twangster

Fortunately the weather improved for our sail away from Raiatea because it is quite remarkable.
What wasn't apparent in the heavy rain this morning was the path we were taking.
CMAP:

We had entered the natural break in the reef then sailed this massive ship in the small gap between the reef and the Northern Island to make it to the anchorage circled in green closer to the the Southern Island and the town dock we would tender into.

We were now on the way out to sea repeating the navigation in reverse hugging the island on the starboard side with the coral reef on the port side.




The gap in the reef we need to sail through:






I think this video does a better job illustrating this maneuver.  

RaiateaDeparture1.mp4.b44f2bc56f536c3c12b1a04c5ab816cb.mp4 RaiateaDepartureMerged.mp4.f3707597a84fee095444c867aea653d1.mp4 Pretty amazing seamanship from the bridge team.

Raiatea is said to be the cultural center of Polynesia.  Another stop on our tour was a stop at Taputapuātea.  

From the UNESCO World Heritage website describing Taputapuātea:
Taputapuātea on Ra’iātea Island is at the centre of the ‘Polynesian Triangle’, a vast portion of the Pacific Ocean, dotted with islands, and the last part of the globe to be settled by humans. The property includes two forested valleys, a portion of lagoon and coral reef and a strip of open ocean. At the heart of the property is the Taputapuātea marae complex, a political, ceremonial and funerary centre. It is characterized by several marae, with different functions. Widespread in Polynesia, the marae were places where the world of the living intersected the world of the ancestors and the gods. Taputapuātea is an exceptional testimony to 1,000 years of mā'ohi civilization.

It was fascinating to listen to our guide describing the different marae and what types of activities each was used for.  Some involved human sacrifice since that was part of the culture going back a very long time.  No sacrifices today.  
A pearl farm.  This area in general is a large source of pearls.


Some local food items were available for tasting including the fabled chestnuts our driver yesterday in Moorea had also mentioned.   Apparently his mother would prepare them and when consumed in quantity they are known to create significant amounts of gas, which didn't work out too well on a visit to the local movie theater in his youth he said.

We were unfortunately a little rushed as we tried to make up time and to make it back for last tender at 4pm.  Back on the bus to a pearl shop.  

Honestly, I'm kinda okay the last stop to a pearl shop was in a blink of an eye.  We didn't have time for the full "factory" experience.

Fifteen minutes before the last tender time and some folks on the bus were freaking out.  
Fortunately I had obtained a cheap eSIM for data coverage in French Polynesia and I could see we were literally 5 minutes from the dock.  Plus I had Francois in my back pocket if needed.  🤣
We made it to the dock with ample time and there were several tenders after the one we used for any other late running excursions.   
At least word is getting out not to be late returning to the ship 🙂

The morning version of this same excursion, Raiatea East Coast Highlights, had run late because tenders were late bringing guest on shore very early on today.  The guides and bus drivers were trying to make it a quick turn but everyone has to eat and there is only so much they could do to get back on schedule for our afternoon version.
Yes, another dreaded bus tour but given the weather and my goal to gain an overview of the island this fit the requirement.
Those are pineapples in the foreground.

Stunning views that I am confident would be outstanding on a better day.  


These photos do not convey the beauty of the island.

Day Fourteen
Raiatea, French Polynesia
Our last and final port of call before Hawaii.
It was a pretty dreadful day outside with lots of rain, heavy at times and low visibility.

I could see the familiar shape and waves breaking over a coral reef but it wasn't apparent where we were or how dramatic our navigation was at this moment.  More on that later.


I wasn't motivated to go up top because it was raining pretty good. Eventually the rain nearly stopped.


I could see where we within a coral reef and looking out over it there was the open sea where a ship of this size belongs. 


Another afternoon excursion so my tender ride was after lunch.  Upon arriving I could see a really long queue waiting to get back on a tender to return to the ship.


The line stretched all the way out to the parking lot. Quantum class push the boundaries on tendering.  I can see why tendering Oasis class would be impossible.

We continue around the island to a Polynesia Village complete with a band playing drums with our driver's brother and cousins.

