Favorite picture of a South Pacific island

We're Home!

Arrived home mid-morning on the 17th, sleep deprived from the Red Eye with lots of fond memories of a great trip.

Many loads of laundry, despite sending it out several times onboard, a month's worth of mail to open, email to check, dog who was thrilled to see us and vice versa, and ......memories galore!

Off to the grocery store to fill up the larder then on to organizing photos and editing this blog!

Forgot to mention that, of course, we booked another cruise onboard - for October, 2009, on the new Equinox with a completely new itinerary! And so it goes :)

Late Saturday Night, March 15th

We are on our way from Hilo to Honolulu after a lovely (and again rainy day in Hilo). Will have a long day in the HNL airport followed by a red eye flight via Chicago to Raleigh/Durham.

My plan is to review all of the posts, edit and add pictures and include review of the last few days. I hope to have it all done by the end of next week, so do check back for the 'whole story'. I will write a summary of our wonderful adventure at the end, but, suffice it to say that we had a great time, made many new friends and were especially happy to get to know our online Cruise Critic friends in person. It's a diverse group from many parts of the US and around the world. We hope to stay in touch with many and to cruise with some in the not too distant future. The officers, crew and service onboard was exemplary and we thank them all for their support and assistance with the Christmas Island project.

Stay tuned for more, soon. Aloha!

Wednesday, March 13th at Sea

Another lovely, sunny sea day - morning spent relaxing, reading - do you see the pattern of relaxation?  I will not be complaining about not having enough time for R and R for some time in the future.

Spent most of the afternoon working on organizing my pictures and setting up a final Cruise Critics party for tomorrow AM for those of us who visited Christmas Island to share our experiences with other CC members and with the staff (invited the Hotel Director and Staff Captain and any others available to attend).  Dave has developed a slideshow and we've requested a projector with which to show them.

This evening we were seated at the Captain's table with the Staff Captain hosting the dinner.  A lovely group of guests as well as a charming Greek host Philipos.  Great service from our favorite waiter in charge of training at the Casual Dining area and our Asst Maitre D' Dixon.  In all, a great experience with lots of questions re: yesterday's experience at Christmas Island.

Visited with our regular dinner table during their dinner since we were at early seated tonight and then went to the show with Sharyn and John- the Celebrity Singers and Dancers!

Tuesday, March 12th - Christmas Island, Kiribati

In the morning, we did our usual lounging on Deck 10, then went to the pool deck for the 10 AM appearance of King Neptune   (in the form of Damien, our CD), sea nymphs and their crew captives to watch the induction of Pollywogs as we simulated the crossing of the Equator (which actually occurred at 2 AM).  Lots of fun as many crew members and some 'volunteer' passengers had eggs broken over their heads, faces smeared with pasta, chocolate syrup and any other gross liquid they could find.  Then they had to 'kiss' a fish before being thrown into the pool.

Quite funny and a bit disgusting.

I left before it ended to shower and change for our long awaited visit to Christmas Island.  I was quite nervous as I had been told the night before that the forecast was for clouds and scattered showers and a difficult transport for the tenders through the reefs.  Those of our Cruise Critic group who has volunteered to participate in my project to deliver school supplies to the teachers and children of the island, gathered in Michael's Club, Deck 8 to meet Sonja Gruber, our Hotel Director, prior to disembarking on the first tender to the island.  We knew that there was a possibility that those in the group who used wheel chairs or scooters might not be able to get to the island due to possibly unsafe dock conditions.  Off we went to Deck 3 to board the tender - trying to keep others who wished to get on the tender from joining our group (this was a difficult task and we were grateful to Sonja and James for helping to keep us together as a group). Since we had so many cartons of materials going with us, we could not all fit on the tender, but this is part of our group.  

As we approached the island, we heard the ominous sound of the tender scaping the bottom - the water was quite shallow with lots of coral in the sand. A bit of back and forth maneuvers and we were back in action again.

We finally made it to the dock only to find that there was about a 3 foot step up from the tender to the dock.  Thanks for the able crew, we all managed to get on shore safely.  Quite an adventure.

Art and I walked to an area where we saw some women and children gathered and found a sign that said "Welcome Dr. Sheila and her friend".  It was such a nice way to be greeted.  I met Reetina, my main contact on the island and the head of the Education Department.

We boarded some trucks for a bumpy, windy trip to visit children in a variety of schools (preschool, elementary and high school).  The children have mandatory 1-6 grade education after which they must pay to go to upper level.  Unfortunately when they graduate there are very few available jobs and many leave for NZ or Australia.  We spoke to the children and teachers, distributed our gifts and received lovely gifts from the children.  It was a very moving and emotional experience for all of us.  The quality of the education with such limited resources and materials was amazing.  The elementary school, for example taught science in the local language and in English and the children sang welcome songs to us in English and did local dances and performances. Elementary school performance below

Girl reading book we gave to her

Preschool kids saying good-bye

High School Class

After our school visits, we were welcomed with a student band playing instruments made of PVC pipes (they had also greeted us when we arrived) and a sincere thank-you from the teachers and students by Miss Reetina.  I responded from our group and then we were offered a homemade meal of local foods.  We, unfortunately, were running late and couldn't stay very long but were overwhelmed by the hospitality of these friendly, warm people and the sincerity of their responses to our small donations.  They are in great need of educational and other materials that we take for granted and, yet, are so happy and lovely to be with.  We received lists of things that are needed and many of us will continue to be responsive to their needs.

