Living in a water world
French Polynesia is a water world covering a large part of the South Pacific. You can cover a map of Europe with the overlay of French Polynesia. The only difference is that French Polynesia is 99% water. Spending quite a bit of this trip on the freighter/cruiser Aranui 5, we come to realize how dependent the locals are on the ocean. And how fragile some areas are to global warming, increases in ocean levels, and more frequent and more vicious storms.
Sunrises and Sunsets are special
Cathy and I are awe struck by the beauty of French Polynesia. We find that sunrises and sunsets are particularly special in the South Pacific. We take to having early morning coffee and light suppers on our ship balcony to catch their beauty.
A wrap on traveling in water world
This is a wrap on our French Polynesia posts. Below are a few final pictures that we took along the way – our departure from the Aranui 5 , the artisan who carved our new favorite turtle, tikis, playing a nose flute and our caravan of 4×4’s at a lookout point.
Without doubt, this has been a most memorable trip. Check out our other French Polynesia posts Tahiti Bound , Bora Bora , Our Ship Experience on the Aranui 5 , and Friendly and Remote Islands . And subscribe at the end of this post to receive e-mail notification of upcoming posts.
Trip Logistics
Cathy and I fly into Papeete from Toronto via San Francisco on United. After overnighting in Papeete, we take a 1 hour flight on Air Tahiti to Bora Bora for a 5 day stay. Returning to Papeete, we board the Aranui 5 , a hybrid freighter passenger ship for a 12 day, 3000+ kilometer round trip through the Tuamotu and Marquesas Archipelagos (map below). We spend our last night in French Polynesia on the island of Moorea, a short ferry ride from Papeete.
