Watching the navigation channel late last night, there were 14 islands visible, with Tahiti being the one to which we were bound. Outside my balcony the sounds of both waves and rain were clearly audible. This morning the skies are relatively clear but both the sun and the island are going to be on the other side of the ship from me, so I will just wait, but I am taking the rainbow as a positive sign.

We we arrived some of the folks were surprised to see that it was a docked rather than tender port. The morning was on my own. Bookshops, postcards and the pearl museum.

The afternoon I had arranged with a few others. We planned on taking a mini-van tour of the island with stops in five locations. As it turned out – bait and switch is as polite a term I can put on it. After taking our money, we were directed to the start – and a 45 passenger bus. In addition to our group there were obviously others.

The sites where we stopped were well worth it – no question, but there was no microphone and the guide’s voice could have been heard in the far reaches of a stadium unaided. Being in one of the first rows, I just wished for ear plugs.

Never the less – the stops – Grotto, Garden, Waterfall, “blow hole” and overlook point were well worth it.

Did I mention that our stop at the waterfall (almost 900′ tall) involved taking on enough passengers to fill ever last seat in the bus. One of the tour buses from the ship broke down completely and they had to redistribute the passengers across all the other tours and buses?

So when we stopped at the overlook (facing Moorea) as our last stop we were a good hour behind. It turned out to be to our advantage. With sunset in the next 15 minutes – five minutes on the ground and back on the bus? Don’t think so. Since there was no way to round up 45 people, she gave up and we watched our sunset.