We stop at an overlook for a great view of a five star hotel that offers overnight, overwater accommodations.  



Trying to impress us our driver tells us these rooms go for $1,200 USD per night!
I'm thinking to myself if he only knew what Royal Caribbean charges for an overwater cabana at CocoCay for 8 hours!

You could see rays moving in the water even from up here.
I have to come back here to stay for a few days.  It's so beautiful.

Since everyone is related on Moorea our driver's wife is from nearby Bora Bora.  "There is nothing worse than bringing a girl home only to have your parents tell you that she is your cousin." He tells us. So most people look for a spouse from another island.    
So lush and tropical.

Our tour continues descending down the narrow mountain road.


From Cooks Bay I referred to earlier.

Today's excursion is the Moorea Island Tour.

I generally despise bus tours but for a first visit they do have value in covering a lot of ground so you can better plan a return visit at a later date.



The driver is a colorful character who makes this tour so much better.  The scenery is incredible.  Pictures do not do it justice.
He tells us there is a street race planned for today so everyone is gathering for it.  Racing is strictly illegal yet everyone knows when they happen and the local police somehow don't.  show up.

Our driver tells us it's so small that everyone knows everyone.  There is no crime because everyone knows everyone, and everyone would know who did it.  "If I fart" he says, "my cousins on the side will smell it in 30 minutes and call me".
We make our way up a small mountain road way too small for our bus to the Belvedere lookout.  We will visit that harbor in the distance later, named for a famous explorer who never used that harbor we are told.


Another bus has made it to the top.

My turn!













 

It's our first tender port!
The ship has a number of double duty lifeboats / tenders.  These are not regular lifeboats and not all lifeboats do double duty like this.  It's easy to spot which are plain lifeboats and which can be used as tenders once you look a little harder at them.  






 

It turns out these deep water channels through the reef area are a natural phenomenon. 


When the volcanic islands grew out of the sea millions of years ago there was no coral reef around them.  Slowly over thousands of years coral has grown around the islands.  Except coral doesn't tolerate fresh water so close to land due to rain runoff from the island, coral doesn't grow.   



Fresh water runoff from the mountains has to flow out to the sea eventually so over those thousands of years an area where no coral grows is formed and that is where freshwater runoff flows out to the sea.  That leaves a natural deep water channel that ships can use to penetrate an otherwise impenetrable fortress of coral.  



Creating a natural harbor for boats and ships.


We will see this even more dramatically tomorrow at Raiatea.

After breakfast I went back to the sun deck for some arrival photos.




Real overwater cabanas!

I knew we were tendering today but it wasn't clear where we would anchor.  Yet we were slowly getting closer and closer.  Water breaking over reefs on both sides.  
So I looked in a nautical app to see what was up.  Sure enough there was deep water straight ahead through a tiny gap between very shallow reefs on each side.  We would be threading a needle with the largest cruise ships to ever visit French Polynesia.
CMAP:

Day Thirteen 
Moorea, French Polynesia.
OMG, the cruise is more than half over!
Dramatic sunrise in the channel between Tahiti and Moorea.

Our departure from Papeete was scheduled for 11:30pm since Moorea is very close by.
Whenever I get the chance I like to see the ship at night and these late night port calls are the best way to do that.





The break in the rain was short lived so I hurried back to the ship.

The ship brought on some local performers for one night only so this was a must see event.







They were very good and the theater was packed.  

PapetteDancers.mp4.5526481e0a5c79d2770392c2ee3c2ba7.mp4  

Dinner in the WJ.
It's Easter tomorrow and the bunnies had been multiplying.



A panoramic from deck 15.

When life gives you lemons, drink beer.  Or something like that.  
So I headed off the ship during a break in the weather.



I found a covered spot at a bar over the water to sample a local beer.


Is this a cargo ship?...

Or a cruise ship?...

Fish and Chips.

The rain grew heavy for a while then it lightened up so I made my break for it. The overwater bar is associated with a local venue where there are toilets.  It's all very nice despite the rain.

As we sailed closer you could clearly make out the signs of a larger city.




