Oceana Travels

Tahiti

Day 0 - Papeete
Stayed up til we had to leave at 4 am. Plane -> Salt Lake City -> LA, CA -> Tahiti. On plane saw the end of Pooh's Heffelump movie in French, Miss Congenialitiy 2 and the Pacifier. We started playing trivia against other passengers and our family. Finally we arrived at late at night. Oh, before, we had dinner in LAX at an uber-expensive restaurant where I had gorditas.

Day 1 - Papeete
Up early for sit down breakfast. Came back, fell asleep, went to walk out on shore. Lunch after reading in portal. Frenzy to get to excursion. 4 wheel drive around waterfalls, swam in one, climbed up. Eventually flipped off. Slapped each other with silver fern from New Zealand. Made crowns with ginger leaves. Later I found out that there were eels where we swam =O. Later came back for nice emergency drill, and swimming later. Dinner -> sleep -> dancing show. Went up to Disco at the end of the night and they were playing Ricky Martin. Soon afer getting there we headed back down and hit the sack.

Day 2 - Huahine
Up, buffet breakfast, stretched with Christine. Later went ashore and went on a snorkeling excursion. Got to dive in at the end over Christine, and play with floatation device. Drove boat home and it went very crooked due to the over compensating. Came back, then singer/songwriter Mark Newsome performed a show, which I was the only one who stayed awake fro the whole thing. Fell asleep shortly after.

Day 3 - At Sea
Buffet breakfast again. Went to play in a ping pong tournament with some girls. After ping pong, I met back up with mom and Christine, and we checked out ceramics which turned out to be too expensive. Stuff... went to sit down lunch. Wet, whacky wild pool olympics. Did hoop chain thing. Team: me Chrissy, David, Lois, and another guy (older). Then duel in life circle and knock opponent out. We won those. Then swim across pool blow balloon, swim back, chug beef, and change tee-shirts. We won. Then one girl from each team was to stuff as much fruit into her bathing suit as possible. Chrissy went from our team. She got a bunch of fruit and 2 pineapples and scratches from pineapples. Other lady sort of got watermelon so she got a lot of points. Meh, we still won and got drinks. Hung out in pool/hut tub later watched water volleyball then joined in for a winning game. Dancing show tonight. The Century Sings. We were going to go out again tonight, but alas I fell asleep watching the Phantom of the Opera movie.

Day 4 - Rarotonga
Early morning tour around the island. This one had spectacular views and our guide was funny. Came back for sit down lunch. Out back to the island after lunch walked for a while, but all the stores were closed because it was Sunday on a very religious island. Took a nap out by the pool. Dinner. We tried to play mah jong after dinner, but some kids were watching a movie, blocking our way. Later went to sock hop. Had hula hoop contest, stuff and Elvis impersonation contest. Sock hop died a little after the live band left.

Day 5 - At Sea
Wandered into some teens who I hung out with for a while. Met up with them later, played assasin's. Ballroom dance class with Christine. Back to the teens talked/played cards with them. Dance show after dinner. STRANGE costumes I must say. Collapsed after the show while watching the Aviator. Waiters were dressed in cute Italian outfits at dinner tonight.

Day 6 - Raiatea
Horseback riding early in the morning. My horse was old and slow and didn't listen to me very well. But it was fun because when we got too far behind, so I got to trot to catch up. Came back and later went out snorkeling. Twas a drift snorkel, so we hiked up some path and followed the current back down. Some places the coral grew to about a foot under the surface of the water, so it was a bit scary swimming over them with the sea urchins there and everything. I got through it and I liked the sea anenome part and clownfish because I learned about that in Finding Nemo, ... see animated movies are educational. Before dinner we saw the Children of Raiatea, they were cute I guess. I wish I learned to shake my hips like that at such a young age, and I still can't do that. My sister was one of the many that got picked to go up and dance, but she tried to make me go instead, but I resisted so she went. After dinner we had our pictures taken with a male, female, and child Polynesian dancers. It was the cute girl who was 6. Later there was the adult Polynesian dancers who were really good. It was really crowded on the deck so we stood high on the hot tub. Then turned around to see the champagne waterfall being constructed and poured on. It only went to about the fifth tier when there were about 15 tiers. Lots of glasses and free champagne. The "mid-night" buffet was a little scant so we just ate some fruit and tarts. Danced a little then took a walk with her and my ssiter, then back to the room to play cards. First time in a while.

Day 7 - Bora Bora
Breakfast was too early at 8, after we finished watching the end of Spiderman 2. Nap then Broadway Trivia. Later sting rays and snorkeling. Snorkeling was very good, much less scary than yesterday. Our guide, Alex was really cool. He was wearing a thong thing with a flap in the front. He let Christine drive the boat, Then at the end, well after I had to rub vanilla stuff on his back, and was like "lower" (onto his butt), but I just laughed. He wrapped himself in a towell and took off his thong thing, which is a pareo, then he made flowy pants out of it, which I thought was pretty cool. Later that night there was a passenger talent show after Mark Newsome (singer) and Jeff Wayne (comedian) did a few numbers. I ordered a pina colada with strawberry since it was the drink of the day. So there were 3 passenger acts and 2 crew acts. Passengers: girl gutair and song, ballroom dacing-cute old chinese couple, and Jim-singing. Crew: assistant cook-clarient, Degas-art acution dude-juggling. Then there was "The Ole' cruise ship favorite" If I were not upon the Sea.

Day 9 - Bora Bora
Went off the ship in the morning. Took a car to Novatel, a hotel where the public could use all their facilities. I saw a boat for parasailing, and I was like, I want to go!! After issues with obtaining the proper payment for it, Christine and I finaly got to go. IT WAS SO SPECTACULAR! We then went swimming in the pool and lay in the hammock. We started walking to a beach and stopped at a boutique on the way. We arrived at a small beach. Mom sat down on a coconut tree that was horizontal and exclaimed how pointy it was. When she got up. We pointed out that she sat on barbed wire. Caught a car back to the boat and got ready for formal night. Baked Alaska parade night. Later there was a dance show, C'est Magnifique. I made a round to see if anything was going on, nothing was, so back to the room.

Day 10 - Moorea
Went off on our snorkeling excursion. First stop: stingrays and sharks. The usual swim and pet the sting rays. A little further from them where the boat was anchored, swam a group of sharks, that were roughly the same size as me. I kept my distance though they didn't seem to be interested in us anyways. The rest of the snorkel was great. We saw more clownfish and sea anenomes, along with fun things to play with in the coral, and pineapple back on the boat. Tonight's show, more Polynesian dancing. Better dancing, but less interaction witht he audience so we could not really understand what their hula movements meant. Then at the end, I got chosen and while my sister was laughing at me for getting picked, she too was picked. So we had to go up there and shake our hips before we got to sit back down.

Day 11 - Papeete
Hot day, we went ashore and shopped around a lot. We arrived at the bookstore and on display were the 2 UK editions of Harry Potter selling for an excess of 5800 francs which is roughly equivalent to $58 and my parents wouldn't get it for me. Anyways we bought cheap Tahiti souveniers. Back on the boat Mom and I played cards, then lunch. Met back up with teens after lunch we wandered around a bit, expressed our envy to new passengers on the ship reading the new Harry Potter book. Disembarked the boat, and flew home.