kakalina
April 14th, 2010, 01:25 PM
PART II The Hawaii'an Islands
Before I start on the islands I have some catching up to do. There are so many memories bouncing around in my brain I have trouble getting them all out.
When I told you all about the first CC meet and greet I left out one of the best things. Ruth and Jim V.( otherwise known as JIMVRHOVAC) were part of our CC group. They are two of the nicest and most generous people we've ever met. They had gifts for staff, crew and passengers alike. At our meet and greet they presented the HotMan, Robert Versteeg and the GRM, Susana Beleo with some wonderful slippers. They also presented a pair to Jocelyn for the work she did with the lovely invitations, and a pair to Virgil and myself. He got big yellow duckies and I got soft cuddly Penguins. Thanks Ruth and Jim for being such a class act.
I also mentioned when we boarded the ship was in Code Red. In 21 cruises this was our first Code Red. For the most part it wasn't a problem; except in the early mornings. DH and I are early risers as were quite a few pax on this cruise. I am usually up by 5 or 5:30 and DH oftentimes is up earlier than that. We couldn't get hot drinks in the Lido during the Code Red. They sent someone up to man the coffee/hot water machines about 6am. That's a long time to wait for your first hot cup of whatever. Thankfully the Code Red didn't last but a few days. I hope we never run into another one.
Another minor complaint was the washing down of the aft8 deck every morning. I understand they must do this to get rid of the salt build up; but do the have to get every single seat wet! Again, for the early morning folks we were searching for towels to lay on the seats so we could sit down and watch the sunrise.
The Rotterdam was kept clean and spotless throughout the cruise. The cleaner they used on the handrails ate off all the paint and wax so they were sanding them down and varnishing them throughout the ship for the duration of the cruise. They have a lot of handrails on the ship.
Sat Mar 13 Hilo, Hawaii
The coastal town of Hilo is he largest settlement on the island of Hawaii and overlooks Hilo Bay. Mauna Loa, considered an active volcano, and Mauna Kea a dormant volcano are nearby. Hilo biggest production is Macadamia nuts and it is also the wettest city in the US and one of the wettest in the world. They have an average rainfall of 127.77" of rain per year. Wow! We're lucky to get 4 or 5" of rain a year in the desert Southwest.
Downtown Hilo was almost destroyed in the tsumani of April 1, 1946. They established the Pacific Tsumani Warning Center here to prevent such widespread loss of life with an early warning system. The last of the sugar plantations closed down here in the 1990's. They made an economic recovery with tourism and nuts.
We took a ship's tour here in Hilo. We docked at 10am in nice weather. Our tour was early and we were off the ship and ready and waiting in the terminal for our tour guide to take us to the Nani Mau Gardens and the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory. Last time we were here we went to the Botanical Gardens and loved it so much we wanted to do something similiar. We took a nice air conditioned bus to the Nani Mau Gardens first. The drive was lovely and the bus driver pointed out different types of trees and flowers along the way. My favorite thing was when asked what the plants growing along the route were she explained the were called sidearhodas. It took a minute or two to sink in that's what she called unknown flowers on the side of the road. She also pulled into the Queen's Park where we had the opportunity to walk about a bit and take pix.
Then on to the gardens. We toured through the gardens in a tram rather than just walking around. Which was a good thing as there was a lot of ground to cover. We saw loads of trees, flowering bushes, fruit and nut bearing trees and etc. We did get off the tram and walk through the amazingly lovely Orchid gardens. There were many differing varities of orchids here. Some were teeny tiny and some were huge. They were all beautiful. They look sort of ethereal just hanging in the air and growing on the trees. They don't even graft the orchids to the trees. They just take an orchid and press the roots into the trunk of a tree, within days the orchid takes root and becomes a part of the tree. We thought that was really cool.
By the time we got to the nut factory we were very hungry. We headed straight for the snack bar and each got a sandwich. This was made with locally grown tomatoes and onions. It was a very delicious sandwich. There was a place to go watch them shell and package the many different nut products they sell there. We did of course buy some macadamia nuts and some of the shortbread cookies they make also. The cookies are wonderful and I am eating one right now.
