June 28, 2019
Huahine Island: A Cultural Tour on the
Final Day of Our French Polynesia Cruise
February 21, 2019
HUAHINE ISLAND, French Polynesia – Mom and I explored Huahine Island with a lousy tour guide during our seventh and final port of call on our 12-night “Pure Polynesia” voyage. We capped our cruise with a second delicious dinner at the Polo Grill steakhouse while sailing back to Tahiti.
Got up at 11:50 a.m. aboard Oceania Marina anchored in Maroe Bay between the smaller southern part of the island, Huahine Iti, and the larger northern section, Huahine Iti.
Ate lunch with Mom at Waves Grill, then got ready for our shore excursion today, “Cultural Highlights of Huahine Nui.” Left our cabin at 1:25 p.m. to tender ashore for our 2 p.m. tour.
We left Huahine Iti after a few minutes, crossing the bridge to Huahine Nui and proceeding clockwise. We passed through the main town of Fare, then made our first stop at 2:26 p.m. at a vanilla planation in northern Huahine Iti. Our guide didn’t know how vanilla is processed. She gave us very little information, and nobody from the farm told us anything either. A pretty lame stop.
Our guide is pretty clueless in general. She said Huahine Island’s population is 700 but Lonely Planet states 6,430 and Google lists a census estimate of 6,300 in 2012. Awful! How can someone work as a tour guide on a small island and not know such basic facts? It’s mind-boggling.
The second stop took place at 2:49 in the northeast at Maeva village, old seat of royal power on Huahine Island.
In addition to the ruins of traditional Polynesian temples (“marae”), we visited a museum about the history of Huahine, Fare Potee Maeva, built in a replica of an open traditional house over the water.
Nearly 30 marae have been located in the area, more than half of which have been restored.
Huahine has the oldest recorded date of human occupancy among the Society Islands. Europeans first arrived on Huahine in 1769, when James Cook and company landed.
“Polynesians inhabited the island for thousands of years before Europeans arrived: archaeological excavations to the north of Fare reveal some of the earliest traces of settlement in the Society Islands,” according to Lonely Planet. During the 1800s, “Huahine supported the Pomare royal family in the struggle against the French, and there were several clashes between 1846 and 1888 before French rule was eventually accepted.”
Today there are just eight villages scattered around the island. Huahine is known as “The Garden Island” due to its abundance of lush green tropical foliage and wild jungle-like scenery.
Continuing clockwise, we viewed from the minibus traditional V-shaped fish traps made from rocks. They’ve been here for centuries and are still in use.
Our tour made a short stop along a small stream to see rare freshwater blue-eyed eels.
We reached our fourth and final stop at 3:34, an overlook with gorgeous views of Maroe Bay and Huahine Iti from 417 feet elevation.
Our tour ended early at 3:50. Mom and tendered back to Oceania Marina, boarding the ship for the final time.
I called Ty at the Concierge Desk concerning the ongoing dispute I’m having with the ship regarding tomorrow morning’s disembarkation time. They want us off the ship at the terribly early hour of 8:45 a.m. I informed the ship days ago I plan to disembark at 11 a.m. but they keep fighting me. I’m getting highly annoyed. I have a sleep disorder and rarely am awake at 8:45, let alone ready to get off the ship! They seem to have zero willingness to accommodate my disability. It’d be like telling a guest without a sleep disability they have to leave the vessel by 4:45 a.m.!
Guest Survey
Sat on our balcony. It was so tranquil anchored in Maroe Bay. Sorted and posted today’s photos. I also completed the guest survey.
My comments included:
- Pillows are too thin. Need much more firm pillows.
- Balcony door hard to open. Rubber piece coming off. Maintenance came once but did not fix.
- Wait staff in all the dining venues were fabulous. Absolutely wonderful service. Among the best we’ve ever had on a cruiseship.
- Not enough selection in Terrace Café. So many stations served all the same food.
- Food was wonderful. Only a few items we did not like.
- The only show I went to was Nuka Hiva Folkloric Show. I would have liked to see more French Polynesian shows, not boring standard ship entertainment
- Destination Services refused my reasonable accommodation request to disembark at 11 a.m. because of my medically certified sleep disorder. 8:45 a.m. disembark time is way too early in the morning and totally out of line with the cruise and hotel industries’ check-out times.
- Cabin design is HORRIBLE. Small space – no larger than less-expensive cruiselines. No walk-in closet and only 1 foot between bed and closet – very difficult to access closet. Terribly disappointed with our stateroom.
- Shore excursions were exorbitantly priced. The costs for the short tours were out of this world. All the tours were so short – only 1-3 hours. Very poor value for the money. Also, most excursions were already sold out weeks before the cruise. You did not offer enough places on most excursions.
- We had a poor guide on “Cultural Highlights of Huahine Nui” tour who told us very little and didn’t know basic information such as how vanilla is processed.
- Only 1 excursion offered on Nuka Hiva – and sold out. No tours at all offered on Fakarava.
Dropped off the survey at reception, picked up my power strip that was confiscated when I boarded (no clear explanation as to why Marina is the first cruiseship I’ve been on that prohibits power strips), and filled out a complaint form about our poor tour guide today.
Sail Away, Dinner, & Early Arrival Back into Papeete
Back to the cabin at 5:48 to shower and get ready for an early dinner at Polo Grill, one of the ship’s four specialty restaurants. We dined there the first night of our cruise and were able to secure a bonus second reservation.
Watched sail-away at 6 p.m. from our balcony.
It’s a short 108 miles back to Tahiti. We’ve had a wonderful voyage throughout French Polynesia.
Mom and I dined with Jill of Ontario, Canada, at Polo Grill steakhouse.
Returned to the cabin at 8:44. Continued working on today’s pictures. Checked flight load for PPT-SFO on Feb. 24 and was ecstatic to discover the equipment has been upgauged from a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner to the larger 787-9, adding 33 seats. That’s a sigh of relief as the open-seat count has risen from seven to 40 (13 in Polaris Business Class and 27 in Economy Class). Mom and I are #3&4 on the standby list. Wow, that’s so amazing the plane has been upgauged! 🙂
Checked for a rental car for the couple days we have left on Tahiti Island after the cruise ends tomorrow, but it’s too expensive, so we’ll just relax at our pension before flying back to the United States. Posted more photos, then packed.
Placed my large suitcase in the hallway at 11:20, then looked out the window and was stunned to see lights outside our balcony door. We’re already back at the Port of Papeete!
We knew our voyage back to Tahiti from Huahine Island was short, but the ship hadn’t communicated to passengers that we’d be sailing at max power and arriving before midnight!
Finished posting today’s photos, then watched TiVo on my phone before bed about 1:20 a.m.
