Papeete, Tahiti

We were here on the 2012, 2015, and 2018 world cruises, so see those pages for those adventures.

This inter-island ferry was berthed at the next dock. What's interesting is that it includes verandah rooms for passengers, containers for transporting goods, and even floating platforms near the bow, so it can build temporary docks at some of the islands without adequate infrastructure. There were even a pair of small boats strapped to the top of the containers.

A greeter in full regalia was among a group coming in to greet our passengers. We were off too early to be greeted properly, but that was fine with us. We had things to do.

The market was just getting started.

 
These vendors were just outside of the market building.

We walked along the waterfront.

These yellow flowering trees in the bean family were attracting lots of bees.

 
From Polynesian memorials to small cement tiles in the sidewalk imprinted with fossil-like creatures.
There was a lot to take in on our walk.

This Polynesian canoe piece was new since last time we were here.

We stopped to watch three ninja instructors and their students.

We were still not far from the ship, so we kept walking...

A variegated screwpine next to a stone arch.

The Chestnut-breasted Mannikins were colorful and twitchy--it was not easy to take their picture.

Beach naupaka (Scaevola taccada) is native to all of the Pacific Islands, India, and eastern Africa, but it's been introduced to Florida and other warm climates in the Americas. (There is a native species (S. plumieri) in Florida known as beachberry with black fruit.)The Polynesian legend says that a princess known as Naupaka was separated from her lover so she is embodied into this plant that has only half of a flower.

Unusual to see cats on rocks. There were two of them.

 
We saw several hearts painted with different designs along the waterfront park areas.

 
We came to a river, but before we walked inland to cross the bridge, we watched a flock of mannikin birds flying in groups to the water's edge for insects or something.

 
The street art on the side of a small theater.

From the bridge...

 
An old guy with a bad knee still making moves at this skate park.

Also at the skate park, an interesting take on the evolution of man.

We'd been to this cemetery before, but this time we went much further in--it goes for ten different levels all the way up this wooded ravine to the top of the hill.

 
We commented on this saying before: it translates to our regrets or sorrows, but we like to think of it as no regrets.

 
A cemetery worker moved from place to place with his tools to tidy up the area.

An unusual grave or monument built from many small beach rocks was for a queen.

Queen Marautaaroa I (1869-1936)

We think this memorial is for the victims of the nuclear experiments in the Pacific in the 1940s & 1950s.

 
We climbed all the way to the top and saw people who were building new grave sites in the higher levels.

This was a very Polynesiany grave site.

On our way back down, we stopped on a pedestrian bridge across a road to take a photo of the pool that we had passed at ground level earlier in the day. And in the background, just across the bay, is Moorea, our destination for the next day. The ship didn't leave the dock here until early the next morning.

Moorea, French Polynesia

This was a tender port and we were on the first tender of the day and the greeters were already at work. We'd visited here in 2018, so visit that page to see what we did that time.

We walked about a mile along the road to get to the trailhead for Magic Mountain and while it's not part of a Disney property, this woman at a juice stand collected 400 Pacific Francs (about $4) for admission for both of us.

While the entrance says no cars or motorbikes, group tours in 4-wheel drive vehicles were allowed, but fortunately we were early enough that this did not interfere with our experience.

 
As we gained some altitude, we had some good views of the Zuiderdam anchored in this beautiful bay.

There were many of these interesting passionvines growing along the trail. A set of thorny sepals grows up to surround the fruit.

Here we were, if a bit distorted, looking back to our ship.

A concrete slab was at the very top of the mountain.

From the top we could see the very narrow opening in the reef that we sailed through to get to our anchoring site, which was to the left of this photo, but the tenders had to travel a fair distance to get to the tender dock which was to the right.

From the top of Magic Mountain, a telephoto of the tender dock next to the octagonal church with the orange roof.

 
We went down the alternate, less steep, but longer trail to the bottom. There were many of these hibiscus shrubs (Hibiscus tiliaceus), which were used by early Polynesians for making rope and paper and it was a canoe crop taken to Hawaii where it's called hau.

 
As we got closer to sea level there were quite a few fruit trees including this pomelo, a type of citrus. We saw this tiny wet mouse on the trail. We thought it had just been born since it was so tiny and so wet.

 
It began to rain and seemed to be fairly persistent, so we dug out our ponchos, but the rain stopped only a few minutes later--just long enough to get the ponchos wet.

Back in the street. We'd shaken the water from the ponchos and put them back in our packs.

It was Sunday, so we'd heard singing in churches along the road and also in this one by the tender dock. Some of our shipmates had entered the church.

The greeters were still playing for the arrival of each tender. That's real dedication.

The peaks appeared and disappeared behind mist and clouds. It had been a beautiful 10-mile day for us.

The next 2 days was a new island for us, Raiatea.