RAIATEA, SOCIETY/LEEWARD ISLANDS -

FRENCH POLYNESIA

ARE WE IN THE CARIBBEAN?

Thursday, January 30, 2025, 8 AM, 82 Degrees, 71% Humidity, W – ESE @ 18.1 mph

As we pulled into port, when we went out on the balcony, I thought, “Did we make a wrong turn? Are we back in the Caribbean?” The colored storefronts on Main Street reminded me of trips there. We haven’t seen colored buildings before on this trip. But the collection of thatched vendor huts assured me we were in the right hemisphere.

According to Polynesian legend, Raiatea was known as Havaiki, the “sacred island” and was the first inhabited island. Hiro, a descendant of the creator god Taaroa and Ora was its first king. Mt. Temehani (2,532 ft), is the Olympus of Polynesia, home of the Gods. Raiatea is considered the birthplace of Polynesian culture. According to traditional histories, two Māori migration canoes left Raiatea for what became New Zealand in the late 13th or early 14th Century. Many Māori can trace their lineage to these two canoes.

Life is always easier when the ship can dock pier side and we don’t have to deal with Tenders. Although we’ve been blessed with good “Tender weather” (except for the unexpected tendering in Manta, Ecuador, which was challenging – not a good first tendering experience). It’s always easier when you can just walk off and back on whenever you’re ready. We tied up the new Gare Maritime Cruise Terminal, with it’s beautiful mosaic walkway, in the center of Uturoa, the capital and largest city on Raiatea (population 3,778). Raiatea is the second largest of the Society Islands, after Tahiti. After two days of touring, spending 3 hours + on a bus each day circumventing Tahiti and Moorea, we opted for walking around the port. Guess we missed out on a tour of the vanilla plantation and a “Pearl Farm” but we saw the wildlife (free roaming Chickens and Roosters you see everywhere on the islands.) We enjoyed our day!

We saw many shops in addition to the vendors at the port; even two real estate offices with pictures of listings posted on the windows. It was too hard for us to convert francs to $$ but, we could determine, in any language, the ones we really liked, we probably couldn’t afford – too many zeros for our pocketbook. We visited a local grocery, small but pretty complete with products from around the world, some USA, many French. Even SKIPPY Peanut Butter. Raiatea uses the French Franc as currency but at the grocery, we were able to pay for our 4 postcards with a $5 bill and received our change in Francs. I wanted to buy a pineapple (small ones, about 9” and very sweet) but John wasn’t sure about bringing it back to the ship. They have announced in every French Polynesian port that guests and crew members were not to bring any fruit, plants or parts of fruit or plants on shore to avoid bringing invasive species into Polynesia. By law, they are required to make this announcement once every hour on the ship while in port. We weren’t sure how they felt about bringing fruit onto the ship.

John bought me a Raiatea t-shirt (the colorful blue map you see of the island is my shirt). I think it’s difficult to buy anything that is truly locally made. My T-shirt says “Made in Taiwan”. No real surprise, I’m sure most of the “tourist” items are like that. I saw a really pretty tie-dyed, “floaty” top I was tempted by but, after seeing the same thing at several vendors (and later on several islands), I became “suspicious”. Probably even the shell necklace John bought for me from that cute, little Polynesian lady on Mooera wasn’t “authentic” but, I will still treasure it as a special reminder of a once in a lifetime day (unless you’re one of those World Cruisers who do this every year and have been to Moorea several times)!