Port Rating:

Patrick and his passengers joined us on his family's private motu for our Polynesian feast buffet lunch. The island was lovely with a great view of Bora Bora across the lagoon. Although the food was good we did not receive the advertised bottle of wine or champagne per couple. When I asked, Patrick opened one bottle of champagne and poured several persons small servings--and that was it. Apparently no one else asked for any though that was advertised as part of lunch. After lunch we stopped to snorkel one more time before returning to the dock.

Later that afternoon we returned to shore in Vaitape and visited the Tahia Pearl shop where I bought a piece of black pearl jewelry. When I hesitated to buy because I had heard they had a larger shop on Moorea, the clerk advised that I could exchange or trade up if I found another piece I liked better there. As it turned out, I did not find anything I liked better. There was a local festival going on in town that night but we opted to eat on the ship and stay on board--in hindsight, we should have gone to the festival.

Day 2: The next morning we returned to shore and wandered through several shops--lots of pearl and souvenir shops but not much in the way of art galleries, which I'd hoped to find. We did not have time to rent a car and drive around the islands.

After lunch we took the ship's tender service to their private beach area. There are no chairs and no restroom facility but it is a nice beach with good snorkeling and they had a kayak as well. They do offer drink service--pop, beer, rum drinks, and water.

Port Rating:

Day 2: This morning we took the ship's "Aito Off-Road Safari" tour--in the back of a pick-up type 4WD vehicle. The tour first headed up a valley agricultural area through pineapple fields and stopped at the Belvedere lookout point for a wonderful view of both bays and the mountain in between. Another stop was at the top of a steep trail on "magic mountain" for more views of Opunohu Bay and lagoon area. Our last stop was at a juice factory/distillery where we tasted a few samples. We had time to shop but because it was the end of the cruise so we opted not to buy a bottle of anything.

Back at the dock we considered walking about a mile to the nearest village to check out the shops but decided against it because it was warm and looked like it might rain. There are always a few jewelry and souvenir vendors by the docks.