How exciting. I woke at 6am eager to get to Papeete Port to board the Aranui 5 on a 12 day and 11 night voyage to 9 islands in 3 archipelagos. The day was sunny and clear but more humid than yesterday – I know this because my 15min walk to the ship saw me sweat heaps more than yesterday. I was the second of 198 passengers to register at 7am. Several staff dressed in colourful outfits were there to greet us with floral lays and plenty of coffee and French pastries. After checking in my luggage (full of wine) I made a quick trip to the closest supermarket in town to see if I could by one cask of wine given they did not search my bag. No go. I returned and boarded the ship to the sound of local singing and plenty of greetings.
The Aranui 5 is only 5 years old and in excellent condition – everything is new. It is a clever ship as it is half freighter and half cruiser. The bow features to huge cranes surrounded by huge shipping pallets, trucks, cars and building materials. The middle and stern features 10 levels from the engine room up to the bridge with 103 cabins able to sleep 230 people in between. This is because the 6 islands we will visit in the Marquesas Archipelago are so remote that no other freighters take supplies there. Tourists end up subsidising local freight – an excellent idea that works for everyone. The Aranui 5 is 126m long, 22m wide, 12m tall and weighs 7,500 tons when fully laden or the equivalent of 3,570 Toyota Camrys.
I shared a 4-person bunk cabin with only 2 others: Steve, a 60 year old American living in San Diego and Werner, a 41 year old German living in Saudi Arabia for the past 10 years. We hit it off immediately. Our cabin had plenty of storage space allowing us to completely unpack and the bathroom, although on the small size was clean and well-equipped.
At 930am everyone turned up to the Pool Deck on Level 7 for a welcome cocktail and Polynesian Dance Show. At 11am we attended mandatory safety sessions (in French, English & German) including putting on our cabin life vests and assembling in front of our allotted Life Boat. Very well organised. At noon the ship pushed off and made its way out of the harbour into open ocean headed north east to our first atoll called Fakarava in the Tuamoto Archipelago some 291 nautical miles (539km) away and arriving 6am tomorrow morning.
Our first lunch was a feast. Ceviche to start followed by medium rare steak and chips and crowned by custard ice-cream. Washed down by free white and red wine but limited to one bottle per 4 people. The dining room is very well laid out and covers the back of level 4 (our cabin level). Our cabin on deck 4 had external access with views of the ocean. This was great give it was the cheapest accommodation on the ship – every time we opened our door we were greeted by warm Pacific breezes and the very deep deep blue Pacific Ocean. Nice! Breakfast was at 7am, Lunch at 12pm and 1230pm (two sittings with us latter) and Dinner at 7pm and 730pm (two sittings with us latter). I decided to walk off my lunch on level 10, which is the only deck that you can circumnavigate the ship. After lunch we were given a detailed itinerary for tomorrow and thoroughly briefed on optional activities. Internet was free between 3-9pm in the Bar on level 9 and was quite strong. Only problem was getting there early enough to get connection before everyone else maxed them out. I spent the rest of the day here preparing my blog and planning my running and swimming for the next day. We hit the bunks early at 10pm given our 6am rise. Sunset was at 530pm.
At 6am I opened our cabin
door and greeted our first French Polynesian Atoll – Fakarava !!! The sun rose
at 630am and lit up the thin slither of land formed by the top of a sunken
volcano caldera 2 million years ago. The ship dropped anchor in the lagoon
close to the main village of Rotoava. Only 823 people live on this atoll, which
stretches for 60km. At 730am I was on the first barge to the mainland and by
8am I was running my 10km with the deep blue Pacific on one side and a milk
green to aqua lagoon on the other side. This is why I love atolls – the runs
are so scenic. It was a tough run but very rewarding. I hid my phones and drone
in under a bin in a well-covered and closed café and used it as my little base.
I got back from my run and stowed away my running gear and entered the lagoon
via a small beach next door. 45min later I had swum 2.2km through countless
clumps of coral and fish with sparkling clear warm water – a terrific experience.
After my swim I set up my drone to fly and to my horror was blocked by the
nearby airport authorisation zone, which I thought, would not exist here. I
normally login to DJI and get clearance to fly the night before over Wi-Fi so
now I was stuck. As if I would quit ! No ! I found a local having a smoko break
by the lagoon and he agreed to drive me 2km down the road where I predicted I
would be outside the airport zone. Success ! I was right ! Up went the drone
and voila the great photos of the atoll below !!! I completed my visit of this great atoll by visiting the main church, local council building, school and port of the village of Rotoava.
I returned to the ship on the last barge at noon, washed up and sat down to a victory lunch of local Moon Fish. As we ate the ship set sail for our longest leg at sea which would take us 617nm (1,143km) to Nuka Hiva Island over the next 60hrs including all of tomorrow. Out of the 11 days on the boat only 3 would be at Sea and the rest on islands and atolls – this is one of two main reasons I chose this cruise – the other because this is the quickest and most economical way to visit 9 islands in one go. After a quick nap (due to run and swim and a boozy lunch) I headed to the deck 9 internet café (or bar) at 4pm with my wine and olives. Dinner was always 3-course, very fresh, hot, served at the same time and fast. Well done to this crew. Given we would be at sea all day tomorrow, I decided to show Steve and Werner my film AMNESIA which features the Pacific Atolls/Islands of Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu and Samoa. They loved it.
On the morning of 17 June, I slept in until 8am followed by a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs with ham, bacon and sautéed veggies. Delicious. The morning featured a very long but detailed briefing of the rest of the trip and I spent the rest of the afternoon after lunch planning my runs and swims inside our busy agenda including clearing my drone where there were airports !!! I completed my planning in the level 5 lounge at the same time as a lecture by a French Volcanologist Professor !!! That’s multi-tasking at its best. Dinner was terrific and we finished our full day at sea with the second part of AMNESIA. So far the weather was great and the seas calm. Really weird to see ocean all around you and the sunrises and sunsets are mesmerising – I will capture these later when we wake early for activities and when there is nothing to post at sunset.
Allow me now to introduce you to the Aranui 5 and our first atoll of Fakarava !!!
FAKARAVA STATS:
Distance from Papeete: 441km
Size compared to Sydney: 9% (60km by 25km)
Coastline: 101km
Population: 845
Highest Peak: N/A – No Peaks !!!
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment