Starting the South Pacific

We sailed from Hawaii and headed toward the South Pacific islands of French Polynesia.  It was a full 5 or 6 days at sea, but there were plenty of events to keep us busy in the meantime.  First we did a big deck event where the cast sang songs from the musical "South Pacific" to get everyone in the right mode for the coming ports.  It was great fun to revisit that glorious music after having done it on tour.  We did some really fun arrangements and it was pretty surreal to sing those songs at sunset sailing in the middle of the ocean.  We also crossed the Equator during this time, which is always fun on ships.  There is an old tradition of sort of initiating people who have never sailed across the Equator.  Basically in a goofy ceremony the entertainment department dresses up for this ridiculous ceremony.  King Neptune comes on board with his queen and the ship is invaded by pirates and butchers and barbers and mermaids.  The un-initiated crew are covered in slime and thrown into the ship's pool to become "shellbacks."  Then the ship is approved by King Neptune for crossing.  Ha ha!  It's really silly, but good fun.

After those 6 days I can't tell you how excited I was to reach Papeete, Tahiti!  Papeete is the largest city in the series of islands of French Polynesia, but to be honest, it's just really rundown and not kept up very well.  I had rented a car for the day and went with the dancers and Tonyia to pick it up at the airport.  We took the bus there and couldn't believe the poverty and decrepit state of the town center.  The day started out pretty rainy, but once we got the car and headed out of town things cleared up.  Most of these islands have one main road that circles the island, Tahiti being no different.  I thought it would be fun to just drive that circle road (around 70 miles) to see the island.  We drove out of town and it didn't take us long to see some spectacular views.  That idyllic coast with coconut palms and big waves didn't disappoint.  Another thing we found a lot on this island were animals roaming.  There were stray dogs and roosters and many other creatures.  

1st Sister

Along our drive one of our first stops was a hike to The Three Sisters waterfalls.  I had in my head a vision of waterfalls in Tahiti and I was not going to leave without seeing that vision come to fruition.  We quickly started our walk through a thick, lush, green bamboo forest.  I am always amazed at the difference in vegetation around the world and this island was another completely different landscape.  We were truly in rainforest and jungle.  It was just so green.  It only took us about 5-10 minutes to walk down the path when we started hearing the first sister.  Suddenly the trees opened up to a waterfall 300 feet tall.  It came plunging down to a great pool and we all just started running to get a closer look.  I can't remember seeing a waterfall quite like this up close.  It was beautiful and already Tahiti was living up to all I was hoping for.

Next we headed to the other 2 sisters waterfalls, which were a bit more of a hike.  It was fun to feel like we were really trekking through the woods to get to our destination.  There were stone steps to climb and beautiful scenery as we hiked the 20 minutes to sister #2.  This waterfall was just as high and fell down near a wooden bridge.  As we walked across the bridge we saw sister 3.  This was the biggest and best of the three.  Also- a local guide had tipped us off that this waterfall had a pool big and deep enough to swim!  Immediately we ran up and started climbing the rocky edges down into the dark water with the ice cold waterfall pouring into the pool.  It was freezing, but invigorating.  How many times in your life are you going to be there abel to swim under a wild waterfall in the middle of the jungle?!  There were literally no other people around and it felt so amazing!

Sister #2.  

Couldn't pass up the chance to swim.

After our hiking and waterfall adventures we headed just across the street to an area of the coast that had a blowhole.  The waves had crashed along these rocks long enough that a sort of tunnel had formed and the mixture of air and water pressure created these sort of geysers that would shoot up depending on the waves.  It was an interesting little natural phenomenon and had a beautiful view of an adjacent beach.  At that point we realized the sun would be setting sort of soon and we wanted to continue our drive around the island to be on the west side as the sun set.  We continued our drive past beaches and amazing green valleys.  We went through another small rainstorm and as we were driving I realized we were traveling the right way to see a rainbow form on the other side of the storm.  When it stopped raining I began my hunt for the rainbow and I wasn't disappointed.  I probably shocked everyone in the car as I shouted and swerved to pull over and get out of the car because there was a full rainbow connecting to parts of Tahiti across a bay.  It was so awesome!

We did end up making it to a small beach in time for sunset and it felt good to just sit on a deserted beach and wade in warm ocean water.  The sun wet right over Moorea, the island we were heading to the next day, and in our sight we could see huts built over the water, a staple of French Polynesian lagoons.  I think all 4 of us took a moment to pause and just soak in what a gift it was to be standing on this island in the middle of the Pacific.  What a blessing.  

That evening I had dinner with Tonyia in this area with a bunch of food trucks.  We found one where we picked out meats (beef and swordfish for us) and veggies.  Then they gave us our own personal little charcoal grill to cook the meat as we ate.  It was fun and the 3 crepes we split for dessert weren't bad either!  Back on board the ship a renowned local dance group performed.  There was live music hat I just loved and about 15 dancers in so many beautiful, elaborate costumes.  It was definitely a highlight of the day and such a cool thing to see traditional performance like that.  The style of dance was so athletic, but clearly very specific and difficult.  

Already loving French Polynesia and there are 2 islands left to visit!

Tripp