(May – November, 2012)
Before I get on with the passage to New Zealand, I wanted to wrap up the tropical South Pacific topic by giving out the awards. Judges include Rich and Cyndi, who cast their votes over a bottle of champagne in spectacular Rere Bay, Whangaroa, New Zealand. Without further ado, here they are:
Most Beautiful Places:
*Pearl Ridge in Atuona. (Hiva Oa, Marquesas) (link)
*Bay of Virgins, Fatu Hiva (Marquesas) (link)
*The hike to Vaipo waterfall in Daniel’s Bay (Nuku Hiva, Marquesas) (link1 link2 link3 link4 link5)
*The motus in shallow water in the Southwest corner in the Fakarava lagoon. (Tuamotus) (link1 link2)
*Cooks Bay and Opunohu Bay (a tie between the two) in Moorea (Society Islands) (link1 link2 link3 link4 link5)
*The Coral Gardens area by the Le Taha’a Resort (Taha’a, Society Islands) (link1 link2 link3)
*The Motu Tofari area and view towards the east side of Bora Bora (Society Islands) (link)
*Euaiki Island in the Vava’u group (Tonga) (link)
Favorite Places:
*The Southwest corner of Fakarava (Tuamotus) (link1 link2)
*Moorea (Society Islands) (See Moorea section of blog posts)
Least Favorite Places:
*Baie d’Hakahau, Ua Pou (Marquesas): It was beautiful but it had a strange energy, not very good food, seeming underlying hostility towards the boaters, hot, a particularly annoying person trying to visit all the boats, and overall just not a pleasant place to be. (Cyndi) (link)
*Apia (Western Samoa): hot, mosquitoes, obnoxious sales types. (Rich) (Link)
The Most Strangely Exotic Place: American Samoa—the look of it, the seafood buffet, everything! (link1 link2 link3 link4 link5 link6 link7)
Places We’d Most Like To Cruise Again:
*South Fakarava (Tuamotus)
*Tahiti (Society Islands)
*Moorea (Society Islands)
*Bora Bora (Society Islands)
*Fakarava (Tuamotus).
Best Sunrises: Fakarava (Tuamotus) (link)
Best Sunsets: Bora Bora (Society Islands) (link)
Most Fabulous (big bucks) Resorts:
*All the resorts in Bora Bora (Society Islands)
*Le Taha’a Resort in Taha’a (Society Islands)
Most Fabulous Little Hotels:
*Pearl Ridge (Hiva Oa, Marquesas) (link)
*White Sand Beach Resort (Fakarava, Tuamotus) (link)
*The Seabreeze Resort (Western Samoa) (link)
*Moana O Sina (American Samoa) (link)
*The Tongan Beach Resort (Vava’u, Tonga) (link)
Best Place to Chill Out and Live Awhile: The town of Neiafu in Vava’u (Tonga) (link)
Biggest Surprises:
*How much we enjoyed swimming with the stingrays in Moorea (link)
*Having an excellent clambake at the Tradewinds Hotel in American Samoa (link)
Biggest Disappointment:
*That a French society can have such crappy coffee as they do in French Polynesia.
Most Beautiful Water:
*Moorea (Society Islands) (link)
*Bora Bora (Society Islands) (link)
*Fakarava (Tuamotus). (link1 link2)
Best Snorkeling: Tonga. Best Snorkeling in Tonga:
*The Coral Wonder (Vava’u, Tonga) (link1 link2)
*The Coral Gardens (Vava’u, Tonga) (link)
Best Restaurants:
*#1 Paddles Restaurant (Apia, Western Samoa) (link)
*#2 Le St James (Bora Bora, Society Islands) (link)
*#3 Restaurant Tahaa Maitai (Haamene, Taha’a) (link1 link2)
Best Pizza: *Allo Pizza in Cooks Bay, Moorea (Society Islands) (link)
Best Drink: *The Rum Punch at the White Sand Beach Resort (Fakarava, Tuamtous) (link)
Best Dessert: *Cafe or Chocolate Liegeois at Le St James restaurant (Bora Bora, Society Islands) (link)
Favorite South Pacific Foods:
*Poisson Cru (aka Ota Ika in Tonga and Oka in Samoa) (South Pacific)
(fish marinated with lime and coconut milk with chopped peppers, onion, and cucumber) (link)
*Mahi with vanilla sauce (a French Polynesian specialty) (link1 link2)
*Liegeois (French Polynesia) (top-quality coffee or chocolate ice cream with espresso poured over and whipped cream)
*Palusami (Samoa) (young taro leaves baked in coconut cream—much like creamed spinach)
*Pamplemousse (a large tropical grapefruit)
Weird but Yummy: *Chow Mein sandwiches in Raiatea
Best Moments:
*Drinking Wine on Uoleva Beach (Ha’apai, Tonga) (link)
*Discovering we had a surprise extra day in American Samoa (link)
Biggest Moments:
*Arriving at Hiva Oa island (Marquesas) after crossing the ocean from California (link1 link2)
*Swimming with whales in Tonga (link1 link2)
*Getting an air tour over Samoa on our flight to American Samoa (link)
*Arriving in Bay of Virgins, Fatu Hiva (Marquesas) (link)
Most Fun Moments:
*Our evening with good friends at La Paella Spanish Restaurant on Tapana Island (Tonga) (link)
*Swimming with the stingrays in Moorea. (link1 link2)
Worst Moment: *Getting hit by a succession of waves as we went close a sea mount during the rough passage to Samoa: water in the boat, things flying all over, lots and lots of messes to clean up on a pitching, rolling boat. No fun . . . no fun at all. (link)
Scariest Moment: *After determining the pass out of Fakarava (Tuamotus) was too rough that morning, we turned around only to realize we had gotten too close to it and, backwards or forwards, we were going to be pulled through. Having then to turn around and ride through it like a raft on a white-water rafting trip. (link)
Creepiest Moment: *Getting caught in a weird “Bermuda Triangle” squall between Rangiroa and Papeete which got us in its clutches and started pulling us with it, making us fight to get out. The whole night was weird and creepy. (link)
Most Surreal Moment: *Leaving Vava’u, Tonga at dusk and having a white owl fly over us. (link)
Nicest Culture: *American Samoans.
Least Nice Culture:
*Samoa: It’s not that they weren’t perfectly nice people; they were! But so many people were so relentless about trying to sell us goods and services or otherwise squeezing us for money that it almost became adversarial. (One guy was so bad we dubbed him our “stalker.”)
*The Ha’apai Island Group in Tonga. The Tongan people overall were very nice, but the people of Pengai (the main city there) were not friendly.
