March 24, 2026- Day # 79

 We are docked at Raiatea, French Polynesia today. This is the second largest island of the Society Islands. Tahiti is the only larger island. This was the navigational starting point for the ancient migration to Hawaii, New Zealand, and other parts of East Polynesia. This island is believed to be settled in about 1000 AD and the original name was Havai’i which led to Hawaii getting its name. Now called Raiatea which means “faraway heaven, it remains the center of education called colleges, which are the secondary schools for students from the local islands of Bora Bora, Tahaas, and Huahine. This island is also the center of religion and culture over the past 1000 years. 

Our tour today was an adventure. It was raining when we boarded a catamaran and heard the guide talk about the local area and history for about 30 minutes. I could see the dark clouds ahead of us, so we donned our rain ponchos just ahead of entering a driving rainstorm. I also put up an umbrella as a rain and wind block, bit everyone on board was completely soaked. Once we got to our destination island we boarded a rickety school bus to travel over the island to a vanilla farm and production facility. It was quite rustic but we learned about vanilla plants and products. Of course, Tahitian vanilla is the best, and it sure smelled good. Next we went about 10 minutes to another site and after some local music we heard another talk on the culturing process of Tahitian pearls and how to get the various colors and sizes of pearls. Very similar to our prior talk, but a few variations. A traditional Polynesian lunch buffet was very good, along with some rum punch.  Some more music and dance while a female, and then a male showed us how they can twist and tie a simple beach towel into various forms of clothing. The last stop on this tour was some beach time and swimming on a separate island, but almost everyone skipped this, as we were just drying out from our morning soaking. 

On the boat ride back to the ship we did come across some black tipped reef sharks (see picture). Dinner was another Polynesian feast. Another fun day in beautiful French Polynesia. Next we sail for the Cook Islands.