Days 39-40 Feb 13-14

Day 39 (Working) Wednesday Feb 13
Went to a samba dance class this morning, might actually go dancing this evening to try & stop myself spending any more money on stupid machines, which are obviously ‘fixed’ anyway!
Quiz as usual at noon, so many people now want to do it the venue has changed to the Yacht Club, an under-used facility in our opinion. We didn’t win again, this is becoming a habit, too many professional quiz goers on this cruise obviously.
Lunched with Tricia & Hilary, & discussed the possibility of cruising with them from NZ to Australia some time towards the end of May. I will see what the state of my finances is by then.
Then had the joy of fighting for a washing machine once again, we heard that on one cruise, not this one, 2 couples were put on shore as per the guy in Easter Island, because one husband punched another guy’s wife in the laundrette. Things do get pretty heated, but not that bad (so far)!
Kevin Smiles and Martyn Dominique performed again this evening, didn’t think either was quite as good as in previous performances. Didn’t go dancing but didn’t play machines either, went to the Computer Room instead & replied to queries from Ron in NZ(surprise, surprise, my $15 fax didn’t get through successfully).
Day 40 (Tahiti) Thursday Feb 14
Valentine’s Day of course, not at all meaningful to me (except that ironically, it happens to be the date my marriage started to fall apart,c’est la vie!), but of course a very happy and romantic day for most.
We all celebrated by landing at Papeete, the capital of Tahiti, the capital of what are now called the Society islands, but used to be called the Friendly Is, & it’s not difficult to understand why. A really beautiful place, though the nearby island of Moorea is even more like paradise apparently, we didn’t go there but some did. The island is lush & green, and today was very warm with a few sharp showers, our guide said we had brought good weather with us since it had rained for the past 3 weeks. The town feels very European, which of course it is, having been owned by the French till very recently. The people are all very friendly and apparently there is virtually no crime. We heard that on Moorea with a permanent population of 15000 plus a great many tourists there are 11 policemen, one minds the office and the others go deep-sea fishing! We walked round town in the morning, went to the fascinating market, the restored Cathedral which has beautiful bright blue stained glass, and the park, I bought a few souvenirs.
We all went on a coach trip in the afternoon, ‘Captain Cook’s Drive’ which was interesting, what intrigued me was the stop just outside the now closed Hyatt Regency hotel, which is where we stayed as a family en route to NZ 12 years ago. The guide hinted there were lots of problems with it 10 years ago which is when it closed, did I detect the hint of corruption? I need to look this up on the Internet! We went to Point Venus and a spectacular waterfall and a very interesting small museum, the replica home of James Norman Hall who wrote the book Mutiny on the Bounty on which all the inaccurate films have been based. We met his daughter, who read a poem from one of the many which he wrote for her, Tricia & Hilary bought some lovely little dresses for their grand-daughters by refusing to come into the museum and staying in the grounds instead, where there were some handicraft stalls, I wish I had bought one for Elisha but there wasn’t time to linger. This is a problem with coach trips of course, you have to fit in with whatever timetable has been set.
Hilary didn’t feel at all well once we got back, possibly heat exhaustion. We heard another ‘Priority 2’ so it looks like someone died in paradise, not a bad place to choose. The sunset over Moorea was spectacular, we’re all sad to leave such a beautiful place. It occurred to me that there is possibly nothing stopping me from making Tahiti my home, apparently the inhabitants have EU passports so presumably I would have automatic right of entry, worth investigating! I think I would get bored after a time, and I’d have to brush up on my French, but I’m semi-serious! The world is my oyster until I start the build and have to hand over serious money.