We stopped in at the warehouse building after our tour to visit our friend Leona who works at Lin's Lei shop right there in the building. We did buy two lovely leis which we wore all evening. A note here, on all of our other cruises to Hawaii there have always been several "tropical nights" or " Hawaiian dress nights". There wasn't a single one scheduled on this cruise. It wasn't a big thing but was very noticably missing. The ship no longers gives out leis to the passengers either. I didn't miss that as much as not having the Hawaiian dress nights.
Tonight's entertainment was the vocal magic of Ventriloquist Don Bryan with Noseworthy. I did hear some good things about this act but must admit we did not attend as we were busy elsewhere doing other things. The movie Blue Hawaii was shown throughout the day in the Wajang theater. Darbie and the HalCats performed in the CN at 9pm. Darbie went home in Honolulu so we did not have any HALCats after that port. There was no sailaway party.
Sun Mar 14 Lahaina, Maui
We did not have any tours in Lahaina. It is one of our favorite towns to just window shop and watch the tourists in action. We anchored about 7:30am and tendering began around 8am. We ran into a little trouble with the CD here when we went down to tender in. Being 4 star mariners we get priority tendering as one of the perks. The CD informed us that we would have to wait until all the tours had left the ship and that we needed to go wait in the showroom until that time. We inquired what part of priority did he not understand. He insisted on his views and we went up the stairwell to wait for the first tours to start coming down. I guess he must have called someone to check on the "new" mariner status and he came up after a few minutes and allowed us to board a tender.
We walked off the ship and went over to the 2nd largest Banyan tree in the world to walk about and see all the wares being offered by various and sundry vendors. We found a few things to buy. An interesting new thing here for us. Normally one pays the vendor for the product and walks away. In order for all the vendors to take credit cards and such they now operate with a central cash register in the old courthouse gift shop. You take your purchase ticket from the vendor, go inside and pay then take the receipt to the vendor and get your merchandise. It worked very well and saved us some cash for a better use such as the casino. We went to Cheeseburger in Paradise for a late breakfast/early lunch. The cheeseburgers were wonderful as always. Thus fortified for awhile we went on to peruse the shops for awhile. We had plans to meet some other CC'ers for late lunch/early dinner at Bubba Gumps. If you've never been to a Bubba Gump Shrimp Company restaurant you have missed a great fun place. We had wonderful food and cocktails. We all ate shrimp of one kind or another and lots and lots of hush puppies. Yum yum good. We all talked and laughed and got to know each other a little better. After a long lunch we rolled ourselves out of the restaurant and continued on our hunt for the best deal ever on anything we could find. We sat on the benches on Front street overlooking the ocean and our ship. It was such a beautiful sight.
After a long and tiring day we made our way back to the tenders and back aboard the ship. We showered and got ready for a lovely dinner in the Pinnacle Grill. I want to take a moment here to thank all the wonderful folks in the PG. We took advantage of our 4 star status to eat there quite often for both lunch and dinner. Colin, the manager of PG is a fantastic man. He runs the place in a totally professional yet friendly and welcoming manner. We made reservations on the first day for the entire trip and it worked out very well indeed. The waitstaff in the PG is now almost all Indonesian women. Miss Ni, Naomi, Natalie, Dita, Shanty and Cleopatra. We enjoyed all of you very much. The PG chef is fantastic and we enjoyed every single dish we tried and I think we tried them all over the month we were onboard.
We spent quite a bit of time in Canoletto's restaurant also. The food there was wonderful as was the Manager of the restaurant Glen. There was a brief moment at the beginning of the trip when we were denied entry to the Canoletto's as DH was wearing shorts. Under the impression that the dress code for Canoletto's was the same as the Lido we checked into it. It turned out Glen had just been moved up from the PG and wasn't aware the dress code was different there. Once he checked it out there was never another problem. He provided us with a nice bottle of wine for the error and all was right with our world again.
Tonight's entertainment was a variety show with Jim Curry and gymnast Lance Ringnold. It was a repeat of their original performances. The movie was 50 First Dates also taking place in Hawaii. There was a concert under the stars on the big screen in the Retreat a Cher concert. It was very nice and comfortable to watch outside.
Mon Mar 15 Honolulu, Oahu
Honolulu is the Capital of Hawaii and is located on the island of Oahu. It is the largest city and port in the state. Here you will find the famous Waikiki Beach, the mighty Mo and the USS Arizona Memorial. Honolulu is a big city but there is so much to do here. Luau's abound along with great shopping at Ala Moana Shopping Center.