There is a pier in Papeete so we were spared from tendering today.  Unfortunately the forecast was rain and it didn't take long for the forecast to become accurate.
Today's excursion was Tahiti Sail by Catamaran booked through Royal Caribbean.  I had a reasonable 10:30 am meeting time in the theater so lots of time for breakfast and looking around from the upper decks between passing rain showers.
Upon arrival to the theater I was informed my excursion was cancelled due to the weather.  They told me I could use the app to find something else but the app indicated everything was sold out.
I went top side figuring I could jump on North Star which is free on port days.  There I noticed several catamarans carrying ship guests out to sea.  Hmmm.  I guess the captain of my catamaran didn't want to get wet today.

I couldn't book North Star because the app still showed I had an excursion in process.  It seems all the excursion staff go to the theater to manage the excursion process but not one of them has access to a computer to process cancellations.  They'll do that later once through the busiest part of their day.  Unfortunately that meant I couldn't book anything else, including an alternate excursion that did become available when someone else cancelled a spot.
I explained all this to the North Star crew who found a way to get me on the calendar.   Thank goodness for that.





A time lapse of the North Star ride, complimentary (short) version.

PapeeteNorthStarTL.mp4.6f377680ae7b14437ea3f7bc15a21c42.mp4  

Day Twelve
Papeete, French Polynesia
While Tahiti is the island we will visit today, the capital city is Papeete.  
As the sun started to illuminate the sky my first glimpse of land from my balcony was that of Moorea, the island next door to Tahiti.  This was pre-dawn so the sun wasn't fully awake yet.


We will visit Moorea tomorrow but they are that close to each other.  Up to the Suite Sun Deck to see things from the other side of the ship.





Despite the inadequate lighting of these early morning photos it was quite stunning.  

During our sea day marathon we made our way to day 9 (A) on April 16.  The next day was day 9 (B) on April 16.
The Captain addressed it during his regular noon announcements so there was no mistaking it was Groundhog Day (movie reference) but there was no ceremony or special event to mark the occasion.  
One April 16 the map channel on the display indicated it was April 16 and on the following day, April 16, the map channel indicated it was April 16.
The weirdest part for me was the mental math I had been doing while working remotely loosely based on an Eastern time zone work day.  Up until this point I had been one day ahead.  When I woke up the next day I was 6 hours behind.  
That and the fact that the Royal app had days 1 - 20 with no "9A" or "9B" leaving the Cruise Director staff to do some gymnastics to make the app fit our reality.
In the words of the Captain... "Welcome to your free day on board Quantum of the Seas!"
Hmmm.  Should I ask the CAS team for extra CAS points? 🤔

Something is up with her, that's a lot of cruises over a long period of time.  Anything is possible.

Day Eight to...
The first of a number of sea days on the way to French Polynesia and Tahiti.

In case you are wondering what the seas were like, this was typical, sometimes with cloud cover, sometimes with full sunshine and sometimes partially cloudy.  Slight swell on some days, pretty flat on other days.  Strong headwinds much of the time but not many waves to speak of.  Enough winds to coat the ship with a layer of salt though.  

I'm going to gloss over a few sea days here because I was pretty boring, working in my cabin mostly and when my work day finished I was exercising my fingers pressing the spin button in the casino where pictures and videos are frowned upon.  It was a smoke free casino and I couldn't let that rare opportunity pass me by.
The ship had plenty going on with lots of activities offered by the cruise director and his staff.
The day after leaving Auckland we crossed the Antemeridian.  That magical dotted or solid line in the ocean depending on the map you use, where East meets West.  
/cruisegeekon
Up until this point our longitude had been increasing meaning the second number in the top left corner of the map display had been going up.  Duh!
Our position around 15:14 was longitude 179° 58.49' East.

Not long after I took this photo I heard a blast of the ship's whistle and shortly after that our longitude was now decreasing, counting down from 179° 57.16' West.

