It was an early arrival into the stunning Moorea Island. A day of tendering awaited, with a sense of urgency. Most of the tours today were centered around the island itself, 350 had signed up for early tours due to leave the shoreside at 8:30. In order to facilitate this, anchors needed dropping, pontoons needed opening and tender boats lowered to cram the 350 in and get them ashore in an efficient manner to make their connecting tours. 80 guests per tender meant we needed a quick turnaround from ship to shore.
The shore party were first to go and we arrived at the quayside by about 7:30, so it was up at 6, into uniform and onto a quick breakfast. Due to biosecurity measures, we can't take food ashore to help protect the fragile biodiversity of the island.
We arrived, met the local contact and worked out how the operation shoreside was going to work. Then off to find coffee. Cash only, contactless is yet to be a real thing here. As it also turns out are coffee shops. I found a stall owner who had a glass coffee pot with a variety of options, sugar, no sugar, sugar and powdered creamer. Opting for plain, I asked the price. 3 US dollars later (despite the currency being francs) I had a coffee, small but strong, beggars can't be choosers.
The atmosphere was lovely, it was warm, stall holders were set up selling lots of handmade tourist tat, the musicians and dancers were on standby for the first arrivals. A combination of drums, ukele style guitars and singing. It's fair to say that it's not the most stressful of places. It's an absolutely stunning location!!
The tenders began to arrive, our guests were in good spirits. A slightly worrying outcome of the pancake tossing success is many of our guests now know who I am by name. A big difference from usual voyages is that around 1000 are here for the long haul. As such, they're not in a hurry, they're not trying to cram everything into a week, they're much more relaxed but they've kind of become neighbours. You begin to see the same faces and they begin to become familiar. I've not encountered this before and it's a little odd as not only will they be here next week, they'll be here in 6 weeks, 8 weeks and they'll leave the day I leave!! It'll be interesting to see what the end of voyage parties look like
Today was a tough day, it was hot, it was long and I'll hold my hands up, I'm tired. Tendering is always a challenge, on your feet for much of the day whilst not really being able to enjoy the best bits of the lovely place you find yourself. But to be fair, it still doesn't feel like work. I'm not commuting, I'm being fed and watered and being paid to be here. Regardless, I'm still tired, so it's an early night.
There is plenty of time to recharge as we head towards New Zealand where we arrive into Bay of Islands for more tendering. That's 6 sea days away so now we get back to work and prepare for our arrival!!
Let's see what happens in the meantime!!!
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