We docked in the rain at 7:23am. For the first time in many visits there were no Hula dancers welcoming us into port. We always enjoyed getting to the rail early and watching them dance us in. This day started with a move for us. It was unfortunate that two of our CC group had to fly home from Honolulu due to an illness. We were very sorry to see them go. We did however go to the front office Mon morning to see if that OV cabin was available. We were very lucky and were able to move into it right away. A cabin with a view was a lagniappe we were not expecting. Although sorry for the misfortune of others it was a lucky day for us.
We had made plans to spend the day visiting friends. When we called however our friend was at work. When his work opened up we went over and visited for awhile and bought some souvenirs. As we were headed back to the ship I heard the sound of pounding feet behind me and then a tap on the shoulder. Our friend had taken the day off work and persueded his wife to do the same. We spent the entire day and most of the evening with them. It was wonderful to catch up and have some quality time together. We could not for the life of us remember the all aboard time. We just knew is was earlier than we are used to in this port. We finally decided to settle on 8pm and they took us back to the ship in plenty of time. All aboard was actually about 10:30pm. Oh well, better safe than sorry.
It was later this day that the Ken napping took place. I will not go into detail here as there is a whole thread devoted to the memory of "Poor Kenny". Suffice it to say we had an extra primo good day and night.
There was local entertainment in the show lounge this evening. At 9:30pm there was a local Folkloric group "Drums of Polynesia" brought onboard. There was also dancing under the stars with the HalCats. Although there is very little room to actually dance at the Retreat where they played.
Tue Mar 16 Nawiliwili, Kaui
We docked at 7:30 am with some light local showers that soon cleared up.
Known as the "Garden Isle" Nawiliwili is the oldest inhabited island in the Hawaiian Archipelago. In the hills and valleys of the islands are said to be the homes of the "menehune", leprechaun like creatures who are never seen, but are believed to perform great works overnight. The only navigable river in Hawaii is here, the Waimaia River. We have gone down the river before to the Fern Grotto which is amazingly beautiful.
We had no plans for this island. We did a tour here in Oct that was very interesting and decided to do the WalMart thing. We picked up a huge, giant thank you card for the HotMan . We are all going to sign it at the next meet n' greet and present it to him for all his hard work on our behalf.
Some of you may remember our dear friend Rita "Kryos" who spent a great deal of time on this board and was supposed to go on this cruise with us before her untimely death in July. Kaui was her favorite island so I had a special lei made and took it down to the water. I had a private and personal ceremony then tossed it into the water after I cut the string. It was a very memorable moment for me.
Tonight's entertainment is some of the cast in "Dinner Belles". I did attend but was not impressed.
Wed Mar 17 Kona, Hawaii
We dropped anchor at 8am and tendering procedures shortly followed.
The island of Hawaii is by far the largest and newest in the Hawaiian Island chain. It has the most varied environment; from warm beaches to tropical rain forest, to the freezing highs on the mountain tops of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. There are the ranches of Waimea, an active volcano zone of Kilauea and other numerous ecologies in between. Kona is a friendly and charming small town with a centrally located pier. The Hulihe'e Palace is located here the summer residence for Hawaiian royalty.
We have friends that have a business here and they are quite devastated that HAL is dropping Kona from most future cruises to the area. We were told the main reason is the very high rates the city charges for tendering insurance. I was unable to verify this from sources at HAL. We have always loved the quiet prettiness of Kona and will miss stopping there. We met up with some CC friends and once again found our way to a Bubba Gumps for lunch where we ran into more CC'ers. We had a great time together talking and laughing. A lot of laughter went on during this cruise. It was made so much better by having good companions to share it with.
Tonight's entertainment in the show lounge is the comedy of Marty Brill. I like comedians. I usually laugh in the right places and enjoy it. This man appeared to be in his late 70's and wasn't all too steady on his legs. His routine was as old and tired as he appeared to be. It is just a shame that HAL was unable to get better quality entertainment for this long cruise.
Today is St. Patricks day and they crew decorated the ship up very nicely. There was a giant Shamrock cake and ice sculpture in the MDR and some lovely decorations in the Lido. We appreciated the extra effort it took..
Next installment will cover the wonderful Cook Islands and then the amazing beauty of French Polynesia. We have been so fortunate to experience this fantastic place several times. There is beauty everywhere the eye rests, ever changing in its glory, never ending in its continuity.