Pretty exciting times here on Quantum of the Seas!
Note the bridge crew were either premature horn blowers or the map display lags reality.  I'm betting on the latter.
Also note this isn't the international date line which is influenced by other factors beyond simple longitude and latitude. 
There was no fanfare.  No balloon drop.  No champagne toast.  A simple blast of the ship's whistle and we had crossed from East to West.  
It's all downhill from here, at least for our longitude.
/cruisegeekoff
I took in Starwater in Two70°.

I liked this how because it wasn't about a bunch of weird antics or disjointed skits.  Core art on display.

Many nights in the pub to catch our pub singer.  He's quite good.  

On these sea days i've been working.  Like really working, not fake work from home at another job kind of working, actual work.  
The frequent time changes and being one day ahead has made this interesting.  I found an app that would post a clock for my home time zone and my local time zone in the menu bar.  I became accustomed to thinking a day off.
"It's tomorrow here, so this meeting request will work best for me yesterday in two hours time."
Having two April 16 days on the work calendar was interesting.  "Are you available for a meeting on April 16 " - my response... "Yes on both days".
I have to admit it became much easier once we crossed the international date line and I only had a time difference to contend with but once I was in the swing of things it wasn't that hard to manage.
Apparently it's true... time is relative.

Auckland departure.
Beautiful golden hour after sunset as the ship prepared to sail away from New Zealand and on towards French Polynesia.



Not me on the flow rider!

But wait, there’s more…. The transportation company forgot about us.  
To be clear I booked this excursion through Royal Caribbean.  We met in the theater as instructed.  They provided the transportation to the activity.  
The folks at the activity company were great but this was out of their hands, they weren’t responsible for the transportation part as the port is a cargo port and only ship provided busses can pick up and drop off guests within the port.
After 60 minutes of hearing mixed comments from the receptionist...  “They’re sending taxis”, “…maybe they found a bus”, “No, taxis are coming”  but nothing was happening.  So I emailed the HD back on the ship.  Francois replied immediately and he got working on it from his end.  Around 90 minutes after we were supposed to be picked up a bus finally arrived.  There goes my free time to explore Auckland.  
This is why I always like having a data plan for my phone no matter where I go.  I am so glad I had data coverage in New Zealand.  Even for a ship provided excursion, the ship uses local operators who sometimes screw up.  
Despite the break down on the part of the transportation company it was still a great excursion that I’ll remember fondly for a long time.  Now I have an excuse to book another visit to Auckland - to explore the city.  The ship did provide a partial refund as compensation.  

At 11:30am we left the ship as a group and boarded a bus to drive to the bridge.  Since this is a cargo port only approved ship provided buses are allowed to move guests within the port area.  

At the bridge the tour operator has a small shop.  There we were fitted with a harness and a jumpsuit or coveralls plus a helmet.  You can’t bring anything with you as they don’t want something falling on a car causing a crash.  Photos and video taken by our guide would be provided through a website URL at the conclusion.  Everything went into a locker.  

The company that runs the bridge climb also has other adrenaline based activities such as bungee jumping from the bridge.  Other groups that were not from the ship were being fitted for their own adventures as we waited.  We would see them again later.  

The following photos and a video were captured by the guide and provided to us included in the excursion price.

Much like the Sydney bridge climb you are tethered to the bridge as you walk along the steel walkways under the road deck of the bridge.  Once we were closer to the center of the bridge we would climb up onto the top of bridge, spend some time at the top then return similarly to how we came.  

We were fitted with an earpiece so that everyone could hear the guide who led us on this adventure.  

As we walked he would provide history and data about the bridge and the city.  We stopped briefly once we reached an area directly opposite the bungee jumping platform so we could watch the victims, I mean participants, do a bungee jump.  Discounts were offered if we wished to add a jump after our tour.  No one from our group accepted. 

The bridge has lasted beyond its intended operational lifespan so new tunnels are being explored as a replacement for this aging bridge.  At some point in the not so distant future it will be gone.  It’s a great time to climb a piece of history.  


Great views from the top!


That's Quantum in the distance.





Here is the video they provided, posted with permission:

AucklandBridgeClimb.mp4.9c485f6eb82272edda53a8ecd642357f.mp4 We didn't do the bungee jump but watched the folks in this video do it.
It was an amazing excursion and I’m really glad I did it.