Animal Day on the Lido

We have been wondering why we only have had four towel animals awaiting us in our rooms at night—a rabbit, lobster, elephant, and another. Used to get one every night along with our two chocolates, and these were always a lovely surprise. 

Today, the Lido Pool area is all decked out with every kind of standing, sitting, and hanging animal composed of towels and washcloths. Every passenger is smiling as they walk through this jungle.

 

Captain Paul

Captain Paul Adams joined our ship in San Diego where we boarded. The ship had just sailed in from an Alaska trip (some passengers stayed on board) and we were soon to embark on a 51-day of discovery of South Pacific islands on the Volendam.  Our journey was made exceptional by the warmth and passenger engagement of our Captain.

The Captain lives in Scarborough, England, with his wife Corie and two sons.  He has been with Holland America Lines since 2093, and currently works three months on board them three months off.  He also is involved with the Arisan Maritime Center CSMART (https://www.csmartalmere.com/about-us/).  

Our trip was made so much better with his passenger engagement and easy-going personality (including participating onstage with a juggler-comedian performer), and his Captain talks on our voyage were exceptional. Below is a photo from earlier in his career —the smile is genuine!

Sailing away

 We are now bound for San Diego.  The first night in this last bit had a beautiful time with albatrosses floating on our  air wake. They hung in the warm air riding the breeze from the ship just below our stateroom for over an hour.

Fakarova and Nuka Hiva

Fakarova was another tendered port in a beautiful setting.  Here I waded into the crystal clear water to sit among the tropical fish and watch the many black tipped sharks cavort.  One came within 25 feet of me but apparently they leave you alone as long as you don’t bother them.

The next and last port of our trip was in Nuka Hiva —it too was lovely as the above sunset attests—it was also the hottest day of our trip: 90 degrees..

Tahiti

 

Tahiti is a lovely port city, and we were moored in its downtown.  The first day was on Saturday Nov 11, Remembrance Day, and much was closed as people solemnly celebrated (and we passed through a small community just as a band was leading a parade).  Our guide was a knowledgeable lady, and she explained much of what we saw, including a lovely stood for refreshments at a resort on a beautiful small bay, explorations at a botanical garden and stops at a fern grotto (lava cave with a cool pool of water formed by rainwater dropping over a fern encrusted cave top).

A beautiful walkway borders the harbor and Liz and I walked all along it enjoying sculptures, carvings, and the beauty around us.

From our balcony, we could see an adjacent ship loading yachts aboard, and just past her was an enormous yacht owned by a billionaire New Zealander—the Andromeda is an impressive super yacht. We were here over-night and it was a lovely stop. Unfortunately, most things were also closed on the second day, Sunday.

Huahine

 

Our ship was anchored off-shore in Huahine (pronounced wah-hi-ne) and means female — again showing the connection of the South Pacific languages to Hawaii’s.  We had a wonderful, informative tour (probably the best of the trip) led by a local man who was actually born in California as his Huahine mother was having a difficult birth.  He returned to his island at 4 months of age, but has remained close with his family outside of Sonora and visited them often—his fluent English was a testament to the close family tie.

He shared much local history and botany of the island, and took us via boat to his family’s pearl farm in the middle of an only on the bay.  I had an unfortunate trip-and-fall on the wooden deck (missed a step) as I was looking ahead at a fish in the clear water when I should have been looking down at where I was stepping, but came through pretty much unscathed with some bruising and swelling that has mostly passed now. 

We stopped to watch 3-4 foot long blue-eyed eels swim in a stream and also visited a vanilla farm, tasting homemade vanilla ice cream—which was lovely as it was quite hot at the farm. 

Mo’orea

 

Mo’orea is a heart-shaped island with two deep bays:  Cooks Bay and Opunohu Bay—Captain Cook came into Oppunohu Bay, and so did we. Where we anchored for an overnight stay.  With two full days to explore this lovely island, we went out and about both days.   Liz and I loved the warmth of the people.  Mo’orea is part of French Polynesia, and French and Polynesian were the main languages, but many people also spoke English. 

 Its jagged mountains were topped with clouds at dawn, but the clouds burned off quickly— making it very warm.

On the first day we used a tour from Alpert’s—a huge family business was.  The next day, we followed the Ship’s Polynesian Ambassador, Kainoa from Hawaii, who referred us to his cousin’s pearl shop (Hina Pearls), taking the free black shuttle bus there to peruse quality documented pearls. It looks like both companies are connected, and family connections seem large on this island.

The show that was performed on our excursion was quite lovely and a short video of the fire dance (which I tried to put here but ship WiFi being problematic it ended up at the top, so be it) captures some of it.  

Uh-Oh. A wandering shell.

The Energizer Bunny (my sister-in-law, Liz) likes to walk along beaches and collect pretty shells.  She called some at Aitutaki day before yesterday. 

Yesterday was very rocking-and-rolling because of winds and high seas. Last night—still lots of rolling—I woke up in the night and on my way back from our stateroom bathroom, I found one of her shells she had collected in Aitutaki on the far side of my bed where it must have fallen off the table and rolled across the carpeted floor 10 feet.  I picked it up and put it on my bedside table. Next morning I got up and it was gone, so I warned your mother not to step on a loose shell rolling around and she said—“I almost stepped on it and I have picked it up and put it back on the counter.” Just now we found it on the floor again five feet away—and  your mom  said: “ I think it’s alive—there is something in it!”  Well, the hermit crab is now in a glass with a little bit of sea salt from our balcony dissolved in a little water. We are trying to decide the next step for returning it to a suitable habitat. 

Cook Islands

 Following sea days when we enjoyed shipboard activities (watching great shipmates dance, for example, during the 5 o’clock dance hour shown in the last image here ) and leisure time to read and relax, we reached Cook Island and Aitutaki.  

It is a beautiful island with a difficult tender transport—using the Lee of the island plus the Lee of the ship we were able to access tenders for the difficult journey ashore through a lengthy 45’ wide channel where only one vessel at a time could cross.  Once there, we easily walked to a lovely lagoon area full of birds, shells, and beautiful scenery.

The next day was another Cook Island stop at Raratonga, but the captain felt it was unsafe to tender ashore and instead we are circumnavigating this lovely island paradise. This island view is shown at the top. 

Halloween

 We decorated our door for Halloween and enjoyed the decor around the ship!