Before I start on the islands I have some catching up to do. There are so many memories bouncing around in my brain I have trouble getting them all out.
When I told you all about the first CC meet and greet I left out one of the best things. Ruth and Jim V.( otherwise known as JIMVRHOVAC) were part of our CC group. They are two of the nicest and most generous people we've ever met. They had gifts for staff, crew and passengers alike. At our meet and greet they presented the HotMan, Robert Versteeg and the GRM, Susana Beleo with some wonderful slippers. They also presented a pair to Jocelyn for the work she did with the lovely invitations, and a pair to Virgil and myself. He got big yellow duckies and I got soft cuddly Penguins. Thanks Ruth and Jim for being such a class act.
I also mentioned when we boarded the ship was in Code Red. In 21 cruises this was our first Code Red. For the most part it wasn't a problem; except in the early mornings. DH and I are early risers as were quite a few pax on this cruise. I am usually up by 5 or 5:30 and DH oftentimes is up earlier than that. We couldn't get hot drinks in the Lido during the Code Red. They sent someone up to man the coffee/hot water machines about 6am. That's a long time to wait for your first hot cup of whatever. Thankfully the Code Red didn't last but a few days. I hope we never run into another one.
Another minor complaint was the washing down of the aft8 deck every morning. I understand they must do this to get rid of the salt build up; but do the have to get every single seat wet! Again, for the early morning folks we were searching for towels to lay on the seats so we could sit down and watch the sunrise.
The Rotterdam was kept clean and spotless throughout the cruise. The cleaner they used on the handrails ate off all the paint and wax so they were sanding them down and varnishing them throughout the ship for the duration of the cruise. They have a lot of handrails on the ship.
Sat Mar 13 Hilo, Hawaii
The coastal town of Hilo is he largest settlement on the island of Hawaii and overlooks Hilo Bay. Mauna Loa, considered an active volcano, and Mauna Kea a dormant volcano are nearby. Hilo biggest production is Macadamia nuts and it is also the wettest city in the US and one of the wettest in the world. They have an average rainfall of 127.77" of rain per year. Wow! We're lucky to get 4 or 5" of rain a year in the desert Southwest.
Downtown Hilo was almost destroyed in the tsumani of April 1, 1946. They established the Pacific Tsumani Warning Center here to prevent such widespread loss of life with an early warning system. The last of the sugar plantations closed down here in the 1990's. They made an economic recovery with tourism and nuts.
We took a ship's tour here in Hilo. We docked at 10am in nice weather. Our tour was early and we were off the ship and ready and waiting in the terminal for our tour guide to take us to the Nani Mau Gardens and the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory. Last time we were here we went to the Botanical Gardens and loved it so much we wanted to do something similiar. We took a nice air conditioned bus to the Nani Mau Gardens first. The drive was lovely and the bus driver pointed out different types of trees and flowers along the way. My favorite thing was when asked what the plants growing along the route were she explained the were called sidearhodas. It took a minute or two to sink in that's what she called unknown flowers on the side of the road. She also pulled into the Queen's Park where we had the opportunity to walk about a bit and take pix.
Then on to the gardens. We toured through the gardens in a tram rather than just walking around. Which was a good thing as there was a lot of ground to cover. We saw loads of trees, flowering bushes, fruit and nut bearing trees and etc. We did get off the tram and walk through the amazingly lovely Orchid gardens. There were many differing varities of orchids here. Some were teeny tiny and some were huge. They were all beautiful. They look sort of ethereal just hanging in the air and growing on the trees. They don't even graft the orchids to the trees. They just take an orchid and press the roots into the trunk of a tree, within days the orchid takes root and becomes a part of the tree. We thought that was really cool.
By the time we got to the nut factory we were very hungry. We headed straight for the snack bar and each got a sandwich. This was made with locally grown tomatoes and onions. It was a very delicious sandwich. There was a place to go watch them shell and package the many different nut products they sell there. We did of course buy some macadamia nuts and some of the shortbread cookies they make also. The cookies are wonderful and I am eating one right now.
We stopped in at the warehouse building after our tour to visit our friend Leona who works at Lin's Lei shop right there in the building. We did buy two lovely leis which we wore all evening. A note here, on all of our other cruises to Hawaii there have always been several "tropical nights" or " Hawaiian dress nights". There wasn't a single one scheduled on this cruise. It wasn't a big thing but was very noticably missing. The ship no longers gives out leis to the passengers either. I didn't miss that as much as not having the Hawaiian dress nights.
