Sunday, December 8th, 2013 -- Raiatea
We came ashore in the island's principal town, Uturoa, where unfortunately the shops were closed. A pleasant walk of a few blocks brought us to a Protestant church and we were welcomed inside. There was no air conditioning but the large windows were open and it wasn't bad at all. The pews soon filled up and it became apparent the congregation was going to conduct its annual Christmas pageant. Several members, both adults and children, rose to read from the Bible and give their own testimony. Although it was all in Tahitian, the sincerity of the people was evident and the singing was sensational. Click here to read Barbi's excellent account of our visit.
We returned to the ship for a change of clothes and lunch, and then went back ashore for our tour. Sue and I were joined by Barbi and Steve and two other couples for our 4wd trek through the interior of the island and along the coast.
Raiatea is the second largest of the Society Islands, behind Tahiti, and was the religious center of ancient Polynesia. From this island, Polynesian mariners in amazingly large and seaworthy canoes traveled as far as Hawaii to the north, New Zealand to the west and the Easter Islands to the east. The famed English explorer Captain James Cook arrived in 1769, and from a native he learned the remarkably advanced Polynesian navigational theory. Cook sailed on to the west, finding New Zealand and then the eastern coast of Australia.
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| Captain James Cook, English mariner and explorer, whose three round-the-world voyages charted lands previously unknown to Europeans. Unfortunately for the captain, he ran afoul of some Hawaiians on his last voyage in 1779 and was killed. |
Raiatea covers only about 65 square miles and has exactly one paved road. Our Land Rover was hardy enough to get us through the interior and back to the coast, where we examined Marae Taputapuatea, an ancient Polynesian religious shrine. This one was established around 1000 AD and was actually a multi-purpose facility, serving as a meeting place for priests and navigators, a learning center, and a religious site where all manner of plants and animals, sometimes including humans captured from other islands during war, were sacrificed.
We parted company with our guide after visiting the marae and prepared for the second leg of our trek, this one on the water. We boarded a large outrigger canoe for a voyage up the Faaroa River, the only navigable river in French Polynesia. Fortunately, this canoe had a motor. On the way our new guide described many of the plants that are native to the islands. Eventually we turned back to the coast, stopping first at a riverside refreshment stand which served bananas and coconut milk.
Emerging from the Faaroa, we cruised along the coast, back to Uturoa and the ship.
It had been a full day on Raiatea, but there was one more event to complete our Sunday. Like most cruise ships, Paul Gauguin has a formal night on board, where we would meet the captain and his officers at a reception before heading to dinner.
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| Me in my new summer suit, Sue in her 1920s-style dress, ready for Formal Night. |
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| Our cruise director and I evidently shop at the same store. |
Monday, December 9th -- Taha'a
It was a short jaunt overnight to our next island, Taha'a. Only about 35 miles square and home to some 5000 inhabitants, Taha'a and Raiatea share the same coral reef, and in fact the two islands probably were one in the ancient past, as Tahiti now is. In the satellite photo above, Raiatea is at the bottom, then Taha'a, with Bora Bora in the upper left.
This would be our first day of diving on the cruise. Sue and I earned our scuba diver certification some years ago and had dived many times in the Caribbean and off the Mexican coast. Gauguin has a built-in marina at the stern of the ship with a ramp extending out from the hull. We set forth on yet another beautiful morning aboard a Zodiac boat along with other divers and our divemaster, a young Frenchman named Thomas. We went down to about 20 feet for a brief refresher course in various drills and then set out to explore the reef. Needless to say, the islands offer underwater adventures that are breathtaking. One of our dive companions, Dr. Mike Delitta of Axiom Medical Services in Houston shared some of his pictures with us.
So far the weather had been exceptionally great during our time in the islands, but when we got back aboard the ship we had our first rain, and it was more than just a shower, it was a veritable squall that rolled over the ship as we were having a light lunch with Steve and Barbi.
The squall passed quickly and within minutes it was sunny again, allowing us to set off for our afternoon destination, a motu off the coast of Taha'a. Around the reefs of most Polynesian islands are smaller islands, known as motu, and Gauguin had one just for us. The beach was terrific, there was ample shade under the coconut trees, plenty of barbecued chicken and hamburgers with all the trimmings and beverages in abundance.
It would be hard to have a more relaxing afternoon, that's for sure. We returned to the ship and enjoyed a fine show that evening, starring our cruise director, Michael Shapiro, backed by the ship's band. The next day we would begin a two-day visit to an island whose very name conjures images of the exotic South Pacific: Bora Bora.
Tuesday, December 10th -- Bora Bora
The ancient Polynesians believed this island, which they called Porapora, meaning "first born," was the first to rise from the ocean after Raiatea. The first European to set eyes on the island was Captain Cook in 1769. British missionaries arrived in 1820 and converted most of the islanders to Protestantism, staunchly supported local rule and kept Bora Bora out of treaties signed by other islands with the French. It was only a matter of time, though, and the French annexed the island in 1888. It was a smart move.
