We sailed on the Windstar cruise in French Polynesia. On a 7-day cruise, we stopped on six different islands, including two days in Bora Bora.
The cruise ship has a crew of 99 and 74 staterooms for~150 passengers. This ratio ensures exceptionally personalized service, and you get to know pretty much everyone else on the ship. The crew members learn everyone’s name pretty quickly, and, especially, in our case, we got custom orders for vegetarian food of our choice regularly.
We reached Papeete airport early morning and took a local bus to Papeete. We left our bags with Windstar while we checked the local market in Papeete. Nothing outstanding, but it is an excellent way to kill time. Also, Papeete markets are most reasonably priced compared to the other islands. Therefore, if you want to buy something, buy it here. One can easily rent a scooter or a car (some automatic transmissions are available as well) and make a trip around the island. Given the small number of passengers on the ship, onboarding was an extremely smooth experience.
We did a half-day Kayaking tour, which included Kayaking to a motu (islet) and snorkeling in the coral garden around it. Unfortunately, due to bad weather, we could not kayak further until the Stingrays & sharks. The coral gardens were amazing. They are much better than the ones in Hawaii and similar or better than the ones in the Caribbean. Transparent Kayak further adds to the charm of being able to sneak peek what’s under you while Kayaking. The Kayaking spot is a bit far from the docking spot (Cook’s bay) and, therefore, do book transportation.
On our way back, we checked out the local market in Maharepa. Feel free to skip a visit to Maharepa. The local tourist office does provide free Wi-Fi access (password: E6DC5D69B8).
We rented a scooter and went around the island. We visited a few pearl farms which were closed due to the weekend. We checked out the Marae Taputapuatea, an ancient Polynesian temple, which is also a UNESCO heritage site. In hindsight, we should have gone to the three waterfalls hike, but by the time we finished driving around the island, it was too late in the day.
Note: Raiatea was the only island on our trip where the ship docks. So, unlike a 10-15 min tender, one can go in and out of the ship.
We spend the day at Motu Mahaea, a private island experience with tons of coral gardens nearby for snorkeling. This experience was the first of the Windstar’s two private motu experiences, which included beach chairs, beverages, lunch, and water activities (kayaking and paddle boating) on the motu.
We rented a motorboat from La Plage and steered it around the island, doing snorkeling and watching stingrays. Sailing gives you a good view of the island, and you get to learn to boat as well. I would recommend getting a boat license online beforehand so that you can rent a more powerful boat and go faster.
Back on the ship, we checked out the water platform. Apart from swimming, one can do kayaking, paddle boating, wakeboarding, and water-skiing here.
This was the Christmas Eve, and the crew sang Christmas carol.
We returned later at night to check the Bora Bora island; it is mostly dead apart from a few small shops serving the locals.
Earlier in the day, we did a part of the hike to Mt. Pahia for the views. The full hike is hard to navigate without a guide.
We spent the rest of the day at Motu Tapu, another private Motu rented by Windstar for their destination discovery event, which included dinner and cultural shows.
The show was mesmerizing, and in case you are not doing this cruise, I would highly recommend that you find an alternative way to have this experience as part of your itinerary.
We did a half-day long Safari Expedition of the island, which included a visit to Vanilla Farm, Pearl Farm, native fish traps, and a visit to the local sacred blue-eyed eels of the island.
Growing vanilla requires hand-pollination and makes it a labor-intensive activity. That’s why Vanilla is the second most expensive spice after Saffron.
Pearl farming involves putting a small piece of the membrane from the donor shell, which, along with a mollusk, an irritant, is inserted into the gonad of the host shell. The membrane grows and covers the mollusk forming the pearl. It takes about 18 months for the formation of a full pearl. And on every success, an even bigger mollusk is used to create a larger pearl from the same shell.
Tahitian set fish traps up in the river, so, fishes flowing with the flow of the water enters the trap and gets trapped. The traps are porous enough for the water to leave, but the pores are not big enough for the fishes.
The locals believe that the sacred eels of Huahine are supposed to be reincarnations of their dead loved ones. They don’t kill or eat these eels.
We checked out the bridge (commanding room) of the ship in the evening.
Alas, all good things do come to an end, and so did our cruise. The captain and the crew arrived and bid farewell in the evening.
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