. 

Day 33: Huahine

It's actually the day after Huahine, but after a long night's sleep, I am in a much better mood to give our excursion yesterday in Huahine its due, and report on our fabulous day there. 

We didn't set an alarm, because we knew that at least one of us would be up and about before the Pacific Princess even arrived in Huahine, and, naturally, we both were, but not at the same time. In fact, G was already on Deck 11 forward watching as we entered Maroe Bay (which I've been pronouncing MAH-row Bay, but I found out yesterday that the locals say Mah-ROW-ay Bay). But, however pronounced, we arrived about 7:30am, and I woke just before that and saw that G had quietly laid out his snorkel items for the day before he left. I did the same, and then went to the Club Restaurant for breakfast. Following our well-developed routine, he soon joined me there, and we fueled up for what we knew would be an active day. 

By 8:30am, open tender was already being announced, and we were walking down to the tender platform on Deck 3. It was another sunny day (how lucky can we get??), and once we had taken the short tender ride to the pier, the Huahine-Nautique boat was already there waiting for us. We booked, online ahead of time, the snorkel, pearl farm and motu picnic excursion through Marc, which was highly recommended on Trip Advisor and Cruise Critic. We were to meet at 9am on the tender pier and return at 3:30pm, so we knew this would be a full day. 

Honestly, after having done the excursion, I have no idea who Marc actually was. Is he the man we paid before left (9500 CFP or US$ 100 per person)?  Because that's the only guy whose name I didn't get, and of those several I did, there were no Marcs among them. No matter, because everyone whose name we did get was wonderful and added a great deal to making it a really fun and worthwhile day. 

Paka was our boat pilot, and called the excursion to order by blowing into a shell to get our attention. He had a map of Huahine on a board and held it up so we could all see exactly where we'd be going and what we'd be doing. Our first stop was to cruise under the bridge connecting Huahine Nui and Huahine Iti and go around the western side of Huahine Iti near the beach we had visited our first time in the island (with the Princess excursion).  We stopped there for a nice, long snorkel. The water was extremely clear and gentle, with no current, no more than 15 feet deep (though, if you have to stand on the bottom to snorkel, you need to use floatation because doing so damages the coral).  There was a lot of fairly healthy coral and several varieties of fish (I saw no sharks, moray eels or turtles anywhere yesterday). There was a lot of blue coral that looks just like ageratum flowers at home, and these add a nice color to the reef. 

Eventually, it was time to move on to the pearl farm, which isn't a farm in the traditional sense at all, but, before I get to that, we had a most pleasant cruise back under the bridge, into Maroe Bay and out of it, going by the little motu around which the Pacific Princess has to maneuver every time it comes to Huahine, and, from water level it looks quite inviting and like someplace where I could stay forever, providing it had electricity and running water and high speed internet. Especially high speed internet. ;-)

The pearl farm, as I said, was not a farm at all. In fact, it wasn't even on land. But, before I get into what it actually was, I have to inject this:  Tahitian pearls are big business down here. They are everywhere, from monumentally expensive ones shown in strands in highly lighted store windows to cheaper ones available on canopied tables on the piers where the tenders come in. But what is amazing (to me) about them is how expensive they are. And, after visiting a pearl farm, I understand a bit more about why that is. 

First, about the pearl farm:  it's a platform in the middle of a lagoon...period. Hanging under the water underneath it are the nets which hold the percolating pearls. But there's not much to see above water, either, which is why they have conveniently put a black pearl store on the platform and have some musicians playing local music (they were quite nice) and, there was a demonstration table to show us just how black pearls come to be. 

Each pearl shell has to be manually "impregnated" by inserting a mollusk from the Mississippi River (really) and a graft into the pearl's sac, or gonad (at this point I was quickly getting all squeamish about this whole pearl thing because it was seeming a lot less 'natural' than I had imagined it would be). They are set in nets underwater for 45 days at which point a determination is made whether each is going to be a viable (and valuable) pearl. The shells that produced good pearls are used four times, each time being 'primed' with a consecutively larger mollusk starter, and the large pearls take 18 months to develop. Suddenly, single pearls costing over $1000 didn't seem quite so outlandish (just a little outlandish). 

The pearl shell. The white sac in the middle is the gonad

The progressively larger Mississippi River mollusks (above) and the grafts

The net sack into which each shell is placed and submerged

These pearls cost 60000 CFP each (about $650 each)

These larger and more perfectly shaped and colored pearls cost 100000 CFP each (about $1050 each)

After any misconceptions we might have had about the 'totally natural Tahitian black pearl' process had been straightened out, it was time to move on to truly totally natural things, like iridescent blue water and motus and snorkeling. This is the motu where Marc's (whoever he is) BBQ takes place, and we pulled up there in our motorized outrigger canoe to drop off those people who didn't want to do the drift snorkel, or who wanted to start drinking right away (G was on the latter group), and the rest of us were dropped off between the mainland and the motu for an incredible drift snorkel that seemed to go on forever, but probably lasted about an hour in about 25 feet of water but with coral heads that were so large that they reached almost to the water's surface. 

Back on the motu, the grilling portion of lunch preparations was underway, but the poisson cru (raw fish with lime juice and coconut milk and fresh veggies) was prepared after we arrived from snorkeling. 

Squeezing coconut milk from freshly shredded coconut onto the poisson cru

This hermit crab wanted in on the action

We had a wonderful lunch consisting of the aforementioned poisson cru but also grilled chicken, mahi mahi and tuna, and salad and a really good rice with saffron and all the rum punch or Hinanos or juices or water we could drink (and we could drink a LOT). And we sat with a honeymoon couple from New Zealand and another couple of about our ages from Australia and had a most enjoyable time talking. 

After we were done, Armando put on quite a show demonstrating pareo tying techniques and showing the various uses of the wild hibiscus tree, which provides everything from an antibiotic salve to dinner plates to toilet paper to rope and, finally is used to make grass skirts, which aren't grass at all but part of the bark of the wild hibiscus tree. Who knew?

Armando stripping wild hibiscus bark for grass skirts

Finally, it was time to get back on the motorized outrigger and make our way back into Maroe Bay and the tender pier. It was 3:45pm by the time we boarded a tender, and after 4pm when we got back to our cabin. Luckily, we stayed on task and got things rinsed and washed and were ready for the evening and on the open decks for sailaway just before 5pm. It had been another very sunny day, but a misting rain shower passed over just as we entered the open ocean. We went to the Elite Lounge and then dinner with Jose and Oleksandr, and that was the end of our evening. Seven port days in a row had caught up with us; we were asleep before 9pm.