Arrival

La orana (hello!) from Tahiti! Our first of three French Polynesian ports of call on this cruise was today! After a six day sail here from Honolulu, it was exciting to be on land again. The views from our balcony as we pulled in to port were spectacular!

Video of our arrival:

We arrived in port in Papeete around 7:00 a.m., and were released to go ashore at around 8:15 once we cleared customs. As we exited the ship, they had a local Tahitian band playing music for us so it made our arrival feel very festive! The band also handed out small flowers to everyone as we passed 😍.

Downtown

Rob and I did a short walk around the downtown area of Papeete, which was right by the cruise docks. There were several other ships in port today, so lots of activity on the streets! A few random sights in the port area:

We checked out the oldest cathedral in Tahiti, the Cathedral of Notre Dame, which opened in 1875, but we couldn’t go inside, so we walked around and just took photos of the exterior.

They have a huge market in Papeete that sells a ton of local crafts, produce, flowers, etc. neat place to get all your souvenirs… if only we had any suitcase space! 😂

After we walked around the market area, we caught a cab and followed up on a Reddit recommendation that took us to the beautiful Intercontinental Resort Tahiti, where we could get a day pass to use their pool and amenities plus lunch at their restaurant with a Michelin two-starred chef for less than the cost of the shore excursions offered by our ship. It was a no-brainer… yes please!!

The Intercontinental Tahiti

This was a total win for us. Not only was the resort stunningly beautiful, but our food was absolutely divine and we got to swim in their gorgeous pool. We spent the whole day enjoying their food, drinks (via swim up pool bar!) and amenities, and it was MARVELOUS!

Critters

We saw some new (to us) critters today! Our first animal encounter involved watching two birds work together to build a nest in a coconut tree. They would swoop down and grab sticks and seaweed floating by in the ocean, and then bring them back up to their tree. At one point mommy or daddy bird came down and got a stick, then brought it to the nest. Not ten seconds later, the bird left the nest with the same stick in it’s beak, and flew it out to the exact spot in the ocean where it found the stick, released it from its bill, and flew away! Clearly that stick had been deemed by the partner bird as unfit for the nest. 😂 We also loved that the bird didn’t just drop it from the tree to the ground, but instead it flew it back to where it had got the stick from. That bird is setting a good example of putting things back in their place! ❤️

Our next cool critter sightings were the black crabs that blended in perfectly with the black lava rocks on the beach. Wikipedia says they are thin-shelled rock crabs. They were cool, but kind of creepy! Of course the water was crystal clear enough for us also to see the fish swim by! No mask required.

Our final cool critter today we first noticed as we were hanging out at the edge of the pool, which has a small lava rock cliff going into the ocean. There were these little, maybe finger- sized animals that looked like worms with tails that were wiggling around in the rocks, and every so often they would drop off into the ocean. They moved in interesting ways, propelling themselves with their tails so that they kind of “hopped” along the rocks. Though we grew up on the beaches of FL, we have never seen any animals like this. We took the video below and sent it to our resident animal expert (Jenna), who following a little research, determined that this critter is a Pacific Laping Blenny, a type of semi-aquatic fish that can jump on rocks and feeds on algae! So cool!!

Back at the Ship

Sadly, our day pass ended and the Intercontinental kicked my sobbing self off their property… okay, it didn’t exactly happen like that, but it felt like it! We cabbed back to the ship, cleaned up, and ran by the buffet for dinner so we could be on time for a special show tonight. The cruise activities director invited these local performers (O Hinahere) of song, dance, and music to come aboard the ship and do their show just for tonight. The show was really entertaining! While there were some similarities to Hawaiaan hula dance, this Tahitian show was much more energetic and vibrant- they were supercharged!

The is ended our big day in Papeete in such a great way. We’re off to bed now with sweet dreams of our next port in Raiatea tomorrow! Maururu for adventuring with us!