Tonight's entertainment was the vocal magic of Ventriloquist Don Bryan with Noseworthy. I did hear some good things about this act but must admit we did not attend as we were busy elsewhere doing other things. The movie Blue Hawaii was shown throughout the day in the Wajang theater. Darbie and the HalCats performed in the CN at 9pm. Darbie went home in Honolulu so we did not have any HALCats after that port. There was no sailaway party.
Sun Mar 14 Lahaina, Maui
We did not have any tours in Lahaina. It is one of our favorite towns to just window shop and watch the tourists in action. We anchored about 7:30am and tendering began around 8am. We ran into a little trouble with the CD here when we went down to tender in. Being 4 star mariners we get priority tendering as one of the perks. The CD informed us that we would have to wait until all the tours had left the ship and that we needed to go wait in the showroom until that time. We inquired what part of priority did he not understand. He insisted on his views and we went up the stairwell to wait for the first tours to start coming down. I guess he must have called someone to check on the "new" mariner status and he came up after a few minutes and allowed us to board a tender.
We walked off the ship and went over to the 2nd largest Banyan tree in the world to walk about and see all the wares being offered by various and sundry vendors. We found a few things to buy. An interesting new thing here for us. Normally one pays the vendor for the product and walks away. In order for all the vendors to take credit cards and such they now operate with a central cash register in the old courthouse gift shop. You take your purchase ticket from the vendor, go inside and pay then take the receipt to the vendor and get your merchandise. It worked very well and saved us some cash for a better use such as the casino. We went to Cheeseburger in Paradise for a late breakfast/early lunch. The cheeseburgers were wonderful as always. Thus fortified for awhile we went on to peruse the shops for awhile. We had plans to meet some other CC'ers for late lunch/early dinner at Bubba Gumps. If you've never been to a Bubba Gump Shrimp Company restaurant you have missed a great fun place. We had wonderful food and cocktails. We all ate shrimp of one kind or another and lots and lots of hush puppies. Yum yum good. We all talked and laughed and got to know each other a little better. After a long lunch we rolled ourselves out of the restaurant and continued on our hunt for the best deal ever on anything we could find. We sat on the benches on Front street overlooking the ocean and our ship. It was such a beautiful sight.
After a long and tiring day we made our way back to the tenders and back aboard the ship. We showered and got ready for a lovely dinner in the Pinnacle Grill. I want to take a moment here to thank all the wonderful folks in the PG. We took advantage of our 4 star status to eat there quite often for both lunch and dinner. Colin, the manager of PG is a fantastic man. He runs the place in a totally professional yet friendly and welcoming manner. We made reservations on the first day for the entire trip and it worked out very well indeed. The waitstaff in the PG is now almost all Indonesian women. Miss Ni, Naomi, Natalie, Dita, Shanty and Cleopatra. We enjoyed all of you very much. The PG chef is fantastic and we enjoyed every single dish we tried and I think we tried them all over the month we were onboard.
We spent quite a bit of time in Canoletto's restaurant also. The food there was wonderful as was the Manager of the restaurant Glen. There was a brief moment at the beginning of the trip when we were denied entry to the Canoletto's as DH was wearing shorts. Under the impression that the dress code for Canoletto's was the same as the Lido we checked into it. It turned out Glen had just been moved up from the PG and wasn't aware the dress code was different there. Once he checked it out there was never another problem. He provided us with a nice bottle of wine for the error and all was right with our world again.
Tonight's entertainment was a variety show with Jim Curry and gymnast Lance Ringnold. It was a repeat of their original performances. The movie was 50 First Dates also taking place in Hawaii. There was a concert under the stars on the big screen in the Retreat a Cher concert. It was very nice and comfortable to watch outside.
Mon Mar 15 Honolulu, Oahu
Honolulu is the Capital of Hawaii and is located on the island of Oahu. It is the largest city and port in the state. Here you will find the famous Waikiki Beach, the mighty Mo and the USS Arizona Memorial. Honolulu is a big city but there is so much to do here. Luau's abound along with great shopping at Ala Moana Shopping Center.
