March 19, 2018 – Tahiti, Society Islands

We arrived in Papeete on Saturday evening, March 17, at 6:00 p.m., after a short 11-mile cruise from Moorea. Papeete is the capital of French Polynesia and lies on the Island of Tahiti. We spent two nights here and will leave tonight at 6:00 p.m. Here are the views of Papeete from our ship, looking in both the port and starboard directions.

 

French Polynesia is a possession of France, made up of more than 100 volcanic and coral islands and atolls, go­ing for more than 1,200 miles – a huge stretch of the Pacific Ocean as big as Western Europe. It is an oversea territory of France, with the legal status of a “collectivité.” They can pass their own laws, except in areas of foreign affairs, defense, the courts, security, and currency, which remain the responsibility of France. 

Papeete is located more than 10,000 miles away from Paris, but French is the only official language of French Polynesia. In round numbers, there are close to 280,000 inhabitants in all of French Polynesia, and nearly 200,000 of them live here on this one island of Tahiti. The city of Papeete and its suburbs include approximately 137,000 inhabitants. This is the big, bustling, industrial and commercial hub of the Central South Pacific. 

We learned a lot about French Polynesia during our shore excursion today, including time we spent at the Museum of Tahiti and Her Islands. Within its massive geographical area, French Polynesia is logically divided into five archipelagos: (1) The Society Islands: (the largest) – includes Tahiti, Moorea and Bora Bora. (2) The Tuamotu Archipelago and (3) the Gambier Archipelago are often associated together and include low islands and atolls – includes Rangiroa and Fakarava, our next two destinations this week). (4) The Australis Archipelago is the southern extremity of French Polynesia (including five inhabited islands). (5) The Marquesas are composed of 12 high, volcanic islands without lagoons. (We will visit one of these islands later this week).

Saturday evening a local Tahitian entertainment team – O Tahiti E – came on board Crystal Symphony and performed a program. Both the male and female performers were very athletic and full of energy, showing us what we understood were traditional, fast-paced dance movements, costumes, music (especially percussion), and the joy of dancing. The female dancers amazed us with how they moved their hips at an unbelievable fast speed. It was an absolutely great show.

Sunday, March 18, 2018 - Papeete
We have visited Papeete several times in the past and decided we wanted to get outside of the big city and look at more of the countryside of Tahiti. We signed up for a 4-hour shore excursion called, “Tahiti’s Temples, Artists & Culture” for today, and that was a good choice.

Our tour guide was an extraordinary German woman who moved to Tahiti more than 30 years ago and has apparently absorbed everything there is to know about the culture, history, topography, and botany of the island. She talked nearly nonstop for the whole four hours and was fascinating to listen to. 

Our first stop was at the Arahurahu Marae, a stone temple which was used for many functions by the ancient Polynesians. Of course, these people didn’t keep any written records. Our guide gave us a few ideas of what could have taken place here – ceremonies, funerals, executions of enemies, etc. The marae has been fully restored and is used for the reenactment of old Polynesian ceremonies or celebrations these days. It is a tranquil, beautifully maintained site with lush, tropical foliage. 

In the village of Papeari, we made a wonderful, slow-paced visit to a private home built in 1920 on a promontory point with a beautiful view out into the ocean, the south coast of the island, and the peninsula of Tahiti Iti. The current owners of the home are also owners of the very popular and well-respected “Restaurant du Musee Gaguin,” also in the village of Papeari. The 82-year-old owner, Juliet Gowen, guided us through her landscaped grounds. She described each of the plants and trees, with their medicinal properties (many of which are Chinese remedies) -- just amazing. At the end of the tour, she treated us to juice and fresh fruits right from her garden. This estate is a genuine tropical paradise and a special experience!

On the return trip to the ship, we made two short photo stops – one at a very nice public garden, and another at a fern grotto. But, the longest, and most interesting stop was at The Museum of Tahiti and Her Islands, which is about 10 miles south of Papeete. Purpose of the museum is to conserve and restore Polynesian artifacts and cultural practices. Our guide led us through the museum’s first several sections, but then we ran out of time and had to return to the ship. The museum is divided into four separate sections: geography and natural history, pre-European culture, the effects of colonization, and natural wonders. Exhibits were well done, and it would have been nice to spend more time here.

Papeete was the end of a segment of the World Cruise, and a lot of non-World-Cruisers left the ship today to fly home, while new people are getting on the ship for the next segment. We will continue cruising in an ESE direction across the South Pacific to Valparaiso (Santiago), Chile. Here’s a map of the planned itinerary for the next 19 days.

Monday, March 19, 2018 - Papeete
We woke up early and put our laundry in three washing machines at 5:30 this morning, in order to beat the crowd. It was all washed, dried, and folded by breakfast time at 8:00. These necessities of life sometimes intrude on the day-to-day schedule aboard ship. Today was a good day, because we had already decided this was going to be a day to rest and relax a little bit. We managed to do a pretty good job at that.

Here’s a recap of the nighttime entertainment we attended in the Galaxy Lounge over the past few days:

• Tuesday, March 13: Encore show for jazz pianist Kym Purling 
• Wednesday, March 14: A 2018 World Cruise Special Event, “An Evening in The South Pacific” featuring the entire World Cruise Entertainment Team. This was a really well-done show -- conceived, written, produced, and staged onboard Symphony as a one-time show. 
• Thursday, March 15: “Speakeasy” Production Show 
• Friday, March 16: Mark Merchant, Comedy Ventriloquist. Much fun. 
• Saturday, March 17: “O Tahiti E” Tahitian Dance Show as descried above. 
• Sunday, March 18: Repeat of the “O Tahiti E” show for the new cruisers who just boarded the ship 
• Monday, March 19: “Crystal in Motion.” We’ve already seen this twice, so we skipped it this time.

Our routine is to attend these shows every night after dinner, and before going to bed; but, there’s much more going on for the “night owls.” There is live music (and dancing) in four different venues around the ship every night – Crystal Cove, Palm Court, Starlite Club, and Avenue Saloon.

Tomorrow, March 20, we continue in French Polynesia, with an anchorage offshore at Rangiroa. 

Jim & Ginny