We returned to the ship on the next to last tender feeling honored to have been able to help in a small way.

On our return to the ship, we discovered that there were many disappointed and angry passengers who could not get ashore. We heard many stories of rudeness and even fights among the guests. Some of our group were even made uncomfortable for wearing the flower leis and headdresses that had been given to us as we moved from school to school.  We shared our experiences with many people who were very supportive of how we had spent our day.

We did not attend the Magician show tonight and were asleep before our heads hit the pillow after a tiring and emotionally draining but very satisfying day.

 

All in all a wonderful afternoon.

Monday, March 11th at Sea

Imagine - carefully opened the drapes this AM to clear skies and bright sun!  Today and tomorrow at sea and then Christmas Island.
We went to the gym...been doing that about every 2 days on sea days since Art got over his bad cough on the first cruise.  Somehow I feel less guilty about all that I'm eating if I do 1/2 hour on the Treadmill and some free weights....especially when I can work off at least the breakfast calories.

Spent most of the morning catching up on this blog and trying to figure out my picture card problem.  Finally determined that I couldn't figure it out and was relieved to meet up with Dave (my photo guru) who agreed to work on it for me.  Promptly invited Dave and Kim and their friends Peri and Ron  to the cabin for drinks on our veranda at 4 PM (with Dave working on my pictures).

Now this is the way to entertain.  We stayed in our hide-out on Deck 10 Aft - a small public deck where we camp out on sea days along with 4-6 German passengers - until it was time to shower and order food.  Ordered cheese and fruit plates, tonic, ice, extra glasses and napkins and moved furniture around to make room for six.  By propping the veranda door open, we had an indoor/outdoor party with fun friends and didn't even have to clean up afterwards!  It will be hard to give this us in just 5 more days!

We had a new entertainer tonight - a violin virtuoso who was very good - mostly classical with some Fiddler on the Roof and a rousing version of Hava Nagillah thrown in.  Very nice to not have a repeat of past performances.

Saturday - March 8th - Bora Bora

Awoke to an amazing sunrise this morning that raised hopes of a glorious sunny day snorkeling on Bora Bora.  Of course, the clouds moved in soon thereafter but, this time, they were high clouds, the temperature was warm and we had a quick breakfast and headed to meet our group 0f 20 for our snorkel and motu lunch trip with Nono.  This was another tour recommended on our CC Ports of Call.  We, with some difficulty managed to get off on one of the first tenders.  Although we had VIP tender passes, the group of 200 from Germany, were granted early privileges. After some discussion, we did manage to get on the tenders with them and quickly landed on the small dock on Bora Bora.  Took the requisite pictures next to the Bora Bora sign, visited the small market near the pier and, actually, bought a few nice gifts.  then waited next to the area where Popo picked us up in his outrigger boat for the first part of our trip - to Nono's house to pay via credit card.  This is a magnificently beautiful island (one we would definitely like to visit again AND stay for awhile).  Most of the hotels we passed (by boat) were those you see in all of the the island travel articles - over-water bungalows with their own access to the water, white sand beaches with lots of water toys, etc.  One was a new Four Seasons Interval Ownership or private home property - georgeous! 

Our first stop was to swim with the Sting Rays...much like Sting Ray city on Grand Cayman but without the crowds and screaming tourists. There were just the twenty of us, Popo and the Rays who, for some reason, loved me!  Picture coming....

Then we went to the Fish Garden - just another spot along the reef where 'just us' snorkeled with Rays, beautiful fish, AND black-tipped sharks.  It was quite amazing - after I got over the fact that I was actually taking pictures of sharks while in the water with them!  One of our best snorkeling experiences and proof that my camera case did NOT leak.  My pictures were just OK, since I hadn't had the time I had planned to really learn how to use it in Rarotonga...but I do look forward to future snorkeling experiences down the road and I didn't have to worry about my camera getting wet.

We them went to a motu (a picnic areas on a deserted beach).  Some motu experiences are actually with tables in the water...but this one was in a hut just off of the beach - we ate barbequed marlin, baked poi, bananas, and other local food on plates made out of leaves.  We were serenaded by 3 local musicians (including Popo) and enjoyed swimming before and after lunch.  The water was quite shallow and we walked a long water into the lagoon with the water thigh deep.  A lovely, relaxing afternoon with NO rain.  The sun didn't come out until about an hour before we headed back but we were grateful.  It was warm and we got plenty of sun through the clouds and we were quite comfortable.  All in all, it was a wonderful day and made up for a few previous disappointments.

I managed to spend our last 1000 pacific francs (about $12) before we headed back to the ship.

Showers felt very good!  We ordered cheese trays and, once again, enjoyed our veranda while sailing away from Paradise with dreams of coming back.  Early show tonight with NEW entertainment - a NY comedian who (except for the first 15 minutes) was quite good.  Then dinner and off to bed.  We are now counting down the days to the end of our trip as we are in the last week of a great cruise experience.