Bora Bora is only about 11 miles square, less than one-third of Taha'a, and unlike Raiatea, has no source of fresh water. The island has about 9,000 inhabitants, who rely on rain and imported supplies for their water. A supply ship from Tahiti makes the rounds of the islands every day.
Despite its small size, or perhaps because of it, Bora Bora is home to several resorts, most of them located on the motu that surround the island along the reef. A small airport is located on Motu Mute, on the northern edge of the reef. Sue had visited many of the resorts on her previous trips, and they are nice indeed. Gauguin anchored just offshore from the island's main town, Vaitape, and we made our second dive of the trip. On this one we reached a depth of 55 feet, a new record for Sue.
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| After the dive, it's time to relax in the lounging area near the pool bar, with a good book and conversation. |
I had found a fascinating book in the ship's library, Clark Gable: A Biography, by Warren G. Harris. I remember my grandmother raving about him, but the only movie of his I'd ever seen was his most famous, Gone with the Wind. Before that film, though, he had appeared in a movie that told the true story of one of the most famous naval adventures of all time, and it happened right in these waters.
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| Clark Gable (1901-60), Oscar-winning actor and man's man. One of his most famous roles was as Fletcher Christian in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), and soon we would hear the true story of the infamous mutiny. |
After dinner we made our way to the lounge for the evening's show. This would be a variety show, "Krew Kapers," starring members of the ship's crew, and they proved to be a very talented bunch, including one of the waiters as Charlie Chaplin. One of the volunteers he coaxed out of the audience was yours truly.
For the grand finale, Barbi got the nod to join the cast.
It had been another great day in a string of great days. Our second day on Bora Bora promised even more, as we would explore the interior in an off-road adventure.
Wednesday, December 11th -- Bora Bora
I had done an off-road trek on Tahiti over some pretty questionable roads. Those roads would be super-highways compared to what we would encounter today on Bora Bora.
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| Shrouded in early-morning clouds, the peaks of Mt. Otemanu and Mt. Pahia await. |
We came ashore in Vaitape and were greeted by our affable native guide, Joshua. Along with Barbi and Steve, we were accompanied by a couple from Canada and one originally from the Czech Republic and now living in North Carolina. We piled into Joshua's battered open-air Land Rover with me riding shotgun. Not too far out of Vaitape we turned off the paved road and headed inland.
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| After breakfast, we get ready for our off-road adventure. |
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| A Bora Bora native provided an escort for our tender to shore. |
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| During WW2, Bora Bora was home to 5000 US troops, sent to defend the island against Japanese invasion. They installed a pair of these WW1-era 7" guns at each corner of the island. With a range of some 7 miles, they would've been seriously outgunned by Japanese battleships, but the enemy never showed up. Our GIs probably didn't mind waiting out the war here, though. |
At the top of a ridge we were treated to breathtaking views of the island.
After some time on the peak, we headed back down to the coast. Polynesia is widely known as a prime source of pearls, and we discovered there are actually "pearl farms" where pearls are literally grown and harvested from clams. Joshua stopped at one of the farms and showed us how the process works.
We returned to Gauguin in plenty of time to clean up and head to the lounge for this evening's lecture. The ship hosted a series of "enrichment lectures" by visiting academics to discuss the history and anthropology of the islands, but tonight's would be the best-attended of the series. New Zealand archaeologist and historian Mark Eddowes would tell us the real story of the famous "Mutiny on the Bounty."
Famously depicted in books and on the movie screen, the fate of HMS Bounty is one of the great naval yarns of all time. In the 1780s, Britain needed to find a reliable source of food for the African slaves it had imported to its Caribbean islands. Previous visits to Polynesia had discovered breadfruit, and Bounty was charged with the mission of voyaging there to obtain and bring back the plants. Two days before Christmas 1787 she sailed from England with a crew of 46, led by 33-year-old Lieutenant William Bligh. More than two years later, Bligh returned and the story of the Bounty's epic voyage and the tragic mutiny caused a sensation. You can read the short version of the mutiny here.
No less than three major film versions of the story have been produced. Clark Gable starred as Fletcher Christian, leader of the mutineers, in the Oscar-winning Mutiny on the Bounty in 1935, with Charles Laughton as Bligh. According to the Gable bio I read, the animus between the two men on screen was not just acting; Gable and Laughton despised each other. The least historically-accurate version was released in 1962 starring Trevor Howard as Bligh and Marlon Brando as Christian. Finally, in 1984 came The Bounty, considered very accurate, with some scenes drawn directly from Bligh's log. Anthony Hopkins played the skipper and Mel Gibson was Christian.
Eddowes' account of the story was fascinating and produced a lot of discussion at dinner that evening. Shortly after dessert, we bade farewell to Bora Bora. Gauguin pulled anchor and set sail for our final stop, Moorea.
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