Wednesday, Day 19 - Jan 24 - 8am to 5pm, Rangiroa, Tuamotu Islands, French Polynesia

Rangiroa is the largest atoll, actually a ring of coral, of the Tuamotu Archipelago, which comprises 78 coral atolls scattered over several hundred miles of the eastern Pacific Ocean. Life on these remote atolls is simple, quiet and peaceful. In the small villages, one can discover the true flavor of the Tuamotu. The Paumotu people lead very simple lives centered around the sea. The interior lagoons are a haven for black pearl farms, fish breeding farms, snorkeling and scuba diving. We were here in 2010 on our South Pacific cruise and did an all day private tour to the Blue Lagoon for a island bar be que, snorkeling and played with baby sharks. This area is across the large lagoon about 40 minute boat ride from the pier. Today we are doing two free ship’s tours.

The first one is Discover the World of Pearls at 11:30. It is listed as an hour and a half long.  We are to meet ashore and of course two people are aren’t there so the rest of us get to sit in the hot vans and wait for the late ones to arrive on the next tender. It is a15 minute ride along Rangiroa's main road past the airport and local school to a small Black Pearl Farm. The Ocean is on one side and the lagoon on the other. The strip of land is about the width of a 10 lane freeway in the US in most places.

They do a brief lecture about the farming and production of black pearls,  the chronology and evolution of the industry, and how oysters are selected, grown and then grafted for production. Then there is a visit to the work sheds where oysters are sorted and cleaned, and watch a grafter at work as he skillfully plies his trade.

Carolyn skips all that and heads to the little shop to view a selection of unset black pearls that are available for purchase, She especially loves the baroque and semi-baroque pearls and wants to get some for the granddaughters for earrings. A nice lady helps Carolyn match up some and then send them to the workshop to be made into earrings. Finished jewelry is sold tax free to tourist. This takes pretty much the whole time, then we reboard the vans and head back to the pier. If one is interested in pearls or haven’t seen how they are farmed it is worth the time. Plus it was interesting to see a little of the island.

Our next tour is the glass bottom boat ride at 2:55PM. It is scheduled for one hour. Since it only about 1PM, we catch the tender back to the ship for some lunch. The tour desk has told us to allow about 25 or 30 minutes to get to the pier on time. So after a nice lunch, we go down to get the tender at 5 minutes to 2.

There is a bit of a wait as we catch the change out of one of the tenders. Most of the riders are people on our tour. However once again there are people missing and the Shore team gets a call that there is one person on the next tender for the tour, will we wait. Since we have two boats going on this tour the shore agent says yes as the tender should be at the pier before the last boat is loaded and ready to leave. We are on the last boat and just getting on board when yet another call comes from the ship that two more people are just getting on the tender, will we wait!!! This is too much...several complain that our tour time is being short changed by these late people! So after some hesitation the shore person says no the tour is leaving, it can’t wait any longer! Good call!

This could have been a really hokey tour, but it is not! We go to the same area as the snorkelers. The Tiputa Channel is the break in the atoll that allows water and ships into the lagoon. It has a strong current, but beautiful corals, fish and sharks. It is considered a world class drift dive site.

The Aquarium and Coral Gardens are an area just inside the Lagoon from Tiputa Channel with a great variety of fish and corals and a good place to snorkel. We are past snorkeling in strong currents so hope we will be able to see something on this glass bottom boat ride. We do!

We float over the huge coral heads that cluster in shallow areas inside the Lagoon in the Gardens and see a colorful world full of parrot fish, butterfly fish, red snapper, Moree ells, and surgeon fish through the large windows, also black-tipped and white tipped sharks, One of the crew members goes free diving and attracts the fish directly under the glass panels. It is really a good tour.

Back on the ship we get cleaned up and enjoy drinks on the balcony as we sail away through Tiputa Channel. It is a wonderful sail away. The ocean is that wonderful lulling calm and there are birds playing around the ship. In fact it is so calming that  Carolyn decides to order in tonight....she is too tired to get dressed to go out. She orders pizza and a salad. Dick doesn’t like eating in the room so he goes to the Compass Rose and shares a table with friends.

Tonight’s show featu8res Michael Falzon again and for those into dancing, there is dance music both before dinner and after thge show.

We have an early tour tomorrow so we both call it a night early. We sleep soundly while the ship peacefully glides on toward Tahiti.