Last post: Hawaii

Hilo, Hawaii (Big Island)
March 6, 2013

Back in the USofA!

Mostly gray and rainy as we arrived...then the sun broke through and there was a beautiful rainbow right across the harbour.  Immigration officials boarded here and we all had to present ourselves for passport inspection first thing upon arrival.

As is the case for most of the Pacific islands, the Big Island is volcanic and has the distinction of being the youngest land mass on earth because Kilauea has been erupting continuously for the last 20 years.  Mauna Loa is also an active volcano, while Mauna Kea is dormant.  Mauna Kea is snow-capped for part of the year and there was still some up there.

I took a helicopter tour over Kilauea volcano in the morning.  What luck!  I was seated up front and against the door!  It was thrilling just being up in the air, seeing everything from a bird's eye view.  Even more thrilling was to see so much volcanic activity.  Lava from the Puuoo vent flows into the ocean, sending up billows of steam and turning the water yellow from the sulphur.  Just under the lava, you can catch glimpses of the red magma. Volcanic cones erupt with red magma, which is incredibly dramatic.  Steam spews out here and there right up the side of the volcano.  We were flying at around 5000 feet, but with my telephoto lens, I could look right down into the gates of hell!  We flew over areas where the cooling lava has left fantastic designs.  We saw the remnants of the village of Kalapana which was buried in 1990.  Since land ownership lasts100 years, people have already started to rebuild right on the cooled lava field.

The only downside to the day was that it started to rain as we took off.....rain alternated with sun for the rest of the ride.  But when we returned, the skies opened up just as I made my way to the terminal.  I was soaked to the skin and arrived shivering and cold at the ship.  Well, nothing a Meyers rum couldn't cure!!

Some photos:

Kahului, Maui
March 7, 2013

Much prettier island...at least from what I can see from my balcony.  Lovely day.  Blue skies and sun for once.  This was good because I went on a whale watch.  The whales we saw are Humpback whales, or Megaptera  Novaeangliae who are born here.  They go to Alaska for one purpose...to eat and eat and eat in order to sustain themselves for the long voyage home to this area where they breed and calve.  As with the grey whales in Cabo San Lucas two years ago, we watched mothers and calves together.  The calves are nursing and frolicking.....exercising their flippers and flukes.  We had some wonderful sightings.  No full breaches, but wonderful tail and flipper smacking...and a full head popping straight up to reconnoiter.  A lot of the time, the whales were just lolling at the surface and you could see just how long they are.  We also saw quite a few sea turtles who popped up their little heads to take a look at us.

Some photos:

At sea
March 8, 2013

The first of four days at sea en route to LA.  The captain ended code red today and so the ship returns to normal.  I hurried down to the Verandah to make a reservation for lunch.  I was fourth in line and their phone was ringing off the hook!  I got what we wanted...one last lunch before we disembark.

Other than that, you know my daily regimen.  So, this is my last post.  I've had a wonderful time, but I am looking forward to getting home on the 12th and seeing everyone.....and my Bau.

At sea, March 2-5, 2013

At sea en route to Hawaii
March 2-5, 2013

Usual routine which I will not repeat, but I will post some photos of my various haunts around the ship. Update on norovirus...we are still getting some new victims, but fewer each day and the first people to be diagnosed and quarantined are being released from their cabins.  We hear that the Queen has the virus, was hospitalized and now has been released.  CDC sent us forms to complete about routines, excursions and meals since Napier....whether or not we have been ill.  An epidemiologist joins us in Hilo and is going to try to get to the bottom of the problem.  Apparently, the QM2 also has it, but it is under control there.  We think we may well be under restrictions until we return to LA.  We are rather tired of the limited options in the Lido...because they need more crew to serve us, they have had to limit a lot of food stations.  The outside grill is also closed.  So we've been eating lunch in the Pub or in the Dining Room.  One thing for sure...we won't starve!

Not been to many shows...except for Monday...a wonderful flautist from Manchester (UK, that is!)

This is the Cafe Carinthia where we often have drinks while listening to the Eos string quartet or the harpist.

The Garden Lounge..another venue for drinks.  Beautiful and very underused....and very quiet for a nice long read.

The Library where I have checked out some mediocre mysteries...now have a book of Evelyn Waugh's short stories.  I have also read on my iPad.

A photo  of our Trivia team...we finally won in a tie, but lost the tie-breaker. But we have four more days!  And a photo of Paul and Amy in Bora Bora.

Papeete, Tahiti and Bora Bora, Society Islands, French Polynesia

February 28 and March 1, 2013

Papeete, capital of Tahiti.  Another maiden call for the QE.  We were here in 2008 and spent a wonderful day on the nearby island of Moorea, swimming with the sting rays, lunching in a glade and swimming in the most beautiful azure water after a tour of the island.  This time we had booked a tour of Papeete with a visit to the Gauguin Museum.  Turns out the museum is closed and so we cancelled.