We docked in the rain at 7:23am. For the first time in many visits there were no Hula dancers welcoming us into port. We always enjoyed getting to the rail early and watching them dance us in. This day started with a move for us. It was unfortunate that two of our CC group had to fly home from Honolulu due to an illness. We were very sorry to see them go. We did however go to the front office Mon morning to see if that OV cabin was available. We were very lucky and were able to move into it right away. A cabin with a view was a lagniappe we were not expecting. Although sorry for the misfortune of others it was a lucky day for us.
We had made plans to spend the day visiting friends. When we called however our friend was at work. When his work opened up we went over and visited for awhile and bought some souvenirs. As we were headed back to the ship I heard the sound of pounding feet behind me and then a tap on the shoulder. Our friend had taken the day off work and persueded his wife to do the same. We spent the entire day and most of the evening with them. It was wonderful to catch up and have some quality time together. We could not for the life of us remember the all aboard time. We just knew is was earlier than we are used to in this port. We finally decided to settle on 8pm and they took us back to the ship in plenty of time. All aboard was actually about 10:30pm. Oh well, better safe than sorry.
It was later this day that the Ken napping took place. I will not go into detail here as there is a whole thread devoted to the memory of "Poor Kenny". Suffice it to say we had an extra primo good day and night.
There was local entertainment in the show lounge this evening. At 9:30pm there was a local Folkloric group "Drums of Polynesia" brought onboard. There was also dancing under the stars with the HalCats. Although there is very little room to actually dance at the Retreat where they played.
Tue Mar 16 Nawiliwili, Kaui
We docked at 7:30 am with some light local showers that soon cleared up.
Known as the "Garden Isle" Nawiliwili is the oldest inhabited island in the Hawaiian Archipelago. In the hills and valleys of the islands are said to be the homes of the "menehune", leprechaun like creatures who are never seen, but are believed to perform great works overnight. The only navigable river in Hawaii is here, the Waimaia River. We have gone down the river before to the Fern Grotto which is amazingly beautiful.
We had no plans for this island. We did a tour here in Oct that was very interesting and decided to do the WalMart thing. We picked up a huge, giant thank you card for the HotMan . We are all going to sign it at the next meet n' greet and present it to him for all his hard work on our behalf.
Some of you may remember our dear friend Rita "Kryos" who spent a great deal of time on this board and was supposed to go on this cruise with us before her untimely death in July. Kaui was her favorite island so I had a special lei made and took it down to the water. I had a private and personal ceremony then tossed it into the water after I cut the string. It was a very memorable moment for me.
Tonight's entertainment is some of the cast in "Dinner Belles". I did attend but was not impressed.
Wed Mar 17 Kona, Hawaii
We dropped anchor at 8am and tendering procedures shortly followed.
The island of Hawaii is by far the largest and newest in the Hawaiian Island chain. It has the most varied environment; from warm beaches to tropical rain forest, to the freezing highs on the mountain tops of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. There are the ranches of Waimea, an active volcano zone of Kilauea and other numerous ecologies in between. Kona is a friendly and charming small town with a centrally located pier. The Hulihe'e Palace is located here the summer residence for Hawaiian royalty.
We have friends that have a business here and they are quite devastated that HAL is dropping Kona from most future cruises to the area. We were told the main reason is the very high rates the city charges for tendering insurance. I was unable to verify this from sources at HAL. We have always loved the quiet prettiness of Kona and will miss stopping there. We met up with some CC friends and once again found our way to a Bubba Gumps for lunch where we ran into more CC'ers. We had a great time together talking and laughing. A lot of laughter went on during this cruise. It was made so much better by having good companions to share it with.
Tonight's entertainment in the show lounge is the comedy of Marty Brill. I like comedians. I usually laugh in the right places and enjoy it. This man appeared to be in his late 70's and wasn't all too steady on his legs. His routine was as old and tired as he appeared to be. It is just a shame that HAL was unable to get better quality entertainment for this long cruise.
Today is St. Patricks day and they crew decorated the ship up very nicely. There was a giant Shamrock cake and ice sculpture in the MDR and some lovely decorations in the Lido. We appreciated the extra effort it took..
Next installment will cover the wonderful Cook Islands and then the amazing beauty of French Polynesia. We have been so fortunate to experience this fantastic place several times. There is beauty everywhere the eye rests, ever changing in its glory, never ending in its continuity.