Wednesday, January 18. Cloudy, 80 C.
Hurray, Hurray we get to go ashore today!
Amazing how the only thing that we really want to do is step on solid land! Such a simple thing, but missed so much.
There is really not a great deal to do here, but Fellette and I are hoping just to walk in the bright sun for some time and take in South Sea Island Life. Swimming is not on the agenda today, nor is rain, but, you never know!
I had a good talk with our kids this morning. Actually, Wally phoned us before we had stopped moving around 6:30 AM. Pleasant surprise. I caught Jeanette and Craig a bit later, tried my sister mid morning but no answer. [We sent a good old fashioned Post Card to her today from here though.]
We have learned how to use the complicated TV now, so next we can progress to finding out what the weather is at home. [All this may seem strange to understand but there is so much to get used to onboard that it takes a bit of getting used to.]
Around 9:30 we went ashore in a tender: it’s been a while since we experienced that. A nice 15 minute ride to a scene sort of like a modern Ernest Hemingway novel in a lazy seaside South Pacific Island. Lots of young crew were ready to assist us older folks as we tried to synchronize stepping off the tender at the same time as the boat bobs!
We explored the area around the pier for a while and stepped out into the searing heat and headed down the road: it felt so good to be walking in the wide open space compared to the last eight days of confinement. Soon we were looking for some shade which we shared with a few other shipmates. That shade also had a lovely breeze blowing off the shore through it. Basically there was nothing of interest along the roadway which just went to more nowhere. It was like we were prisoners released and taking in our new freedom in any form.
We had been advised on the ship that there was Wi-Fi available at a pizza place along the road, so we settled in there. The beer was also cold so that was a bonus. Later, we ordered pizzas and eventually we were magically lured back to our floating air-conditioned hotel via that magical 15 minute boat ride.
It was a good introduction the Tropical Island Experience today, with cooperation from the weatherman. A dinner is not on our agenda tonight although I am sure the food on offer on deck tonight will likely draw us there for a bite of something. We set sail at 10:30 for Papeete (Tahiti), a two day sail.
All four of us feel that we have been here before, many years ago. There have been quite a few new buildings and improvements over the years but the old bones are visible if you look hard. This place is French and the money comes from France to support this part of what remains of numerous French Possessions. Oddly enough we are not supplied with any literature or maps at the ports we visit. That seems to have been a cost cutting casualty of the pandemic by the cruise line.
We received a very nice phone call from our two sons and our grandson late afternoon, what a nice surprise and a lift!
I just realized today that we are 12% of the way through this trip and I don’t feel like we have even started!
A Very Good Day…
No comments:
Post a Comment