Bora Bora, French Polynesia

 After five days at sea we ported at Bora Bora and saw what the real South Pacific is all about.

We decided to do a water day and found a boat to take only ten of us out for a "day" at sea.

 Our first stop was to swim with the black tip sharks...

 and the sting rays.

 We got right in the water and the sting rays thought their best friends had come out to play. They were all over--a little daunting at first. But they turned out to be very friendly and incredibly smooth when you petted them.

The sharks didn't like us nearly as much, they stayed just far enough away that we didn't worry about them.

After spending some time snorkeling and enjoying the beautiful colored fish and some interesting coral, our tour guide said he had a special place to take us and I had to admit the water was a gorgeous blue. Found out the sand was pure white and the texture of corn starch. So it made for a "spa treatment" and we all covered ourselves with white sand. We even brushed our teeth with it!

 A tour around the island gave us a wonderful view of the mountainous interior and all the resorts along the coast. These little huts over the water (many with a glass floor area) range in price from $500 to $3000 per night.

 This is truly my idea of an island paradise!

We stopped at our guide's personal island where he had a snack ready for us, fresh pummelo (a very large, sweet, juicy grapefruit type fruit), fresh coconut, coconut bread, and pineapple juice. He also had a bathroom (I wish I had a picture) where the toilet sat right in the sand. Wild! (It was plumbed, however!!)
He also had a special area where we could snorkel and saw a very large moray eel and a sea turtle.

A great day on Bora Bora!!

Table 45

We had dinner each evening at Table 45--the eight of us not running out of anything to talk about for the twelve nights. In the back are Cheryl and her niece, Megan, from California, Dennis and Pam from Ohio, in the front Diane and Ari from Canada who we ended up doing a lot of our touring with, and us. For spending hours running around or hanging out in the sun, we all "cleaned up pretty well" for formal night.

Dining at the Chef's Table--Ocean Princess

 We decided that we needed to do the "special" Chef's Table dinner along with five other couples. Besides having to wear coats and closed toed shoes to visit the working galley for appetizers, we spent three hours talking and eating some amazing food prepared especially for the table.

 Our Maitre D' started us off with some champange along with the four appetizers--my favorite being the Sesame Marinated Big Eye Tuna Carpaccio with Yuzu Dressing.

We continued to drink some very nice wines with each course of the meal.

Here's the menu--click on it if you want to duplicate any of these delectable dishes at home!!

 I knew I couldn't (shouldn't) eat all of anything if I were going to make it through this marathon, but it was very hard not to eat every morsel of the Asparagus Risotto Topped with Tiger Prawns.

The "palette cleanser, Strawberry and Cracked Pepper Sorbet, could have (should have) been dessert--wonderful--and topped with a shot of cold vodka!

 The Executive Chef finished the Roast Beef Tenderloin before our eyes and served it along with the Lobster Tail Thermidor and all the sauces and fixings, and more wine.

 This Brie de Meaux Feuillete, Riesling Soaked Green Raisin Drippings, and Walnut Bread was one of my favorite courses. Of course I knew that the green raisins were French for green grapes thanks to Gilles and Francine, who made these for us once and were every bit as good!!

Finally the end is in sight and what a sight it is! Everything on the white plate is edible--the green plate and red ramekin hold the Iced Amaretto Parfait and the Vanilla Plums and Brandy Snap Tuile. The pink coil is also sugar and really was bouncy.


The food was wonderful and now we have to work it off!!

Crossing the Equator

We are  back home so I can do justice to the trip, internet  access on the ship left a lot to be desired.


CROSSING THE EQUATOR
We’ve crossed the equator to the southern hemisphere in an airplane, but they make a big deal out of crossing on the ship--click on the picture to see the yellow line with the word EQUATOR on it to see exactly where it is!!





 Looks boring (or what do you do when you are at sea for five full days)? We have not had time to be bored, but we don’t have to do anything fast. It’s a small ship, only 760 passengers and 11 floors (our room is on the 7th, dining is on the 5th, the pool is on the 9th, and the track is on the 10th--so we haven’t taken an elevator at all). We walk half an hour before breakfast, breakfast takes an hour, then line dancing (for me), or pool time, then Trivia at Sea, then lunch for an hour (not that we eat that much, but we usually have some good conversation). Then there are wine tastings, the casino, sitting on the deck to read (or take in some good sun), watching a movie, and then dinner (which is usually a two hour affair). We sit at a table for eight so there is always something to talk about, and we do enjoy our leisurely meal and dessert with a cup of coffee. After dinner is “showtime”, although on a small ship the theater is small and the “company” is made up of a band/orchestra of four, and eight singers and dancers. We’re usually back in our room by 10:30 or so, I guess we are just to worn out from our busy day to hit the clubs after hours!

Hawaii--The Big Island

 The sunrise coming into the Big Island was amazing--notice the full moon and the sun shining on the top of volcano Mt. Mauna Loa (click on the picture to see snow on the top of the mountain).

 Off to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park for some fascinating sights and a chance to look at the active volcano Kilauea caldera. We couldn’t make the entire 11 mile loop trip around the caldera because of excessive sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide levels in the air due to the volcano.

We visited a candy company, a Japanese garden, a macadamia nut orchard, and ended up at an orchid farm where the different kinds of orchids were amazing.

Cruising Hawaii

Our new year finds us taking another cruise. This time we flew to Honolulu and boarded the Ocean Princess to cruise Kauai, Maui, and the Big Island of Hawai before spending five days at sea on our way to Tahiti. Stay tuned for the highlights.

Although we had spent a week in Kauai many years ago, we found our one day here showed us that the island has indeed become much more commercial and populated, but we enjoyed the beauty of the the falls, the beaches, and all the green.

Our limosine tour took us along the scenic ocean highway to the cloud covered Iao Valley situated in a volcanic crater, on  to the Maui Tropical Plantation, and a stop at the Heritage of Maui Park which highlights the peoples and cultures that have created Maui’s population.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Mitch catered the New Year’s Eve dinner at the RV Park and 53 of us enjoyed his “famous” ribs along with potato salad, baked beans, dinner rolls, and cake.