World Cruise – Days 31-33 French Polynesia

Thank you for joining us on our Viking Sky World Cruise!

Can you believe its already been a month on this ship? – Gina and I are doing great and our 38 year marriage is still in tack as we survive in a cabin that is at most 11 feet by 19 feet with a nice two chair balcony.

After 5 days sailing from Hawaii we reached Papeete, Tahiti in the French Polynesia. The cruiser that needed to get medical attention was reported to reach the hospital and we hope for their recovery.

The first day in Papeete was really on our own, but Viking put together a free excursion with a motor coach ride to the Tahiti cultural museum. The Museum was quaint displaying the history of the islands, how they were formed, and artifacts they have found from ancient Polynesian culture. The museum also had a garden with various local plants and trees. Our return to the main city of Papeete allowed us to walk around the downtown, but the stores were mostly closed since it was after 1pm on Saturday and really did have much to shop for. We ate at a McDonald’s just to visit the unofficial American embassy – refreshing to have French fries as only Mickey “D’s” makes. Then we walked the harbor area and walked though the marina and a lovely park on the harbor. But for first impressions of Papeete – it really was not impressive.

After reboarding on the ship at Papeete, we traveled over night to Bora Bora.

Arriving into the tender position the next morning, the island of Bora Bora towered into the clouds and the green mountain was majestic – absolutely beautiful and must be seen to be enjoyed.

Our excursion for Bora Bora was a 4 hour catermoran ride which included 1 hour of swimming and snorkeling – it was just fabulous to sail around the island and snorkeling – it was lots of fun seeing the coral and fishes.

Back in Bora Bora we took a walk around the small village but being a Sunday most stores (except the black pearl jewelry stores) were closed for the Sunday. So we opted not to see the island in a truck ride and went back to the ship for some food and drinks. (note to the wise, Bora Bora in January makes the pool deck hot!). Sunset was another beauty and it was the end of a fantastic day.

We sailed back to Papeete for Monday which was the original world cruise schedule in which the ship would be refueled and loaded with supplies. While we did not have an excursion lined up so we decided to get a local tour driver at the dock for a tour. We found a tour operator to take 4 of us in his car around the island to show us the sites of Tahiti that we did not see 2 days earlier.

Glad we did this tour the pictures show the wonderful waterfalls, beaches (white sand and black sand), caves, gardens and coast line we saw.