#156 Nomad Diary 14-20 October 2023. Five Sea Days Sailing Honolulu to Tahiti. Our 40th Wedding Anniversary. Moorea and Pape'ete, Tahiti Adventure Waterfalls Tour

On Majestic Princess Sailing Honolulu to Tahiti

Amazing Rainbow Over the Ocean on a Sea Day

Decorated Cappucino Onboard is a Treat

Saturday. 14. Today is our 40th wedding anniversary. It was so nice to get greetings from our sons! Our four sons are all in their 30’s now and it’s so wonderful to see them grown and doing well. I am so grateful for our family and where we have been to where we are all now. Ten years ago we took a cruise for our 30th anniversary. We did the Princess round trip L.A. to Hawaii. It was a two week cruise in October, and it was also my Dad’s 78th birthday celebration. My Dad and his wife Donna went on that cruise with us. We all had such a wonderful time together! It was 2013 and my first 2 week long cruise, my first time to Hawaii, and the beginning of Darrell and I cruising every year after that for our vacations. Our 2020 March cruise was canceled because of the pandemic and we resumed with a week long cruise in December 2021.

This is a sea day on the Pacific Ocean. We exercise, eat well, visit with building friendships on this journey. 

Sunday. 15. We have wifi and were able to tune into our church at 5am our time for worship. 

Monday. 16. Every sea day is quite similar here. Darrell and I get up and exercise using our pre-recorded routines. We also are carrying our yoga mats with us so we go to wherever we want on the ship to exercise before breakfast. We meet at 9am for a Bible Class with about 45 attending from a variety of countries! Darrell is leading a read through of the book of Mark. Lunch we have at the buffet and eat out on the covered deck. We spend part of the day reading, doing Duolingo, meeting up for trivia, chorus, or presentations. We have a small group that we meet with for an early dinner in the restaurant. Two women traveling together for years now are Dazel in her 90’s from Florida and Ruth in her late 70’s from Oregon. Lynn from Christchurch is a single woman who has cruised for many years and has an interesting history with her Scottish family immigrating to New Zealand when she was a young child. She now has lived her life there and raised three sons and has grandchildren also. There is also Delores and Dave from Maryland, retired with stories from their neighborhood and life raising their children and grands too! 

Tuesday. 17.

Wednesday. 18.

Moorea Island, French Polynesia

Walking on Moorea I Saw Some Dogs

The Peak at Moorea is Covered in Clouds Much of This Day

Thursday. 19. Today we stopped at Moorea Island, 11 miles from the big island of Tahiti. It’s raining and our rental electric scooters canceled us because of the weather. It turned out that the weather cleared up in a couple of hours. We tendered into port and went on a long walk down the road. Darrell walked an hour more than me and we met back on the ship. It was a hot and humid time. While I was riding the tender back to the ship I saw a couple of whales in the bay but didn’t get good pictures of them.

View From Our 4x4 Truck Driving The Highway Out of Pape'ete, Tahiti

Our Tour Group Out of Our 4x4 at a Picture Stop on the Inside of the Island

Our Adventure Waterfall Tour in Tahiti. We Are Still Dry!

We Climbed The Mountain in Our 4x4 and Went Through This Tunnel to Go Down.

One of the Many Waterfalls on Our Tour. This One Ran Across The Road

Through the Tunnel. Looking At The Caldera Mountain Wall With Hundreds of Waterfalls Pouring Down. Our Road Was Just To The Left And a Three Hour Ride Down.

The Mountain Road Interior Tahiti

Friday. 20. Today we went on a tour in a 4x4 into the interior road of the island. We began by walking off the ship and a couple of blocks to our pick up. Our tour met at 9am and we were returned about 5pm. We were told to wear swimsuits, bring a rain jacket and prepare to get wet. It was sunny as we rode next to the beach on the highway. Then we made a turn in toward the center of the island. Our road became a mud road with some gravel and a lot of big mud puddles. We passed a couple of large trucks and also a power plant next to a river. The road had some wide spots for pulling off or sharing the road with two vehicles. We drove into some jungle. We saw some lovely valleys and the volcano mountain ridges. We stopped for pictures a couple of times. One stop was an old temple area. Around noon we had climbed up in elevation and the rain began. We were taken to a place they call the bellybutton of the volcano. There were restrooms and covered areas for us to have a snack break. After our hour rest here, we kept climbing in elevation and the road became narrower with very steep grades. The rain was constant and we were in clouds. The mountain rims were pouring hundreds of waterfalls. We came to a high road where we went through the mountain in an old mining tunnel. The road on all of this was so bumpy and I was grateful for having a cushion on my seat and a seatbelt. I held onto a bar next to me most of the day to keep from hitting my head during the bouncing of the truck. Once we drove through the tunnel we began our descent into the valley. This road was even narrower and slicker than the one going up. Our driver had skills and a worthy vehicle to get us through safely. He had mentioned that he was concerned for rock slides which we did not see any. And we were traveling with one or two other trucks and tour groups together as a precaution. We enjoyed the adventure and the very unique journey!

Nomad Notes. This week we learned that our 3rd son, Jeremy with his family will be moving to Brazil next year. It’s his first assignment with the State Department. He and his wife are already quite fluent in Portuguese and now expect to get even moreso. With this in mind, Darrell and I want to visit them during their two year tour there.