We had another busy but productive, interesting and fun day in Papeete. I know I've told you how much we enjoy using the Pacific Princess as our hotel right in the heart of Papeete, but it bears mentioning again. We were so wrong when we thought these would be wasted days; instead they are just as enjoyable as our days on the more exotic islands, in a totally different way.
At 7:40am, G entered our cabin, slamming the door behind him. Before I could grouse at him for waking me up, he set two cups of freshly brewed coffee on the night stand. Within a few minutes, the aroma was pulling me out of bed. We went to the Club Restaurant for breakfast, and then spent some time in the cabin playing 'how much of this do you think is left?' with contact lens solutions, sunscreens and deodorants, shaking opaque bottles and holding them up to the light. We are, today, 1/3 through our stay on the Pacific Princess; it's a good time to measure and estimate. Very fortunately, a new friend is coming on board next cruise. We're doing an excursion together, and she's offered to bring us whatever we need to get us through our extended stay on the Pacific Princess. She's bringing a backup watch battery and Secret antiperspirant. Therefore, any future needs will be only for sunscreens and mouthwashes and laundry detergents we know we can get down here. Life will certainly get easier, and it was a joy tonight to use the recommended TWO clicks of antiperspirant instead of the one I've been making do with. Thank you, Cathy!
We walked off the ship and first had to observe the pallets of items sitting on the pier being loaded on the Pacific Princess. They are very lucky, on this itinerary; to have two days to do what has to be done in nine hours on turnaround days in Fort Lauderdale.
In case you can't read the labels, they state that these boxes contain Christmas decorations! Such excitement!!
We walked off the ship with one major goal in mind: to check out another recommended hotel, the Tahiti Nui, in downtown Papeete (very nice, but not as centrally located as the Tiare Tahiti and about $100 per night more expensive). After that, we continued to explore the downtown area. A word about crossing streets in Papeete...we have never yet had an issue with cars and scooters stopping when we cross in a hash marked crosswalk. It's been very trustworthy. However, to cross any other place on a street requires a death wish. These drivers wouldn't stop for a group of nuns pushing toddlers in wheelchairs holding kittens. We both wore bright yellow t-shirts as bright as flashing lights, and no one got hurt.
Gorgeous flowers are on EVERYTHING here
Gas at around $7 per gallon...the locals must have thought we were nuts; weaving among cars at a gas station to take this photo. (Mom, memories of taking photos of laundry on a clothesline in Provence). ;-)
Even the gas station shops have baguettes
Eventually, we made our way back to the waterfront and the large ferry terminal from which auto and people ferries leave, going to the various islands in French Polynesia.
The ferry terminal on Papeete, within walking distance of the cruise ship pier
Right across the street was a bar called Chaplins promising free wifi. We spotted a waiter we knew in there, and she promised it was really fast. That pulled us in, and she was right. It was the fastest wifi we've yet encountered anywhere down here. We sat there for nearly three hours, checking and paying and texting and uploading and downloading and updating and syncing and generally having a grand old time until our batteries (and we) were exhausted. It was nearly 3:30pm by then, and time to make our way back to the Pacific Princess.
We collapsed in our cabin for a few minutes, but muster drill soon started and that being broadcast in our cabin eliminated any thought of napping. We got cleaned up for the evening and were up on the pool deck for the sailaway party. Once again, they chose to have the champagne waterfall and introduce the senior officers at 5:30pm, just 30 minutes after sailaway. And with Tahiti off one side of the ship and Moorea off the other, and sunset in the distance, it was one of the best sailaways of our cruising career (and career is the right word; because, in case you can't tell, we work really hard at this). :-)
We were starved at dinner, which skipping lunch will do to a person. Four courses later, G has gone to the Welcome Aboard show; I'm in the cabin to type this post and get to bed early. We have another big day planned tomorrow on Huahine and then a much needed sea day for a bit of a rest. This is a busy, but well timed itinerary. We think it's perfect!
I must take a moment to thank several readers who have really helped us out in recent days. First, Cathy, of course, who will being bringing on items for a stranger (luckily. Items she has just purchased for us, so there's nothing nefarious to suspect), but also Connie who sent me the best email, telling me, in the subject: 'Nest (thermostat) and iOS update (don't)', which was priceless, because I can't always get the text of emails to download, so the title told me all I needed to know, warning us against updating our system software on our iPhones, and today Dean from Atlanta sent me an email telling me about an app called Word Lens, that takes a photo of foreign text and translates it to English and G and I both downloaded it using our fast wifi and have already used it translate the bar menu at Chaplins. And then there's friend Suzan who is the recipient of emails from me crying "Help!!" and is always there to check and research and basically do the things I can't do because I lack Internet to do it.
Traveling as we do requires a support system and we are so grateful for readers who step up, and friends at home who get new credit card numbers to us and shovel snow and basically stay on top of things for us in our absence. We appreciate ALL of you, very much!! We couldn't do this without your help!