Tahiti in Two Days - Part Two

Good morning. After sleeping peacefully on the ship in the Tahiti Lagoon we arose early, dressed, breakfasted from Room Service (included) and set out early for our East Coast Tour. Having done the complete West Coast on our first visit we knew this would take us to the suburbs of Papeete and the islands less inhabited areas. Our guide was fun and very personable, as are they all. That must be one of the qualities that Viking seeks out went vetting which tour companies to partner with in all their locations. We passed through increasing small towns until we reached the farthermost destination, Te-ara-o-Tahiti. Here is the park that holds the lighthouse which during World War II the inhabitants needed to hide. They did this by painting coconut trees, palms, and nuts on the four facades of the building which stood in a coconut grove already. The Japanese then had no reference point to land either planes or ships in Tahiti. It is in this bay that "The Gospel Came to Tahiti" and the plaque at the Missionary Memorial declares the story of the landing where the first representatives of the Missionary Society of London arrived. Hence the name, Society Islands! On the surrounding wall are stones from each of the island groups. These are gathered in a rough map of the South Pacific to express a hope that as they are brought together here all the churches of these places will 'stand on one hope, one faith' and will 'be gathered together into the Kingdom' of Heaven one day. At the base of the red sail-like centerpiece names of all 28 original pioneers of faith are listed. Another list of names is mounted on another volcanic stone. These are the names of the ships company of the HMS Bounty. They arrived October 27, 1788. The irregular stone it decorated on all four sides with metal leaves and flowers of the Tiara shrub. Tiara is the Tahitian national flower and is a small gardenia native to here. There are also Breadfruit and Breadfruit tree leaves. This is what Captain Bligh was sent to bring back in huge quantities in his tiny ship. The men of the already overcrowded vessal were supposed to find, dig up, load, and transport a thousand of these back to the West Indies to plant and grow food for the many, many slaves of the sugar and rum industry. It would be cheap, filling, nourishing and save the West Indies Company a lot of money in the long run. We walked along the bay where surfers were enjoying the waves in the usually calm sea in its protective inlet. I happened to run into Barry Rock and his wife. You might remember that he is the botanist/geologist onboard. There was a huge tree that had fallen in the storm that prevented our earlier lagoon activites. While we were trying to identify it we chatted about the many blooming flowers but the overwhelming color of the island is green. Really, almost too much green. Buildings are small, mostly white except near the port where color is used, I believe, to identify them to travelers. Roofs are red metal. And then there is green. So many different identifiable outlines of trees are visible on the mountains as they rise above the sea. Leaves of every size and shape like the giant philodendron that I am standing by which had wound its way up the tree now laying dead across our path. So many plantings and and natural green. Not everything blooms so that actually splashes of Poincianna, or Hibiscus, or Plumbago are a relief to the eye and brain! Back on the bus we drove to the lookout over Venus Point. Here is the larger part of the Matavai Bay in which Captain Cook anchored in on April 12, 1769. From here the lighthouse is not visible as the Point blocks the view of the smaller protected inlet but it is all one bay. How strange that two iconic landings were in the same bay and less than 20 years apart. Apparently in the pre GPS days, very good maps were drawn! The English were serious about gaining profit from these distant lands that they later lost to the French. Across from us, on a narrow spit of land, we could see the distinctive roof of the King's Tomb. Here the last king of Tahiti, Pomare V lies in repose. But is it repose? The tomb was built for his mother who was the beloved 'King', Queen Pomare IV. She was buried here but her son, the not successful monarch who eventually lost the island to French domination, had his mother removed from the coral structure. She is buried in the family plot as he felt the tomb was meant to be for only a 'true king.' I woner if it is haunted! Back at the ship after the two hour tour we had a cold drink and a snack and set out on our walking tour, on our own. This time Carol and I were supposed to meet Adrienne to go to the Black Pearl Museum which she really wanted to visit. On the pier whe was waiting to tell us she was not going to go for our little excursion. Her tummy wasn't behaving and she didn't want to be too far from the comfort of her own bathroom. Would we please pick up some fresh vanilla for her. So we set off, well armed with frosty bottles of water in the 80 degree humidity. Our walk to town was only a couple of blocks. I took lots of pictures which you will have to wait to see. We first went to Foodies. It is the closest little grocer. I would have been happy to share a cab to Carrefour's, a Walmart type international food chain, but instead we stayed local. We had a list. Our morning sunshine girl is Gloria. Greeting us each day at breakfast her contagious good humor starts our day out right. Often we then see her at lunch or dinner in other locations. The food staff works endlessly. I had asked if there was anything we could bring her since crew is not allowed ashore due to Viking Ship COVID protocals. She had said no previously as did our stewards. I am sure that is the management decision and understandable. But when we had asked yesterday she asked if she could make a list. Being agreeable people, and already having asked at each stop, we said sure. So today we had her list of things she could not get onboard. I would think there was a ship store for the crew but I guess not. So we set out to find body wash, sanitary napkins, roll on deoderant, toothpaste etc.! I believe the list was also for friends. She asked for male body wash as well. We ended up buying 2 of everything that we could find and a variety of salty snacks. Since I had my Viking tote bag but Carol did not we also bought a grocery totebag. Back on board at lunch Gloria handed me a $100. She had said to spend up to $200 but I wasn't sure if that is what she actually meant, and besides, it was a lot to carry and heavy since there was also laundry detergent and other things that only came in big sizes. We had lunch just before GLoria finished her afternoon shift. We were to meet Gloria in the GYM area for the secret handoff. We could hardly hand her big sacks of personal items and foods while she was on duty. So she Facebook friended me and when she went off duty we texted we were on the way and she replied. We took the bags down the elevator to the first floor and she soon appeared through a crew doorway still wearing her uniform. She could only be in a guest area if in uniform so all the rules were not broken. I had put the receipts and five singles as change in one of the bags. Mission accomplished! We did the best we could. She texted she 'loved everything!' But our shopping day wasn't over. We had to go back to town in the other direction and back to the Marketplace. Most of the booths were covered for the day as it was after three. I think the women go home to meet the kids after school. We found glass jars of vanilla beans. The beans are about three dollars each as at five to a jar and buying two jars we spent $30 of Adrienne's money. We also went back to Foodies to get a few snacks for Sebastian and for Zak. Our cabin steward and assistant. Wha We tried to buy plaintain chips as we knew from our many brief hallways chats they were a favorite. We didn't find them so it was Staks and Oreos for them. A strange day in Tahiti! No time for a swim so we each showered and dressed for dinner at the Chef's Table where we would all meet at six. We watched the Port Talk at five on our TV. The menu tonight was Through the Ages. A Roman amuse bouche, then Greek and so on. Not my favorite place to eat but the company was good and the food was more to my liking than usual. No live show tonight so we browsed Viking itineraries on our room TV. Carol and I first lingered on our balcony and reveled in the sail away to the not distant Moorea. We laughed making jokes about how many donuts the Captain would have to do as Moorea was visable from where we were. It is in every lagoon photo taken in Papeete! We felt we could swim there!