Polynesian Adventure, Day 14

March 13, Wednesday - Sunny and warm, very few clouds.

We arrived after a full day and night at sea to the island of Taha'a in early morning.  Since we had a sightseeing excursion  leaving at 8:15 am, we were up early, had breakfast in our cabin and were ready to go soon after eating.  

Taha'a is a sizable mountainous island in the shape of an orchid, with reef islands (motus) around a portion of it.  More on that latter.  We (ET, CP, EP and PT) boarded the tender for the pier in Patio.  After arriving, we were distributed into groups of 8 people (English speaking vs. French speaking) and handed into 4x4 trucks for a drive around the 50-mile island road, with sightseeing stops.  There were about 5 trucks doing the route.  We stopped at: 1) a vanilla farm, 2) a belvedere overlooking the longest bay in French Polynesia, 3) a rum distiller, and 4) a pearl farming operation. 

On the upper deck of the tender departing from the Paul Gauguin.

The pier in Patio and the jumping off spot.

A view back to the ship.

A welcoming trio - the boss of the tour is the guy on the right.  Our driver was his nephew.  He told me that he does this gig on 'holidays.'  I replied that it was not a holiday; he replied that every day here is a holiday.  He lives on Bora Bora, which is a neighboring island just a few miles away.

The view out the back of the truck.

Ditto, with two more tourist trucks behind.

Vanilla beans drying in the sun, the last step of the very long, complicated process for producing vanilla.

Newly harvested vanilla beans.  The best and longest beans are packaged as the premier product; broken beans can either be used for extract or finely ground and  used like cinnamon,

The skinny leafed vine is a young vanilla plant (a variety of orchid).  For the first 2 years, all flowers and shoots are removed to encourage more shoots and more flowers.  Thereafter, the flowers must be hand pollinated.  The young vine is laid on the ground, covered with coconut shell fragments (for moisture and nutrients), and climbs up on Acacia trees (for the right balance of sun and shade).

The vanilla classroom.

More demonstration vines.

Ha'amene Bay (3 miles long).

The Manao Rum distillery.  They make the rum and gin from 4 or 5 different varieties of sugar cane, and the first distilling occurs on site.  But the second, main distilling takes place on Tahiti (something to do with permits and licensing laws).

The Distillery.

The inside and outside of pearl shells, after scraping out the contents (including any pearls).

Baby pearls that are mostly rejects.  We saw them harvesting these.

Implantation process - a small yellow sphere and a small bit of "DNA" is placed inside the shell.

The DNA bits.

The shells are pried apart and a wedge is inserted.

Ready to go back into the water.

Monofilament is threaded through a hole in the shell and then tied to a knotted rope that suspends the shells in a perforated plastic sack that gets hung in the water.  A Dremel was used to drill the hole, powered by a 12-volt car battery.

We spent the afternoon on Motu Mahana (CP stayed aboard the PG), a private island with food, bar, snorkeling, kayaks, and sports.  We were a little late arriving but in time to enjoy a generous barbecue buffet.  I had a fresh coconut for a drink, followed by beers.  The snorkeling was fun in a channel between islands with a brisk current that pushed you along the channel. Most people were content to wade or soak in the shallow water with a good sandy bed.

Stephanie's contribution:  BS enjoyed the floating cocktail bar while SS and LS drank from fresh coconuts as we all sat in the shallow water in the shade of a palm tree.  After relaxing in the water for some time, we walked up the shore with our snorkel gear to get ahead of the current for a leisurely drift snorkel down the channel.  LS was met with his standard barrage of admirers throughout the day but is still learning to respond in kind, often ignoring or offering a momentary glance or wave in response. That is of course, unless it's Cesar who has established the high honor of getting hugs from Logan (of which I think the other staff members are secretly jealous).  PT, BS, SS and LS shut the island down, taking the last tender to the ship.  PT, SS and LS sat on the elevated seats located at the back of the boat and watched as one man in an outrigger canoe tried and failed to surf the wake of our tender.  His friend however, quite skillfully, rode the wake of our tender all the way back to our ship, leaving his friend in the dust.    

Motu Mahana.

LS refuses to drink....

SS blowing the shell.

Wake rider.

Dinner was on the 8th deck at The Grille, slightly more casual than the fancy restaurant that we have been frequenting (no A/C), but still with good food and service.  Back to L'Etoile tomorrow for Polynesian Night.  We are sailing all night to Moorea for our last two days on board.