Gorgeous morning as we arrived and backed into the quay which is right in the center of town.  These ships can do anything.  A tug always hovers, but is not necessary.  We executed a 180 in the tiny harbor and then backed in, finally sidling crabwise to the dock.  Not so much as a tiny bump.  Truly amazing!  The rugged crests of mountains looms over the city.

Very hot and humid, but I took a little walk around the shops...mainly tourist items..and the covered marketplace.  Unfortunately, I could not walk far.  Just as well, as it turns out.  I decided to spend the day at the pool, but sitting in the shade.  There were only a handful of people at the Pavilion pool...it was like having my own private pool.  I had a nice swim, did some knee exercises, left the pool and started to read in my cozy armchair.  I watched the storm clouds gather over the dramatic mountains and then move toward the town and the ship.  Thunder, lightning and rain.  And that is the way it stayed for most of the day.  Paul and Amy had gone into town after I did and they got soaked!  Fortunately, my armchair was under an overhang which runs around the outer edges of the pool area.  So I stayed there until lunch and then headed for my cabin.

Paul and Amy came down to my cabin at 6.  We ordered our meal and some malt scotch.  After dinner, we we watched Paul's videos of our Panama Canal trip on this ship in 2011.  Paul has been busy editing his footage every afternoon.  It brought back wonderful memories, though bittersweet because Olga was with us then.  After dinner, we settled on the balcony with our scotches for sailaway and Paul finally smoked his cigar.  He's tried to go to Churchill's, the cigar lounge, but the cigarette smokers have taken over.  Churchill's is no longer a quiet haven for a good cigar which smells a lot better than a roomful of cigarette smoke.

It was a lovely mild evening as we set sail for Bora Bora, just 149 miles away!

What never ceases to amaze and thrill me is how these volcanic islands, with peaks some 7000 feet high, just appear out of the middle of nowhere, as the captain describes  sailing the Pacific.  There are thousands of them!  They look like a movie set.

Bora Bora

Bora Bora (or in Tahitian, Pora Pora) is a jewel of an island...a volcanic upthrust of two sharp crested mountains surrounded by a lagoon which is surrounded by coral islands which contain most of the fancy resorts and the airport, which are accessible only by boat.  Access to the lagoon is through a very narrow channel.  It was amazing how close the ship came to ankle-deep water!  We anchored and tendered in to the main village, Vaitape.  It was the maiden call for the QE.  Only about 18-20 cruise ships visit this island per year.

At first, the weather was lovely, just like yesterday.  At 8:30, we embarked on an off-road tour in Range Rovers.  And what an experience!  We lurched up rocky and muddy inclines, around hairpin bends and up, over and down steep inclines.  At a couple of points, it was like being in a roller-coaster!  It was great fun, providing gales of laughter!  And, wonderful views from the top of the tracks...in one case, US gun emplacements from 1942.  After Pearl Harbor, the US virtually took over Bora Bora and bulldozed tracks up the mountains, installing several large guns to protect the harbor.  Well, good thing they were never needed.  They had been built in 1904, used in WWI, and had been furnished with the wrong sIze shells!

Then the weather changed....rain, thunder, lightning, just like yesterday.  Our driver, Jimmy, quickly put up the top and we continued our tour, heading back down the mountain, onto the main road and then offroad again.  This was the modus operandi for the morning.  We stopped at a pearl farm and watched a demonstration of removing a pearl from an oyster.  We also learned how the pearls are seeded in order to obtain the  famous local black pearl.  Of course there was a shop with fabulous offerings.  No takers in our group!  We passed resorts and beaches, the famous restaurant Bloody Mary's and the Sofitel, when Dino di Laurentis came to film "Hurricane" in 1977, and Club Med, which was destroyed by a earthquake in 1991. As we drove around the entire island, only six miles long and two and a half mi wide, we passed through the three main villages, each one built around a church.  The majority of people here are Protestants, as they are throughout the Pacific Islands.  We also happened to see the Gendarmerie investigating marijuana growers at their home.  According to Jimmy, they have no crime, no gangs, And no drugs other than marijuana!   They credit the influence of their religion.

French is the first language of the people.  In middle school students can choose a second language...English or Tahitian.  Most choose Tahitian and pick up their English through tourism.  I enjoyed conversing in French with Jimmy.

We returned to the ship for lunch.  The weather continued wet and grey all day, so we repaired to quiet  places to read.  There was a sliver of gold in the sky above the mountains as we hoisted anchor and sailed off at 5:30.  One thing we always enjoy is watching the pilot disembark.  We can just about see the split-second operation if we crane our necks.  He climbs down a wood and rope ladder and then, at then just the right moment, jumps into the boat.  The pilot boat driver has to maintain just the right speed and distance.  It is amazing!  Yesterday's pilot boat was a small open Boston whaler type, the smallest we have ever seen!

We watched from the Garden Lounge where sailaway had been moved from the Lido pool because of rain.  Synergy is a fabulous band and they played all the oldies.  I cannot dance, so Amy joined me in what I call "chair dancing".  People were in hysterics as we boogied to oldies while seated and sipping martinis.  Hahahaha.